General/Non-Specific: Hate

[Scales]

So what do your religious beliefs say about hate?

I'm not part of a religion with explicit rules in this way, but I always found the 'you shouldn't hate anyone!' thing to kinda be bullshit. There are people who do incredibly harmful things, both on a large scale (ie starting wars, or taking away people's medical care) and/or a personal one (assault, abuse, etc), and they deserve hatred. Wasting time convincing oneself that hate is bad and we just strongly dislike and do not trust them seems like a matter of semantics, and also kind of pointless.

I also see people saying 'don't waste your energy hating someone,' (in general, not specifically in this thread), and I understand the point of it, that one shouldn't waste effort/energy on hating someone, dedicating time to thinking about that hate, especially since they, you know, hate them, but I don't really experience hate in a way that takes time or energy, it's just a knowing, when that person comes up, that I wouldn't care if they were set upon by wild dogs (strange/slightly exaggerated example), and when the subject changes, they're back out of my mind.

Sorry for the run on sentences lol.

[atr]

I'm not part of a religion with explicit rules in this way, but I always found the 'you shouldn't hate anyone!' thing to kinda be bullshit. There are people who do incredibly harmful things, both on a large scale (ie starting wars, or taking away people's medical care) and/or a personal one (assault, abuse, etc), and they deserve hatred. Wasting time convincing oneself that hate is bad and we just strongly dislike and do not trust them seems like a matter of semantics, and also kind of pointless.

I agree and I don't agree here.

Feeling hate is a completely natural and normal response to the occurrence of extraordinary injustices. I'm pretty sure we both agree on that front.

But I don't believe that stewing in anger / hate is conducive to anything. It results in real harm to yourself, and possibly to others depending on how it's released. And yes, it WILL be released in one form or another, whether it be towards yourself resulting in high blood pressure, pain, stomach ulcers etc, or towards others, oftentimes to people who have nothing to do with the source of the hate.

So IMO the key here is releasing that anger in a controlled, productive way that minimizes harm.

There are a lot of ways to do this, but one way is the pursuit of justice to put a stop to the source of hate.
 
But - and maybe you'll disagree with me on this one - sometimes this just isn't practical. Sometimes there isn't much that you can do about it, or maybe you can but it might result in additional harm to others. The world is a complicated place and sometimes, you've just gotta replenish yourself somehow (like in a bath) and let it go. You've gotta do what's best for you, your friends / family, and your community. And sometimes, that means letting go.

Note that I'm not saying to forgive and / or forget here - rather, that just moving on is sometimes the best thing.

I also see people saying 'don't waste your energy hating someone,' (in general, not specifically in this thread), and I understand the point of it, that one shouldn't waste effort/energy on hating someone, dedicating time to thinking about that hate, especially since they, you know, hate them, but I don't really experience hate in a way that takes time or energy, it's just a knowing, when that person comes up, that I wouldn't care if they were set upon by wild dogs (strange/slightly exaggerated example), and when the subject changes, they're back out of my mind.

Yeah, I feel this. It is 100% natural to want nothing to do with someone who causes an extraordinary injustice and to wish justice upon them.