I don't believe in the magic of Religion to make people moral. I also don't believe in its opposite. People use religion or tradition to justify what they wanted to do anyway.

It's not actually the scapegoat's fault.

Do you think it shows weakness to be polite to those you disagree with? I think it works better to approach people with respect if I want them to consider what I'm saying. It already feels like an attack when someone says you're wrong, and I don't want to harden minds against what I think is right.

I'm not always good at it, and I have spoken to people harshly often. It never produced anything but hard feelings on their part. I think it can be satisfying to be mean, and I was looking for an excuse to act in a way that's less moral without feeling bad about myself. I think even if I was right, I usually didn't need to be mean about it.

I think that it's likely nothing I'm doing on this website is important enough to justify me being unkind about it.

If it's sauce for the goose, it's sauce for the gander. Whatever your belief of lack of it, I want to see you respected and treated well.

Vegans

Almost every religion has a tenant of the rejection of every other religion, and then goes on to persecute the other ones believers.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck... it might be a duck.

Thanks.

If whatever you believe means you feel you have the right to be unkind to people who believe otherwise, it's problematic. Even if you want to hold onto a different definition of whatever it is you believe, if you use it as an excuse to be unkind it's still a problem. It's not the label that's the problem, it's the behavior.

If you end up acting just like them, why should anyone believe you're any different?

Very "it's not a warcrime if it's not wartime" energy.