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Post by samsara15 on Aug 24, 2014 21:06:10 GMT -6
I grew up reading Grimm's Fairy Tales. One frequent theme in those fairy tales was that many of the good things we experienced in life turned out to be garbage, produced by the illusions of an evil witch. Couldn't it have just as easily been that the 'illusion' was that the 'witch' was evil, that the worm could have turned both ways, that we had been fooled twice over? And that the evil witch was not evil at all? How easily we are deceived. Which makes our political and religious discourse with each other all the more difficult. It all boils down to who and what do you trust, doesn't it, in many significant ways, and why you choose to trust them?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2014 3:28:18 GMT -6
Define evil.
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Post by samsara15 on Oct 2, 2014 6:49:56 GMT -6
It's not easy to define, is it?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2014 7:44:54 GMT -6
Here is my take on evil. Humans have a moral standard for normal human decency. When someone grossly violates this standard it would be considered EVIL.
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Post by samsara15 on Oct 2, 2014 8:37:41 GMT -6
That's as good a definition as any, IMO.
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Post by samsara15 on Oct 2, 2014 8:39:34 GMT -6
I mistakenly posted this on another thread an hour or two ago:
Social customs in most human civilizations specify that the following are evil:
Murder and violent acts against others (except in military actions or as punishment for crimes) Marital infidelity Lying Fraud Theft
So there are standards, of a sort
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Post by rdlb on Oct 15, 2014 8:45:05 GMT -6
The Ten Biblical Commandments looked at two ways.
A: Spiritual Law
B: Corresponding Natural Law
1
A. No one is to be loved above all except God, nor anything except what comes from God.
B. There is not to be any other God before my face.
2
A. Do not misuse what is from the Divine.
B. You are not to take the name of Jehovah your God in vain.
3
A. Seek the final stage of regeneration: heavenly peace and protection.
B. Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy.
4
A. Honour God, and the Church from the heavens.
B. Honour your father and your mother.
5
A. Do not be angry or seek revenge against others, nor against the Divine.
B. You are not to commit murder.
6
A. Do not adulterate the various kinds of good from the Divine, nor falsify truths.
B. You are not to commit adultery.
7
A. Do not deprive others of their truths, nor God, for possessing these yourself.
B. You are not to steal.
8.
A. Do not deliberately persuade others that false ideas of faith are true and that evil ways of life are good, or that true ideas are false and good ways are evil.
B. You are not to bear false witness against your neighbour.
9.
A. Evil actions (any of the above) must not be done, nor even longed for.
B. You are not to covet your neighbour's house
10
A. These commandments are not merely for the external man, but also for the internal.
B. You are not to covet your neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant nor his maid-servant, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's.
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Post by samsara15 on Oct 16, 2014 9:47:18 GMT -6
Which takes us back to the original post, doesn't it?
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