I don't care about being judged - let them do their thing. I don't judge unless someone does or says something stupid and I don't care if someone judges me for whatever reason. I don't live my life based on the opinions of people I could give 2 shits about.

You are preaching to the choir.

If I say I heard a voice tell me to do something, most likely I will be judged as crazy. Too often Christians in my realm say Jesus or God showed me or told me. The only real arena that you can get away with this invisible force commanding others.

I don't care how somebody reacts in relation to their philosophy (religious or otherwise). Their basis for their decisions can be crapped up from the word go. I look at how people act and how those actions affect others. I also look at things in terms of their mental ability to recognize the outcomes (i.e. I will judge a 30 year old differently than my 6 and 7 year old nephew and niece). The rest is details as circumstances matter.

We should accept people period.

"I don't really understand why we can't just except people for how they conduct themselves, "

Stupidity, lies and narcissism.

I think belief systems like religion and racism are rooted in narcissism. They are simply civilized-sounding words for people to justify their delusions of superiority.
The foundation of most monotheistic beliefs is that a few are better than everybody else - with that comes privileges and rights not awarded to inferior humans - and YOU are one those special people.
How good other people are is irrelevant, they are your inferiors.

As for politics, with the propaganda in play, usually related to religion, each side is portrayed as the sum of all evil and a LOT of people are too stupid to sift through the bullshit to find the facts. That takes work, whereas letting yourself be convinced other people are evil is easy, and fits your delusions of superiority.

You must understand, good and intelligent people are bent on destroying the systems that keep the corrupt people in power; which is why they seek to set us against each other by convincing all of us our neighbors are a threat. For example: Trump said in an interview that any attack towards him was an attack on America itself, so his idiot followers are now perceiving anyone against Trump as someone against America and that gets their faux-patriotic anger to boil.

If we did like you want, judging others only by what they do, many people in power will be brought low. Politicians will lose influence. Churches will no longer receive tithes. Racists will lose their sense of superiority.
It's a twisted world. Especially for normal people.

I think the answer lies in our neurological makeup. We can feel empathy and relate to people's pains. We get stimulated by external stimuli: art pornographic material. Some people, because of their early indoctrination, get stuck with some parameters and the idea that they have to defend them. How many people, even among more liberal minds, still think of sex as something dirty. Unfortunately many people never really grow out of a narrow mindset. Even just observing someone doing something out of their comfort zone makes them feel threatened.
We all have to make judgements all the time. Unfortunately some people let themselves be exploited to judge on the behalf of authorties. I always think of Charlie Hebdo or Salaman Rushdie.
You mention " as long as they aren't evil and bent on destruction" … but when do you know?
It's all very relative.
I had situation when I intervened in conflicts, but sometimes I didn't.

I haven't really noticed much of a pattern in my personal life between good/bad people and religious/nonreligious. I've met atheists who were down right pieces of crap in my eyes and religious people who seemed genuinely good of misguided. However, what's the quote? A good person will do good and an evil person will do evil. But to have a good person do evil that takes religion?

Completely misquoted that I bet but you get the idea lol

their bible tells them the only measure of decency is belief. thanks to jesus; murderers and rapists are more acceptable in heaven than atheists as long as they believe. they are also taught that atheists are satans army.

Not really. The nature of one's life, because we're talking about words and their meaning, is self-explanatory. If there is a God, he might know everything about our lives. Even if every damned person in Earth wanted someone's neck for something, he would still know more, and see deeper about that person because God is that much smarter.

We might think that there is some man-made sorting mechanism for how we are judged, but if there is a God, he's not dumb enough to mislead himself...No, "God" is certainly a word that was never coined to be dumb. The Hoary Head, a.k.a. the Godhead, by both image and definition, is an engine of perfect intelligence. That's just how the subject matter works.

If there is any property assignable to an object, then that property must be true, otherwise there is no assignable nature to it. One has to look PAST and ABOVE arguments and opinions to get to know the truth.

Spot on!

In theory, this is a good idea, but in practice it is nearly impossible to tell what someone's actual motives are. Sometimes the most insidious of individuals are the ones most likely to get along with others, because it is in their best interest to do so, meaning they will be good for evil reasons. The opposite of this is also true, sometimes people who are good will be evil with good intentions.

The only thing that I find naive about this is the assumption that good and evil are binary. That is to say they are opposite and you can only be one or the other.

No, you are basically repeating, but using different words, what MLK said in his famous speech.

That is exactly my criteria for choosing friends.

Prof SAPOLSKY of Stanford U has a very relevant class video about this subject on U Tube: It's 26 weeks long and about 1-1/2 hours each session that presents endless factors that determine one's behavior concluding that WE DON'T HAVE FREE WILL! to that end, we shouldn't love or hate a person for their behavior, just the same as we don't hate an infant that behaves in an undesirable way. We consider them to be ignorant of the more desirable ways to behave and to require whatever steps necessary to enable them to learn how to behave properly while protecting them and others from their maladaptive behavior. Why should adults not be treated the same? My approach to those that seem to me to be engaging in behavior that is potentially harmful to me or others is to try to correct this or to get away from them and report them to the relevant authorities if necessary.

It appears a tribal thing.. If you’re with the tribe ..about anything goes. If not - get em!

I am very picky on whom I will call "friend".
That said, I have some friends that are believers, and some that are not.
Some that are liberals, and some conservatives, and some mids like me.
We don't judge each other by any beliefs, or political stance. we accept each other for the kind of human beings we are.
That is paramount over everything IMHO.

Many people set standards that are too high for themselves. They set their personal bar height. At anytime one can decide not to jump through the hoops any longer.