I don't fear any of those things, yet I have never committed atrocities. Why is that?

Exactly what Cyber said.  It's not a lack of fear of an imaginary friend and what it will do to you after you die.
Brutality is due to a lack of empathy and a lust for power.

(January 25, 2018 at 10:45 am)Cyberman Wrote: I don't fear any of those things, yet I have never committed atrocities. Why is that?

To become an animal like that, you need to train yourself and train your mind to be so cruel.
Some people receive the training for free: fatcats take their money and leave them to rot and become more "stiff" as the time goes; not intentionally, but when corruption invades a place, lots go to poverty. Expose them through media and culture to violence; and there is your army of freaks.

All these torture methods originated in "heathen" societies -like the Aztec society-. Back when heathens dominated Europe; for example; fear of judgement day was non existing, and torture methods were so terrible. Christianity cured the playing with peoples' souls, but the heathen history left its imprint on the faith. That's why as torture receded in Arabia with the advent of Islam; it increased to terrible levels with the Crusades and the Inquisitions. And now; as Muslims turned away from their faith, torture came back to haunt the region.

You might oppose torture as a person; but still there are people like "Trump" who say "Torture Works". And they are leaders.
God gave you the heart to hate these acts. We are born with a compassion mechanism inside of us. It's your choice to enrich it or kill it.

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(January 25, 2018 at 10:54 am)drfuzzy Wrote: Exactly what Cyber said.  It's not a lack of fear of an imaginary friend and what it will do to you after you die.
Brutality is due to a lack of empathy and a lust for power.

I doubt that the gangster would do what he did if he feared hell, and that the same would happen to him.

(January 25, 2018 at 11:00 am)AtlasS33 Wrote: I doubt that the gangster would do what he did if he feared hell, and that the same would happen to him.

Weren't you just saying something about the inquisition?  

Meanwhile, the quran is torture porn, whomever wrote it was one sick puppy.....maybe that's why you think "fear of hell" should compel people?

They do it because they want to. Because it makes them feel powerful. Some people are just bad people.

(January 25, 2018 at 10:45 am)Cyberman Wrote: I don't fear any of those things, yet I have never committed atrocities. Why is that?

You probably fear losing what you have?  You don't want to be killed, jailed, be taken away from your family. Lose your house.  Car.  Access to the forum. Or whatever else it is you value.

The cost of committing atrocities is also so high, that the idea of committing them is a non-starter even if you'd enjoy it.

Add onto that, we're taught from childhood 'doing bad things is bad.'  And there's just no reason to question it.  But if you remove those consequences, like with the super rich or super poor, or if you're in one of those places there are large benefits instead of consequences, then all of a sudden, people start going the other way.  

If there weren't a lot of redundancies in the system, humans wouldn't have lasted as long as we have.

(January 25, 2018 at 10:34 am)AtlasS33 Wrote: I'm not a terrorist because I fear a lord. Fear a day of judgement.

That has to be one of the scariest shit someone can say.

I am not a teerorist because I want to foster a better world for everyone and by doing that fostering a better world for my descendants. I am not a terrorist because I know pain and I don't want others to feel it. I am not a terrorist because they are all cowards, pretending to be warriors. Most of them would run away before me, without bombs or machine guns.

That day of judgement will come. But in your lifetime. You aren't getting free without accounting.

Most people do not do such acts and are repelled by them. This is true whether or not they believe in a deity.

This type of thing happens because of a love of power over another. And it can happen just as easily for theists as for non-theists. All the theists need is to be convinced the victim deserves their treatment because they don't believe in the 'right' doctrines and that their deity approves. It has happened many times in history and continues to today. Theism isn't a remedy to the lust for power and cruelty.

And this is a wonderful example of why morality has little to do with religion. if your religion told you this type of act was not just approved by God, but demanded of believers, would it suddenly become good? No. So the dictates of a deity are not a valid way of deciding morality.