Does intention matter in deciding who's what?

Does intention matter when deciding the moral quality of an action?

I am sure most of us, if not all of us, will say that it does.

But think about this for a sec.

Out of all the acts committed ever, do you think there's a single one committed with bad intentions? Even Hitler thought he was doing a good thing when he tried to erase the jews.

We're not saying: Oh, that was a naughty thing to do, but he meant well, so he was not a bad person.

No, we don't say that. In many ways, Hitler is the embodiment of evil.

So why aren'treligious people treated the same? The horrors committed in the name of various gods through the ages makes what the nazis did seem like stealing candy from a rich merchant.

Why do we not see religious people as evil people, since they stand in support of the institutions that have wreaked so much havoc and shed so much blood? Does their ignorance excuse them?

So why aren'treligious people treated the same? The horrors committed in the name of various gods through the ages makes what the nazis did seem like stealing candy from a rich merchant.

Why do we not see religious people as evil people, since they stand in support of the institutions that have wreaked so much havoc and shed so much blood?

...But I do have it in for organized religion lately...

The same way we don't treat Germans as though they were nazis I suppose. A country is an institution the same way the church is.

That's well and good, intrepid, but then the individuals hide behind the organization, and you're back at square one.

If an individual has an organization at his back that supports his wicked ways, or even allows him to wrongfully assume this support, then isn't there something wrong with the organization?

Btw, I do not have all the answers here. I am not arguing one side of this. I seek to understand, and so I challenge the different viewpoints. But I do have it in for organized religion lately...

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The same way we don't treat Germans as though they were nazis I suppose. A country is an institution the same way the church is.

Yes, but a country isn't run according to a set of beliefs taken for god's law, penned by who knows who, thousands of years ago.

And there was a great deal of enimity towards germans in the years after ww2.
And we often hear tales, a lot from the US, about individuals who were treated as terrorists just because they were arabs.

So who's "we" in this context?

I know that if I was a christian, I would speak out against all those giving my religion a bad reputation. But I really don't see much of that from any of those who are religious. But is it their responsibility?

Is it the muslims's collective responsibility to do what they can to stop those that would use islam as an excuse for murder?
Is it the sensible christian community's collective responsibility to deal with all the crazy fundamentalists? Those people who stand on the street with posters reading "thank god for aids" and "god hates fags", for instance.

...I know that if I was a christian, I would speak out against all those giving my religion a bad reputation. But I really don't see much of that from any of those who are religious. But is it their responsibility?...

Out of all the acts committed ever, do you think there's a single one committed with bad intentions? Even Hitler thought he was doing a good thing when he tried to erase the jews.