Niccolo Machiavelli, (3 May 1469 - 21 June 1527) was an Italian Renaissance historian, politician, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, and writer who wrote a small book titled, "The Prince", which is a compendium of advice to tyrants who rule nations . . . . . He saw religion as a tool of rulers to keep the general populace under control. In America, lots of people buy into it when politicians flaunt their "religiousness" . . . . I consider this to be the most revealing phrase in Machiavelli's whole book:
"Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them. And I shall dare to say this also, that to have them and always to observe them is injurious, and that to appear to have them is useful; to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite." - Niccolo Machiavelli (The Prince)