I had never called anyone "brainwashed". Not even those in the military forced to act as killing machines. No Brainwashed in my universe. I may call them something else.

No,
what good would my pity do,
try and help them and they resist.
They maybe victims, but are they not in some way part of their own problem?
I am a very harsh person I know.

In a way. More frustrated. I have a young girl I used to work just got baptized tonight at 25. She made this long post about letting God take the wheel after she hit bottom, for the 5th or 6th time. I want to shake her, she hit rock bottom from making poor decisions, and I don’t see things improving for her. It’s so easy for these pastors, to hoodwink young people that have had troubles, like god is going to be the answer to all her problems.

Depends. One of my favorite quotes is from a book called The Rebuttal to Pilgrim's Progress. The main character in there asks, "Who’s the more egregious, the man who leads another man astray, or the man who willingly follows?"

yes, but frustration is the emotion I experience the most

No.

Yeah. Humans have a natural tendency to seek security and comfort. Belief in a deity provides both. I pity those who’ve been convinced to give their life for a posthumous reward.

Pity helps no one

The brainwashed are too many and I don't see them sympathetically enough to consider their victimization to be worse than what they do to others because of their brainwashing.

The brainwashed prove beyond a doubt by their very existence that they and not the meek have actually inherited the earth. Chalk up one more for atheists.

I often pity religious persons who think their religion brings them happiness, but I see their religion actually causing them more misery than happiness.. So, I feel sorry for them.

I always wonder about the morality of not pointing it out to them. I justify not taking any action, because pointing it out and making it obvious to them may lead them to beign miserable without the delusion of happiness. In other words, I could make things worse tfor hem. Also, such persons tend to close their minds to anything that doesn't support their beliefs, so I'd even more li9kely just make them angry and accomplish nothing.

People who recover from religion have to do so on their own. Kind of like an addict has to actualy want to quit, or else your efforts to help them will be useless.

No,I pity people like us that have to deal with people that are delusional and ignore evidence and proven facts.

This is a difficult question to answer. As a child I was introduced to the church as are many others. This religious idea was then implanted on me and I feel I was lucky to reject the teaching but many others are not so lucky. I could feel sorry for these individuals but then with their education I no longer feel sorry. They should be able to see the wrongs with religion. Government is another area . My friend has been a republican not because he believes or even understands what the republicans stand for but becuse that is what his parents are. They are poor blue collar people who continue to vote one issue abortion because of the church standing. They do not realize that they are voting against themselves!

Of course. How is brainwashing a positive state of being?

Yes.