Reply #34: As A Matter Of Curiousity, Ma'am, Do You Consider Everything Equivalent And Interchangeable?

[The Magistrate]

Without endorsement, but purely as an exercise in setting a case, 'killing people for oil' can be taken to be a completely rational act, aimed at materially improving the killer's circumstances in the world, and often succeeding in that aim. Given present economic and social and military arrangements, oil is an essential item; its acquisition at less money cost is a positive good to one who can manage that; lives are a cost of doing business, and men are frequently cheaper than money. These calculations may be distasteful, even abhorrent, but they are based on things with actual material existence, and quite reasonable.

Killing people over blasphemy cannot meet the test of being an action based on actual material facts, and so cannot be a rational act. It is rooted in belief that a particular deity actually exists, and further, that that deity requires human action to vindicate its honor. Neither of these can be demonstrated to be fact, and so must be treated as delusions. Action based on delusion cannot possibly be other than insane.