If you want to play "But this is just your opinion (so it doesn't really matter)," then there is no point for you to continue discussing here.
While you state the ideal, or what one would expect, that is not always the case
What conclusion do you draw from that?
Greed - as in demanding that things and people be precisely the way one wants them to be, come what may.
The man was a religious nut bag who murdered people and bombed abortion clinics because of his religious beliefs. He even admited he was motivated to act as he did because of his religious beliefs. So why is that a problem for you? Why do you deny what he admitted himself?
I suppose I operate out of a different understanding of religion than him - or you.
What stake do you have in this discussion?
Claiming that religion can motivate violence is like claiming that 2 + 2 = 5.
You mean like it is your understanding that all religious indviduals are above and beyond greed and anger?
If they are religious, then yes.
Obviously, being religious is not simply what irreligious people like Bells or the popular media think "religious" is.
Because obviously, reality is a foreign concept for you.
What do you gain from contempting others?
So a person comes out and says that they were motivated to commit an act of violence because of their religious beliefs and you say no, that it does not exist.
I replied to your example with the pointed gun above.
The act obviously exists.
I do not agree that the motivation is as stated.
If someone finds motivation to kill or commit violence from their interpretation of their religious beliefs, then it is religiously motivated violence..
An interpretation of a religious text is not automatically religious.
Oh dear god..
An interpretation of a scientific text is not automatically scientific.
Or do you think that an interpretation of something automatically places it into the same category as the interpreted thing?
Can you seriously troll more?
Can you seriously engage less in the topic?
He claimed that he was motivated to act as he did because of his religious beliefs. In other words, it was his religious beliefs that motivated him to commit those terrorist acts.
And you don't think that is religiously motivated violence?
Of course not. Something isn't something simply because someone claims it to be so.
If someone calls you an idiot - do you then consider yourself an idiot? No.
So the OT telling people when it is acceptable to kill one's children, you don't view that as violence?
Okay then..
It is certainly a case of use of force. It is not necessarily a case of violence.
The people on death row are someone's children - and the state believes that it is acceptable to kill them.
It's not like we nowadays have that different standards than several millenia back. It is just that the institutions and organizations that carry out the punishing are more elaborate, and the methods of punishment somewhat different, given what is affordable.
In times of natural catastrophe, revolution or war, martial law applies even in Western countries.
Martial law seems very cruel in comparison to ordinary law, yet given the circumstances, it is the only kind of law available.
And it is not like people in the OT are instructed to punish their children
idly, just for the sake of it.
You want me to prove, that a priest/pastor performing an exorcism on a parishioner, who they believed was possessed by evil spirits/demons had something to do with religion?
Yes. Since you are in the camp who claim that it is possible that religion motivates people to violence.
No. If someone read what I wrote in here and used that as motivation, without my knowledge, then no, I would not be considered an accomplice.
If you admit to motivate (as you have), then you are an accomplice.
Can you see the difference?
Can you?
You can still strive towards that goal
Not with an outlook that disempowers you.
"Anything can motivate anyone to violence" is a disempowering outlook.
, but I can assure you, the range is huge. You will never be able to pin down the "culprit" because each person will be motivated by something different for the most part. Each person's anger will be motivated by something different. A guy coming home from work and beating up his wife one day because she didn't get dinner cooked on time and then the next night beating her because his dinner was cooked but had gone cold.. And the night after that because he just felt like hitting her.. You can't pin down the one motivation. Anything can motivate anyone to violence.
This is simply a way to avoid responsibility and to maintain the status quo.
"It's too varied, there's not much we can do."
No. It is not that varied.
Rarely.
Or are you going to ask me if I swing a chicken above my head before I slaughter it as a sacrificial offering?
Do you eat meat?
N
ope. The after effects are annoying and painful, but as violent as cutting my head with a knife over and over again or whipping my back until it bled? No.
You seem to presume that those people who flagellate themselves etc. do so idly.
I think they just lack the skill to achieve their goals (such as purification of one's mind) in some less hurtful way.
For example, a Buddhist may sit in breath meditation for a few months, several hours a day, to accomplish the same goal.
For a further example, a dog owner who isn't very skilled in training dogs, will apply considerable force, sometimes even violence, to get his dog to refrain from peeing on the rug - yelling and hitting are likely going to take place.
Someone more skilled in training dogs will use other methods, possibly such that do not involve yelling and hitting.
Delusion like acting on one's religious beliefs does not factor into it for you?
Do you believe that religion is nothing but delusion?
Why do you think they do it on that particular day for their particular religious belief? For fun? A family that whips a chicken around one's head and then kills it as a sacrificial offering is a family that has fun together?
A family that watches television together is a family that has fun together?
