If you ever doubted that only religion (any religion) can make even good people do evil deeds, you really should take a few moments to watch this short video:
P.S. As for New Testament vs Old Testament teachings – remember that Jesus specifically stated that he was not abolishing any of the Old Testament laws.
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 
January 15, 2014 at 04:57
Xanthippa:
Sorry, but this is nonsense.
Every human being is a born killer.
Certainly the males are – but, to a lesser extent, so are the females.
We are the most efficient killers on the planet, which is why we have come to dominate it.
Modern society does its best to make us forget that.
And the result is a nation of cowardly weaklings.
January 15, 2014 at 13:14
CodeSlinger:
Of course we, as a species are killers. We are, after all, omnivores – and must kill to eat. And, regardless of what some would have us believe, going from killing an animal to killing another human being is not that big a step.
However, I don’t think that is the point of this video.
Rather, Thunderf00t is demonstrating that if a person honestly and truly believes that morality comes from the dictates of a deity, they will obey blindly and not consider the actual morality of their actions. Thus, they will be capable of atrocities and yet feel righteous about having committed them.
(Those biblical passages do not refer to simple killing or self defense or even a ‘simple’ war of aggression, but the murder of children and infants simply because God commanded it.)
January 15, 2014 at 16:47
Xanthippa:
Your claim is that only religion can make good people commit atrocities.
And that is patently false. Dangerously false.
Any fanatical ideology will do.
And the worst ones are the secular ones!
The world record for ideologically-motivated atrocities is held by secular statism – in Russia under Stalin and in China under Mao. Each of them, alone, tortured and killed more people in a few short years than all religions combined throughout all of human history.
The dangerously irrational beliefs of secular statism are no less absurd than the exoteric doctrines of the organized religions. And…
Those who believe absurdities readily commit atrocities.
– Bertrand Russell
The propaganda campaign to make religion look uniquely guilty of this sort of thing is intended to drive people towards secular statism.
It is part of the subversion of Western Classical Liberalism perpetrated by cultural Marxists.
And it serves no one but their totalitarian globalist masters.
January 15, 2014 at 17:29
CodeSlinger,
I do not make a distinction between theistic and non-theistic religions like communism… They all appear the same to me.
January 15, 2014 at 21:17
Xanthippa:
I completely share your point of view on that.
But for almost almost everyone else, it goes without saying that communism and other forms of secular statism are the exact opposite of religion.
And therefore, the more convinced they become that religion is bad, the more surely they fall into the trap of embracing secular statism.
That’s why it’s crucial to be very clear about your message in posts like this one, in order to avoid unintentionally helping the cultural Marxists.
Indeed, I think it’s worse than that.
It seems clear that the vast majority of people have a psychological make-up that prevents them from seriously entertaining any third alternative.
As soon as they give up theistic religion, they adopt a secular statist religion – usually without admitting it, even to themselves.
And, as we’ve discussed before, the most dangerous religious fanatics are the ones who don’t even realize that they’re following a religion at all.
For this reason, I’m convinced that attacking traditional religion is a very grave strategic error. If you succeed in destroying it, where are you going to find (strong enough) allies against cultural Marxism?
By all means, attack fanaticism!
But make it clear at every step of the way that secular fanaticism is even worse than religious fanaticism, because secular fanaticism is so much easier to hide behind bogus rationalizations.
Western Classical Liberalism, with its rationalist superstructure and its Christian foundation, was the most benign balance between secular and religious modes of thought and social organization ever put into practice.
It wasn’t perfect, but everything else ever tried – before or since – has been worse.
January 15, 2014 at 23:26
Point well made, CodeSlinger. I will ensure that I will give definitions for better context.
However, I do disagree with you that fighting against religion is a bad thing: it is a necessary thing.
Thunderf00t lives in the USA and is part of the movement to protect science classrooms from being forced to teach creationism as a valid alternative to evolution…and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
As a matter of fact, he is one of the few in the Atheism movement in the US who applies the same standard to Islam and feminism as he does to Christianity.
January 16, 2014 at 01:01
Xanthippa:
What is the price of ensuring that 0% of schools teach creationism?
It is that 100% of schools perform cultural Marxist indoctrination.
Why? Because the state runs the schools.
The cure is worse than the disease!
Therefore, Thunderf00t is fighting the wrong battle.
He should be fighting to get the state out of the schooling business!
Leave parents free to send their children to any school they want.
Then, if some school wants to teach creationism, let them!
There will be another school down the street teaching bona fide science.
And the free market will determine which school survives.
Problem solved.