Easy, how you are raised. Some kids parents say its OK for them to cuss, so its green light Others say its bad so its red light We may read something and take the term sacrifice yourself unto yadda yadda yadda as "spiritually giving yourself over" where as another could read it as "kill yourself in the name of" Vlad the impaler loved to mutilate people we say its bad cause we were raised (hopefully) to recognize signs of cruelty as bad and misfortunate, where as he was raised to seek power and display such things by any means necessary, the more elaborate of a display the better. The man had a forest of dead bodies on spears, he called it good we call it bad. You don't even need religion for that one.