Beliefs

People who place a belief system above a person are capable of any amount of inhumanity given provocation or impetus.

Thinking of Jihads and crusades and torture for heresy blasphemy apostasy witch burning  excommunication and of course besides religious beliefs also the laws of inheritance primogeniture divine right of kingship.
Brothers slain at the altar of ambition, wives suspected of adultery stoned to death buried alive or locked up in dark chambers of solitary confinement.
Torture for treason.
At every instance a person has the ability to apply his instinct for mercy personally or succumb to  ingrained belief and the propaganda of the times

The Holocaust the Christian  genocides of Armenia and now Israeli extermination of Palestinians (and vice versa in the past), atrocities perpetrated by almost every nation and every people united, in a mob mentality against the perceived "Other"...could never have happened if the "Person" was placed above "Public" interest....and each life was held sacrosanct by every other life....

Then governments and ideologies and industrial behemoths wouldn't be able to drag us into wars for selfish shortsighted interests.

That is why probably the most important takeaway from Christianity for me is not humility or forgiveness really.
Those are to me, all narrow specific virtues gathered under the umbrella of
a broad divine dictum of universal brotherhood.
"Do Unto Others As You Would Want Them To Do Unto You."

And that's my core religion if it can be called religion. And yes, I'm willing to change even this belief, if it hurts my fellow beings!
How can an axiom like this ever hurt another I do not know...but say, I am a masochist and lean towards self flagellation and martyrdom, then though this is my choice of treatment and personal preference, obviously, I would NOT in this instance apply my belief of Do unto others....

Just a foot note.
I think any religion which supports physical self flagellation and causing physical injury to one's person as a sign of repentance is itself commiting an act of heresy.

To God who is above all religions and is
Sheer pure goodness...the positive life affirming essence of hope growth and continuity of this universe, and whatever may lie beyond...

"...This above all to thine own self be true..." and
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."