Quote:Since I de-converted from Christianity, I kind of adapted my "hate the sin, not the sinner" ideals. I have been through some really terrible things at the hands of religious people, in the name of god, and justified by the religion itself.I think playing the card of impaired judgement would excuse all kinds of actions done by religious people in the name of god, including violence, terrorism, homophobia, misogyny, etc
I have been thinking a lot about personal responsibility, and versus impaired judgement due to childhood indoctrination.
Quote:I'm really struggling trying to find a cross over point. When do stop blaming the religion for a person's wrong doings and make take responsibility of their own actions. When is it okay to hate the believer for their beliefs?It is ok to hate the believer the same way you would hate an atheist for the exact same reasons. I think hate is a strong word to use against other human beings, I don't hate many people - I dislike, for example, homophobics and religion is the main cause of homophobia, but I will happily dislike an homophobic atheist as much.
There is some personal responsibility involved - I know that indoctrinated people are hard to change, but regardless of the level of firm belief you have in god it doesn't take 1/2 brain to figure that some things are just wrong. You don't have to be a genius to know that executing gay people, bombing buildings and oppressing groups of non believers/minorities is wrong.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you