Do they do it BECAUSE they lack religion? Or is that an irrelevant detail you're cherrypicking because it suits your argument?
People commit terrible acts because of their belief in sky fairies. Do people commit terrible acts because they don't believe in sky fairies? (Hint: no)
Agree to disagree I guess. I think we're better off without sky fairies, regardless of whether they're named Zeus, Jesus, Allah, whatever. The society that I'd want to live in would discourage public practices of religion.
Another point I should have made above. As Dawkins says, normalizing religion gives the especially nutty and violent ones room to breathe. They don't stick out so badly when their neighbor believes and practices 90% of what they do.
Giving religion safe spaces in society normalizes it. Normalizing religion does hurt people. It hurts the mind's ability to think rationally, not to mention all the intolerance that seems to come from it.
I think dementia and acts committed while drunk have some similarities when it comes to assigning responsibility (and punishment), but yes they're not the same. One is involuntary, and the other is voluntary. The voluntary act to get drunk is what I called out in my first post. But after that initial act, I think the 2 scenarios are more alike than they are different.
You're of course free do disagree, but I've the sense that you haven't really considered the issue.
I also disagree with the oft-repeated sentiment that the drunk self is an amplified version of the sober self. I think the simple reality is that alcohol changes our behaviors and judgments.
I think you missed my point. My point is that the crime the sober person makes is deciding to become impaired. That's different from saying the sober person made a decision to drive drunk - the drunk person made that decision, not the sober person. There are 2 different people here in this scenario. Whether the law should treat it that way is a separate discussion. It would have some similarities with a "temporary insanity" defense.
A little philosophical, but the drunk person who decides to drive is a different person than the sober person who decided to drink in the first place. Punishing the sober person for the decisions made by the drunk version of themselves is maybe misguided, except for as a deterrent that says "don't turn into a drunk person that can make stupid decisions"
I'm not sure what the right answer is to this problem. Just some food for thought
Brackets make it explicit what you're trying to do. Do you want "dingbar" or do you want "dong"? I forget what the actual behavior is if you don't use brackets here, because I always use brackets for this reason now
Do they do it BECAUSE they lack religion? Or is that an irrelevant detail you're cherrypicking because it suits your argument?
People commit terrible acts because of their belief in sky fairies. Do people commit terrible acts because they don't believe in sky fairies? (Hint: no)