Thank you David, Yuyutsu you're off the planet on that one.

Absolutely correct, its like saying Nazi's didn't gas people in concentration camps, as Nazi's are incapable of such action. As soon as a person does such a thing they can no longer be a Nazi, they become something else. No they are still Nazi's.

Religious people, priests and brothers, who bastardised children are still religious people, regardless of their actions. End of story.

«religious people never do anything bad»

HA !

Dear Paul,

If a person overtly wears a Nazi uniform and is registered in the Nazi party, but covertly hides and saves Jews, then he is not truly a Nazi.

If a person overtly wears the robes of a priest or a brother, but covertly bastardises children, then he is not truly religious.

Yuyutsu,
Just like there's a difference between a needy person stealing & an already wealthy person hounding for more.
The needy will be prosecuted whereas the greedy can write more off Tax than the needy will ever have to live on !
A menial task minimum wage worker paying top rate Tax & an oxygen thieving bureaudroid salary sacrificing everything.
Yes, a fine society indeed !

Yuyutsu,

The religion that I grew up with was handed down
by a religious authority. You were expected to follow
its dictates without thought. The word of the authority
was supposed to be enough - and there was no need for
interpretation - so nothing more needed or should be
said. The matter was supposed to be settled for all time.

A good person was defined as one who adhered to the
religious dictates of the authority - without question.

For me that was problematic. I found this inability to
question as a sign of ignorance. And dangerous. Also I
did not like the divisiveness being preached from the
pulpit by supposedly holy men. At one time I even walked
out on a sermon.

My conscience does not allow me to follow the dictates of
something I consider to be wrong.

Dear Foxy,

I am very sorry for what happened to you in your childhood - that was disgusting and obviously wrong and I am happy that despite it all you have not given in, as you wrote: "My conscience does not allow me to follow the dictates of something I consider to be wrong."

Wonderful, so now I have a couple of questions for you:

Do you believe that God likes your tormentors and their wrongs?
Do you think that their authoritarian behaviour brought them any closer to God?

Should your answer be a 'No' to both questions, why then would you still call these monsters "religious"?

«The religion that I grew up with was handed down
by a religious authority. You were expected to follow
its dictates without thought»

No - you grew up into irreligion and hypocrisy by irreligious authoritarian figures!