Ineffable Ontological Detanglement .: Introspective Assistance & Mental Analysis Manual
Intrusive thoughts are not a thing you can just declare "Doesn't matter, what matters is how I respond to them." In some ways you're right, what matters a lot more is how you act based on these thoughts, but, it's a thing to pay attention to.
People of cognitive functioning level two are obviously the most likely to have intrusive thoughts, cognitive functioning level three will do it, particularily in childhood, cognitive functioning level one is very unlikely to do it but when they do it they're 80% more likely to act on them.
I'm going to split it into two categories. One, things like random thoughts of hurting your pets springing into your mind, these things are just an instinctive "Pay attention to how much I don't want to do this, pay attention to how much I would hate it." They feel more dramatic and like they just SPRING into your mind because... You instantly pay attention to them because you hate them. Even within a percieved life of meditative mental kung fu master semi-conscious self control you're still going to get these thoughts if you haven't cracked those repressed memories that make you afraid of your capabilities, either you hurting or you absorbing far too much hurt. You actually want to HOPE that within the repressed memory of you being hurt you hurt it back, otherwise you are more dangerous. Thoughts of hurting your baby may fall into this category, however, they may also fall into the second category.
The second category is the overwhelming overpowering ALERT thoughts that will often feel like they're coming from outside of you. Overwhelming thoughts of violence, sexual violence, all of the things you fear about yourself such as your inner disrespect for your own religion. There's a reason, there is in fact something inside of you that's giving you bursts of violent thoughts, it isn't the "Wouldn't I just hate myself if I did this" thoughts it's the deep down you may have some very violent things brewing, you're trying to repress them semi-consciously and they keep springing to the surface. Chances are it's based in repressed memories.
It's probably okay, even if you have an inner violent urge you're probably fine, even if you sometimes follow that urge in many situations you're probably still fine. Once dealt with, this burst of violent thinking will likely subside into something more subtle and underlying and comfortable and most certainly not the wretched torture murder thoughts they currently appear to be. If you panic about this kind of thing, there's a good chance you'll enter the thought racing spiral, you don't want that, so don't panic, just know that your mind is currently doing a thing and be aware of that thing, but chances are you don't need to worry about going absolutely out of your mind to the point that you're following through with the thoughts or you've broken to the point of hallucination and delusion. The thought racing will make you think this is where you're going and it gets worse and worse, and, it's a spiral, and it's a spiral that could well potentially possibly bring you to the places you don't want to be, and now the only reason you're there is because you panicked over the fact that you may get there. Now you're acting upon your intrusive thoughts.
For cognitive functioning level three they're easy enough to git rid of. Do I want to do this? I guess. Do I mean it? I guess. Will I ever? I doubt it. Will I ever do something that resembles this? It's possible. Should I? Probably not. Does that mean I have a handle on what it is I know I am and want to be? Yes.