Thanks, You stated it much better than I could- I know that’s why the resitence, but it just makes no sense to me why they would do that when the eternal consequences are so severe.
Because, in a sense, Dawkins has hit one something. We all want to think that the way we operate is brilliant. We all want to believe that what makes us feel better, more secure, and more potent really is right. And, once we have accepted that as truth, then with zeal we must declare all others wrong.
No one (virtually) gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror and says to himself, “I’m gonna — if I’m really lucky — make a cataclysmically wrong decision today!!”
AS other posters have said, great atrocities have been committed by those of all religions. The common demnominator is not religion - or lack thereof. The common denominator is man. One need look no further than the examples presented here to see that man is capable of the most horrendous atrocities his massive intelligence can contrive.
What becomes harder to explain is man’s great and demonstrated capacity for selflessness and acts of grace, courage, heroism and sacrifice....IOW, explaining man’s depravity is easy. It is man’s self-sacrifice that is difficult.