The Moral Vacuity of Religion

24.06.09, Stuart Bechman, for OPEDNEWS (US). In recent days, the world has watched as Iranian citizens have thronged to the streets in protest of what they believe to be election fraud in their Islamic country. The theocrats in power have responded brutally, if predictably: By first threatening and then carrying out violence against those who oppose their decisions and claims of authority. This, from those who represent Islam to be "The Religion of Peace.” Not that Iran’s leaders are alone or even unique in such mendacious behavior under the color of religion. The United States recently provided its own example, where Religious-Right favorite-son George W. Bush, one of the most overtly religious US Presidents ever, declared that God had told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq to bring peace to the world. Again, God could not be counted upon to deliver His own Will to the world; He apparently left it to temporal world leaders who had no problem turning to “shock and awe” violence to deliver the lethal message.