Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-24037808-20140924094901/@comment-6078851-20140930155707

thank you attank, and yes you'll find a lot of corrections from various regulars, but as you say it is indeed born from respect for the scope of this universe, so never take any corrections personally. one of the reasons i frequent this particular wiki is that the discussions are civilised, well thought out and enjoyable to read (most of the time anyway).

in regards to the holy image of man: almost every race in the galaxy believes that their cause is the only rightous cause (although the dark eldar are smart enough to realise there's nothing rightous about them :P), which gives them the impetous to try and force everyone else to their way of thinking (even the tau are guilty of this). and as can be shown from religous crusades such thinking allows believers to see anyone opposed to their mode of thought as heretical, or evil, thereby allowing themselves to commit atrocities on others with a guilt-free conscience. but such belief in one's divinity doesn't actually make them right, or rightous. this very thing is what makes me dislike the imperium so much - that they have destroyed entire civilisations, even those that would have been happy to co-exist with the imperium just not part of it, without blinking an eye simply because they believe that they have the right to do so.

while good and evil in 40k are subjective points of view, personally i rate the imperium pretty far down the 'evil' side of that scale. not on the basis of individuals but as a whole, and not for their belief but for the horrific actions that their belief perpetrates - genocide is never 'good'.