[imported_luckyme]

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Pure common sense. Any man who refrains from raping a woman because he doesn't want to spend ten years in jail, is no better and probably worse, than an actual rapist.

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Every viewpoint has a slant. Two that seem essentially deep rooted in people and show up in almost every undertaking from the smallest daily chore to the biggest decisions are the 'intent/motivation matters' and "results/outcome matter" views.

To a fair degree this plays out in the theist/atheist debates. Daddydvo's deathbed thread is an example. You can divide the people into those, like daddydvo, who argue that it's important THAT you believe, and a lot of others who say it's important WHY you believe.

Your agument appears to depend on 'intent' being higher valued than the act when it comes to assigning 'badness'. A lot of religion is built on the opposite premise as many theist comments on this forum illustrate.

Although a lot would be more attracted one way or the other, I'm not claiming that all individual people on either side of the debate are innately 'intent based' or 'result based' but that a lot of their arguments are.

There are other filters to run arguments and positions through, I just find this theme to be a useful one also.

luckyme