You should not have put Hitler in that list, Ron! (smile) The Nazis pandered to religion on every available occasion, got on particularly well with the Catholic church, invoked God as their guide, and ensured that every German soldier wore a belt buckle on which was inscribed the slogan "Gott Mitt Uns" ("God is with us").

Why people persist in depicting the Nazis as a "godless" cult is really beyond me...but you hear it all the time.

Nonetheless, other than that, I agree with your point above about religion 100%. There is nothing wrong with it per se, and it is as much capable of being used for good as for evil.

And here's another perfect candidate for your religion-free oppressors and killers: Pol Pot and the Khymer Rouge, who killed a larger percentage of their own population than any other movement I have ever heard of, all in the name of objectist dialectic and materially-based logic, as they saw it. They were totally against religion.

Bill - You're quite right about Gorbachev's arrest, and I know about that. What I meant was that he freely broke down the rigid, authoritarian structures of the Soviet Union and allowed its diverse peoples to freely determine their own destinies, rather than using the traditional Russian oppressive force, violence, and power to keep the lid on. I regard that as having been a very courageous stepping away from centralized power on his part.

Ortega's back? Great. Glad to hear it. ;-) Nice to see democracy actually functioning.