I think that the split between politician/religious person doesn't quite work. Politicians are often religious and may be taking action for 'religious reasons', a religious figure could be taking actions for political reasons.
The 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland had political and religious reasons intertwined, as do many other conflicts, and wars. I'm baffled that some people think they can be separated out, or that they don't arise from the same basic traits of humanity.
Agreed. I was not suggesting that people are either acting from religious motivations or political ones. My point was that whatever the motivation or mix of motivations for a person's actions, the belief that what they are doing is right or wrong is not based on purely measurable stats.
Hence, one person can hold the belief that killing tens of thousands of civilians including children and medics in Gaza is right in order to try to achieve a certain military objective, and someone else can believe that it is wrong. Being able to quantify the number of dead and injured has not helped in terms of the belief of right and wrong in the political issue of whether the UK economy and UK citizens
should forgo the economic benefit of selling arms to Israel to bomb civilians or whether the UK should express political support for Israel both in government statements and by selling Israel weapons.
