Following on from Informers.

Tolstoy tells us (Kingdom of God ~p264) that we are brought from an eternity of nothingness and bequeathed with reason and love. Hinduism’s Krishna says:

Without contemplation there cannot be peace

– Bhagavad-Gita #66

I take reason and contemplation to be the same. Further I take them to be the opposite of thoughtlessness. Thoughtlessness was the major driver that allows the Nazis to create their hells. They just make sure people do exactly what they are told without discussion. All forms of administrative massacre (genocide) require thoughtlessness of the people who are part of it.

You can train a dog to kill, but you cannot blame the dog. It is not blessed with reasoning. Humans are. The main thing I see standing in the way of reason is perverted/corrupted belief. But reason can over time see through such belief.