On Nov 5, 2008, at 2:49 AM, Andrew Crystall wrote: >> There's a huge difference between atheists, even militant ones, and >> psychos who go around attacking other people on the basis of what >> religion >> the other people subscribe to. > > Sorry Julia, but bullshit. It's precisely the same - attacking > someone because they don't agree with your views. If religion, lack > of religion, politics, creed, colour or whatever is used by the > criminal as their excuse is quite, afaik, irrelevant. > > AndrewC
And the religion itself (or, in the case of atheism, the lack of it) isn't to blame for the violence of unstable individuals using the religion (or lack thereof) as an excuse or rationalization for that violence. It's the emotional/psychological instability and intent to act violently toward others that are wrong, not the religion (or lack thereof) that was used by the individual to justify the violence. (Inasmuch as some of the more extreme sects in this country do sometimes come close to the line of inciting violence, whether or not they cross it, and take advantage to some extent of the fact that the more unstable individuals in their margins may take certain carefully crafted messages to heart and run with them, providing both enthusiastic moral enforcers and plausible deniability for their actions, while at the same time capitalizing on incidents like this one to support their own claims that they are actually the ones being persecuted..) "I don't plan on any shooting taking place during this job." "Well, what you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar..." -- "Serenity _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
