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Comment by daeken | Hacker News Reader

This line of reasoning doesn't defend their practices nearly as well as you think it does. For instance, paying homeless people to fight each other will certainly make sure they have money for food, and it might provide them some much-needed organized activity!

If the reason you help someone is because you want to sell them something or use them, you're doing help wrong.

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Not everyone agrees that intention is relevant. For me, it’s important to help while minimizing harm and trying to respect the agency and wishes of the recipient, which the fighting analogy violates. that is a challenging balance in practice, but we are talking about ethics, where there is more grey than b&w.

I suppose you could argue that religion is harmful.. but even as an atheist, that’s a stretch for me to agree with.

> I suppose you could argue that religion is harmful.. but even as an atheist, that’s a stretch for me to agree with.

How is that a stretch for you? Have you ever heard of conversion therapy. Do you know how that came to be and similar to slavery. I know a lot of LGBT+ friends that had religious parents throw them on the streets because of God wouldn't make them not be normal.

Let me guess, you also think that Muslims are terrorists? Why are we so found of generalisations? A number of individuals engaging in a horrible activity, doesn't make them a representative of the entire group. You can be religious without condoning any of those things because they don't affect your daily life, which is true for most religious people I'd argue. I am not religious but I can see why someone would turn to religion to give them a sense of purpose in their life. That doesn't mean that they have to convert people.

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