in an atheist state the leader is seen as God

Various Catholic Popes have been responsible for the inquisition, the crusades and harbouring of priests and nuns who do horrible things to children, orphans and unwed mothers. To some Catholics the Pope is God's authority on earth. This puts that office in a position to do great good or cause great evil, depending upon the office holder. And the Catholic church is not the only Christian religion where leaders abuse office, manipulate and accumulate power. It is simply the first Christian religion and has the misfortune of longest recorded history of abuses.

Middle East and Africa various areas and religions (Christian and Islam) suffer genocide, oppression, torture, maiming and murder of women and children and the frail. Whole tribes and their cultures and traditions gone. The Ayatollah is a religious office. Some men in the office have been tyrants and the people follow and do terrible things because the leaders tell them to.

Just this week Ovadia Yosef former chief rabbi of Israel and now founder Shas Party said "all Palestinians should perish from the world." Thank goodness the Israeli leaders are condemning this statement at least publicly as tantamount to genocide. How big is the Shas party I wonder? What is the likelihood of its increase in numbers and influence?

US of A which is/was predominantly Christian at given points in history has abused Native Americans, Mexican Americans, African Americans, Japanese Americans, Irish Americans, Chinese Americans, etc. on its own soil. Why? Because the leaders in power could!

A fair few of the states of the former USSR are still struggling with shatterbelts, as are Africa and Asia.

It all boils down to individuals and groups commandeering and abusing belief systems in order to manipulate others and accumulate power. The problem is too many people are sheep because they do not have the knowledge, experience, socio-economic means to be anything but sheep. More people in the world than not have to put all their energy into surviving. Often this means joining a group for the sheer protection it provides, whether or not they adhere to the ideologies of the group.   Fortunately, everyone contributing to this thread has had the opportunity to not be sheep. We all think and decide for ourselves what fits us best. We are all very lucky on that point. Most people are not.

Dagnabbit... Why can't I stay out of this thread?