That is true of some religious morality yes, but a lot of it is directed at crushing empathy. The religious ethical justifications for human sacrifice, slavery, religious persecution, racism and social inequality for just a few examples, have all been used to tell people not to employ empathy even against their human feelings.

@Fernapple True but a very basic moral of most religions is "Do unto others that which you would have done upon yourself" or something similar, which is another way of saying "have empathy". Unfortunately, there are those in this world who don't possess the feelings of empathy, just understand it very superficially, and focus on self satisfaction unaware of the detriment caused to others.

@Fernapple It is funny how theist's fail to see any hypocrisy in their teachings/ doctrine. They like talking the talk but fail to walk the walk

@puff That is very true but only I think as a philosophical ethic, which has entered within most modern theist religions. I would have to qualify that by pointing out that many older religions especially do not contain the golden rule as a tenant, the Aztec religion for example taught kill and torture to appease the blood lust of the gods, while Shinto, many forms of Hinduism and pagan views were largely morallity free, the golden rule is not always a constant of religion.

@Fernapple the golden rule is there is always an exception to the golden rule