Ideals (images of life that inspire us with their coherency and plausibility) have amazing power over us. While we may (sometimes, but not always, I would say) have a degree of choice when it comes to the question of which ideals inspire and motivate us, once we come under their influence, they determine much regarding our feelings, thoughts, and (most critically) our perceptions.

Whether we describe the ideals that guide us as being primarily of the rational and empirical variety or not (and an ideal which appears reasonable to one person may not appear so to another), it would be a quantum leap forward to affirm that none of us is absolved from responsibility for the ideals we allow to have sway over us, and for the results that ensue from us being under the influence of any particular ideal or ideals. In other words, it is helpful to see ideals, ideologies, religions, philosophies of life, world views, etc. as not entirely unlike drugs. We cannot get off the hook by saying, "My religion made me do it," etc., because you chose to imbibe of that particular intoxicating substance in the first place, and to nurse upon it thereafter.

To the extent we are unconscious of how we come under such influence, we have some major work to do, in the direction of growing towards recognizing when we are being presented with the invitation to slip into an ideology, to let our souls shape themselves to a fit a particular suit--which, whether we like it or not, or believe it or not, is going to begin exercising some degree of control over our perceptions and our identity. What we need to emphasize is a degree of accountability for the formation of relationship with ideals.