Stacey--

You picked the wrong person to discuss philosophy as a "crutch," with.

First, my faith is as agnostic as it gets, so I'm not even comforted by the idea of YES or NO absolutes when it comes to a higher power. That means I deal with humanity strictly on its own.

Secondly, you yourself brought philosophers and religious figures to bear--that's not what Jesus, Buddha, or Lao Tze would say, as I recall.

Third, let me explain WHY your point of view is cowardice borne of fear of accountability: You wrote

No one has a black heart, people just get scared. They trust in 10,000 illusions as their false gods...like the belief that you are in some way better than Neal, or that you are seperate from him. These are all lies based on fear.
This point of view, at its base level, EXCUSES people for their actions. It blames their EVIL actions on:

1. fear (No one has a black heart, people just get scared.)
2. faith or misinterpretation of a higher power (...trust in 10000 illusions as their false gods)
3. human inseperability (...like the belief that you are...better...or that you are seperate from him.)

It does this in the following manner:

point 1--fear makes us all do things sometimes that we are not proud of or that we regret. Because of this, a person is held less responsible than they would be otherwise. Bollocks. I judge a man by his actions in his most trying moments, and his treatment of others in day to day life. For neal, his trying moments were resisting the urge to molest children. He has been tried by his own willpower and found wanting.

point 2--this one is too easy. When you attribute your actions to following the will of the "Lord," combined with fear and desperation, you get suicide bombers. Despite their despondancy, does that JUSTIFY their actions? The answer is no.

point 3--by insisting that we are all somehow morally equivalent, the implication is that we should judge Neal less harshly because we are all capable of the same thing. As individuals, however, we are all morally distinct. I am not Neal's moral equivalent, and neither are you. Sorry. We're BETTER than that.

While I'm at it, why don't I address another of the little cliches you tossed out there "What you hate in him, you hate in yourselves."

If that's true, then we hate avarice, and evil, and selfishness, and casual disregard for others, destruction (as opposed to gradual loss) of a child's innocence, and a host of other human impulses, that, when acted upon, rip the fabric of society apart and destroy human happiness--for both the object and the subject.

If we hate them, it's because we see that humanity can choose better things for itself than molesting children.