Reply #9: Because they are using the book to justify what they want [View All]

[Nothing Without Hope]

Basically, all these crusading leaders want to follow their own agenda, and they find selectively quoted religious writings convenient tools to justify their actions and motivate their followers. Some of them even convince THEMSELVES of their own sincerity. It's fun to feel "holy" and in the "saved" crowd.

Two of my favorite quotes on this situation:

"The true fanatic is a theocrat, someone who sees himself as acting on behalf of some superpersonal force: the Race, the Party, History, the proletariat, the Poor, and so on. These absolve him from evil, hence he may safely do anything in their service."
-- Lloyd Billingsley, "Religion's Rebel Son: Fanaticism in Our Time", Multnomah Publishers (1986)


If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.
-Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)