Jesus Camp

[Pangloss62]

I'm not kidding myself.

That's a belief that I have passed on to my children.

You really sat your kids down and said "You really shouldn't shoot people for fun."? Was there something they did to make you do this?

Regardless, that sounds more like rational advice than a "belief."

Shooting people for fun will likely get you arrested, and cause you lots of stress trying not to be arrested. It will also engender a generally negative culture which could eventually get you killed for fun. More important, that one would have "fun" shooting people indicates a psychological problem that could lead to other behaviors that would have a negative impact on the individual, other individuals, and the functioning of society in general.

Should one shoot or kill people as punishment? In self-defense? As a military action? Maybe you're the one making neat little packages. I never said or even implied life is simple.

Generally, I try to stay away from using "right" or "wrong" as absolutes. Such concepts do absolutely nothing to encourage or prevent what are considered "right" and "wrong" anyway.

I think the problem here is that I'm using the word "belief" too narrowly and many cellarites are using it too generally. I still think that the essence of the word "belief" relates to emotional convictions rather than rational thought, and that the former has caused more problems in the world than the latter.