“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I said before that no man acts out of the desire to be evil, but has always justified to himself his actions precisely by his own “good” intent. If envy is felt it is not acknowledged. The religious area in general, from time immemorial, has dealt intensely and sometimes one-mindedly with “the good ideal.” That ideal, however, different in one area than in another, was usually self-righteously applied with a vengeance and fanatical zest, so that all things outside it were seen as evil.

This applies regardless of the guises that such narrowness might take. In such concepts any natural goodness, or natural intent in man becomes not only invisible psychologically to the fanatic, but man’s natural nature appears as a direct threat to the ideal projected by dogma of any kind.

When ideals are set more or less artificially, greatly divorced from man’s nature, he cannot begin to live up to them. Usually these are, for one thing, too narrow and sterile. The ensuing guilt is the power that turns such a person into a fanatic. I hope to teach you a tolerance for others, for this will ensure the greatest development of your own abilities, and will also give you a more realistic view of the world.