@Merry Andrew,
Quote: "No man errs willingly." No one (except a sociopath or other psychopath) performs an evil deed believing that it is evil. The Nazis who indiscriminately slaughtered Jews believed the Jews to be evil, not themselves.
Hating someone for being different is evil...harming someone for no reason at all is evil...deceiving others to believe that God exists, and He hates the Jews, and wants the Jews to die because they were the reason His son (Himself) was crucified, is evil.
Quote: We dropped napalm on helpless Vietnamese civilians and never thought we were performing an evil act.
But some people knew we were doing something wicked.
Quote:If you look at history, you will find literally thousands of indefensible acts being commited in the name of religion -- the auto da fes of the Inquisition, the indiscriminate slaughter of the Crusades, these are just small samples of religious lunacy.
I'll give you an example of what I mean...do you remember the Spaniard Dominican priest who traveled with Christopher Columbus to the New World..Bartolomé de las Casas?.When de las Casas arrived to the New World, the Spaniards committed genocide against the aborigines because they didn't belong to Christianity. De las Casas witnessed brutalities done to the Tainos and was appalled by it; he considered the Spaniard intervention evil. He did many things to save the Tainos...to no avail.
Quote: But do you really think that the clerics, including the Pope, who perpetrated these acts thought that they were doing something immoral, something 'evil' ? I doubt that very much.
I don't know...but there are people who are deceivers and those who are deceived...
There have been instances in which preachers ask followers for donations, with the intention of becoming richer and richer .
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21410/preacher-for-profit-followers-say-they-were-deceived-by-s-florida-pastors-gospel-of-prosperity
This also means that religion makes profit...
Quote: But do you really think that the clerics, including the Pope, who perpetrated these acts thought that they were doing something immoral, something 'evil' ?
Some are deceivers and some aren't. Some justify their evil deeds as being moral, while others consider them immoral.
Quote: Another thing: these things were not done as a result of any deceit but, rather, woeful misunderstanding.
In this world overwhelmed by misunderstanding, there has to be a group of people who might know that genocide, child molestation, racism, and other forms of human biases that result in hindering the happiness of others with no logical reason, amount to evil.
Quote: To commit a wrongful act is to make a mistake.
It is a mistake...but there are others who know it is a mistake and still go alone with it.
