Look directly, with your own eyes, at the victims, and you can hardly doubt that violence hurts others and is therefore wrong. But religious “leaders” promote that very doubt.

If you behave violently, and then look directly at what you have done, you will probably see it as wrong. But if you can visualize God looking down on all that suffering, you can probably imagine that He supports it. Maybe it was even His idea. After all, the priests say that His ways are perfectly mysterious to mere mortals.

Even if you can’t imagine yourself wanting to hurt other people, you might be able to imagine that God wants you to.