we need to stop blaming inanimate and immaterial objects and start blaming humans and humans alone

guns don't kill people, it's only a weapon
christianity and islam don't cause war and terrorism, they're only religions
chocolate bars and pizzas don't make people fat, they're only food
abortion shouldn't be banned, it's only a medical process
drugs shouldn't be illegal, they're only powders and pills

none of these objects are to blame for respectively mass murders, religious wars, obesity, "murder" as a lot of right wingers call it, and the drug war and drug related deaths and incidents. these things aren't holding a knife to your throat telling you do something bad. all these bad things are manifestations of human action and human action alone.

let us use my most preferred definition of the word 'tool', from thefreedictionary.com:
"anything used as a means of accomplishing a task or purpose"

ALL of the things i named in the beginning of this post are tools. in essence, almost everything is a tool. they're just lying there. YOU're the one who then takes these things and decides what to do with them.

the fact of the matter is that the end of the day, humans killed, humans waged war, humans ate too much junk food, chose to abort, chose to sniff up whatever they sniff up.

i believe that in certain types of cases (mass murder/school shooting stories, discussing terrorism or the crusades, addictions, etc.), too many people shift the blame for human misdeeds too much on inanimate and immaterial objects. this is fundamentally wrong. humans are 100% responsible for their actions. we have the ability to think our actions through. we have opposable thumbs to do grab something with. guns and bibles and drugs and alcohol and porn and abortions and religions, they don't have any of that. these things deserve exactly 0% of the blame in a crime or addiction or whatever situation, because they don't do jack by themselves!

what i'm trying to say with this post is that at the most basic level, WE are 100% to blame for our actions. how childish is to blame an inanimate/immaterial object for whatever happens. i see too many people on youtube and news sites blaming bad things on these objects. obviously, they blame the criminal or obese person as well of course, but in my opinion that's where it should end, period. guns and drugs and hell, get this: heavy metal friggin music, should receive 0% of the blame when something bad happens.

i realize how obvious and logical this message is but i still see too much ignorance from too many people everywhere

(this was not a left vs right article, please i'm not even american i couldn't care less about left vs right wing crap, this goes for every human on this earth)

a reply to: MeteoraXV

I agree with almost everything in your post except the religion part...

Religion, although being man made is supposed to be God telling people to do such atrocities...

Thus something higher then a mere human is responsible for said actions...

God takes precedence over man... especially if one has been brought up since childhood to believe in that God

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: MeteoraXV

I agree with almost everything in your post except the religion part...

Religion, although being man made is supposed to be God telling people to do such atrocities...

Thus something higher then a mere human is responsible for said actions...

God takes precedence over man... especially if one has been brought up since childhood to believe in that God

i guess it depends on the perspective you take. if you're an atheist you could consider God or Allah or whatever to be an immaterial object. so when people say "in the name of God" or "Allahu Akbar". they are acting on something that is in their minds. they themselves are to blame. and i guess from the religious follower's perspective, God could be to blame (though i've personally never heard any religious person blaming God, but they do thank God all the time)

(i'm neither religious nor atheist but i personally put God in the immaterial object category)

a reply to: MeteoraXV

Which I also agree with...

But if one is a fundy... God basically wrote book you follow...

Though in one circumstance, at least when "God became flesh" he didn't say anything bad...

Makes ya wonder eh...

oh noooooes i just realized it says inaminate in the title

how embarassing

a reply to: Akragon
yeah i agree again it's all different perspectives. the bible is a wonderful book, a literary masterpiece, the best selling book of all time, a big component in the flourishing of western culture, it is the fountainhead of a lot of wonderful and beautiful art and architecture and music. yet it is also the root of a lot of wars and massacres that took extreme amounts of life. but the bible isn't to blame. it is the people that take the bible and decide to do what they are going to do with it. there are good people with bibles and bad people with bibles. and if God tells them to do so...wel i can't really comment on that, i don't know what to say there. the lines are blurry on who exactly to blame

Right on.
Awesome post sums up my own views pretty nicely.

As for religion making people kill or harm, even that's off the hook as far as I can tell; it's a religious leader, a human that incites hatred and spins an agenda. Religion is just the tool used. Likewise political ideology.
Even a lone crazy, while they might claim to be religious and use that as a justification to act crazy, would be unsettled regardless of their beliefs.

At the end of the day, every single person on the planet has a choice. No matter how much they might hate someone or feel entitled to something, they have the choice to cause harm or act like a civilized, rational human.
It's not always necessarily an easy choice, but the choice is always there.

a reply to: MeteoraXV

You right. We should also legalize explosives and other weapons of war, if not how will we ever defend against the black helicopters!

That's sarcasm. Just pointing out the craziness.

a reply to: ArtemisE
lol yeah of course certain things should be illegal for the greater good of the population - there are simply too many humans for them to be living fully autonomously and humans can be irrational. that is why we have leaders to watch over us and control us so and create order (well that's what they're supposed to do anyways), so that we don't have chaos as in, a bunch of people running around doing whatever. certain objects need to be regulated for the greater good of the population.

a reply to: MeteoraXV

christianity and islam don't cause war and terrorism, they're only religions - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

You had me until that line.

You might consider the following; Religions are not human --they are a superhuman, autonomous life form in a poorly understood class of their own.

They have a will that is greater than the sum of the parts. Humans are operatives like a bees in a hive or ants in a colony. They reproduce and they do defend themselves (e.g. start wars), following many of the patterns of biological life.

I support internal locus of control as one of my guiding principles. What I find though, is there are many times humans do not seem to be under control. I'm sure you've noticed. Adults have more control of themselves than children but how much more really? You don't allow children to play with knives. Get it yet?

In a chaotic world, abandoning common sense risk mitigation is a false solution for ideologues.

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass
well i consider religions to be immaterial objects and thus not to by themselves to blame for war and murder, but i guess from the amount of people being on the fence regarding the blaming of religion, it's hard for many to agree on that particular subject. me seeing religion as a immaterial object could be a crude view that i have of that particular thing and maybe i am too quick to categorize it as so.

religion is after all very deeply rooted in human nature and non-religious people are and have for the better part of our history been a global minority (i think).

you could say that religion can be seen as a brainwashing or conditioning. being left wing or right wing could be seen as brain washing or conditioning. when people are raised a certain way in a certain environment, can you fully blame them for any misdeeds they may later commit in the name of their religion or ideology. i can't really say for sure since i've never been raised to be religious or conditioned to be a left or a right winger. so when these humans who commit misdeeds for their particular religion or ideology, are ideologies and religions indeed at least partly do blame? it's a deep subject and not easy to agree on. no one is really right or wrong there.

religion is thought to be inseparable from human nature and thus i guess you could say that religion is at least partly to blame for human atrocities. me personally i do maintain that religion is an immaterial object separate from human nature. but since i was never raised in a religious home, it's easy for me to say so.

on your point about humans and control i totally agree, see my post above yours.

Placing blame (in any direction) is a pointless cop-out, and will accomplish nothing.

Only by taking responsibility can change be made.