Where I differ is simply this: we naked apes are by instinct highly aggressive and, like our chimpanzee cousins, we can be resort to violence with remarkably little prompting—particularly those of us who are male. We have a number of drives that shape our behavior, sex being the dominant one. Another important one, however, is the lust for power.

While we have the capacity to engage in reason, most people rarely do. Instead, we are intellectually lazy and simply accept the views and the values of those that we admire or identify with … which makes it incredibly easy for those yearning for power to manipulate the masses.

They will use whatever tools the culture offers to persuade us that killing is unfortunately necessary—and we will run to do their bidding. That tool may be the Bible … or it may be Marxist doctrine, or an appeal to racism—or even the myth of national or tribal superiority. Look at how fast Tutsi and Hutu neighbors turned against one another in Rwanda, or how so many raced to do the dirty work of Pol Pot … or, of course, Hitler or Stalin. None of them were motivated by religion … they were caught up in whatever ideology their leader found to be useful in his (and it almost always is a he) quest for power and all of the benefits associated with it.

Do you think that if religion disappeared at midnight tonight the human race would behave better tomorrow? Not a chance —those who yearn to rule over us would simply adopt a different tactic—a different ideology of convenience. We are talking about the most fundamental aspects of human nature. And until we either destroy the planet, and ourselves with it, or evolve into something closer to our other cousins (the bonobos), we will have to keep crafting civilizations and international law codes in an effort to suppress as much of the killing as possible.

And if you ever doubt the power of propaganda, when wielded by a cunning, narcissistic despot, just remember that about 40% of Republican voters still insist that the last election was “stolen.”