Fascinating
And to put the conflict into perspective, it was the older sense of forgiveness that RMS used when he plead for copyright holders to [link|http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-09-05-001-21-OP-LF-KE|forgive KDE] their GPL transgressions past. However the reaction of most people was to understand what RMS meant in terms of more modern notions of forgiveness, and get upset about it.
The other thing I find fascinating is the amount to which people make their notions of Deity in their own images. As I already said, I don't much relate to the modern notions of forgiveness. Similarly I don't really relate to the society in which the older notion came from. But I can see how to someone from that society it would be natural to think of God as being like someone in power, only more so. With that in mind I much better understand the desire for sacrifices, and the concept of begging for forgiveness for sins committed, even if said being may arguably be ultimately at fault for said sins (see the problem of Evil).
Note that understanding does not mean any feeling within myself of wanting to go out and believe, but at least the descriptions make more sense than they did before.
Cheers,
Ben
