re: #49 LudwigVanQuixote

Where one of the central tenant was Do not Murder and the entire Cain story of the first murder is meant to say that it is really bad. Further, consider the whole end of that story where Cain asks if he is his brothers keeper, the whole rest of the bible screams yes, rather affirmatively.

You are making the mistake of unfairly blaming the faith for the defective people who abuse it. The same things that make a truly odious religious fanatic are seen in truly odious secular movements as well. Don’t tell me that the Stalinist purges or the Red Armies or the Nazis were particularly Christian. They weren’t. Totalitarians and ignorant haters are the same no matter what creed they abuse to justify themselves.

My take on this? Many people don’t use beliefs as a guideline. They use them as an excuse.