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EVIL... When any discussion gets blocked by misunderstandings, contradictions and miscommunications, it helps to define terms. Just in the last week, I have seen the tern "Evil" used in a couple of blogs...Now, I'm aware that the US has a larger population of practising Christians than most developed countries. That situation goes a long way in explaining why the concept of evil comes up a lot more in conversations., since it is a Religious concept. There is however, a huge range of definitions of "evil" and layers of opinion by the many ecclesiastic writers......... When the word "evil" is bandied about as if the meaning is clear and everyone agrees on it, I tend to throw up my hands in exasperation. Can anyone help me out? |
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"To me, evil is the Devil/Satan"........Could you expand a little on that?.....It means nothing to me in terms of real life. You're saying you believe there is an invisible, amorphous, other-dimensional being/force that tells people to buy guns and shoot innocent people they don't even know?......By what criteria?
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11/10/2018 2:16 am |
You are right of course. I confess I have misused the word on occasion to try and drive a point I sense isn't being comprehended to the degree that it needs to be comprehended. It's not that I really seek to equalize a given situation but more to push it into a shade of darkness closer to where it belongs. Since you may be familiar, in general terms, with the nature of the vast majority of my blogs here, let me characterize as an example. Let me speak to fascism. Although there are many people in America that have a deep historical knowledge of Hitler's rise to power, there are also millions of people that do not fully appreciate how a society was manipulated to bring about that rise, and how many ways it mutated along the way. But if you examine, in a deep way, Trump's rise to power, you can clearly see the parallels, and the deliberate motivations to align with thinking designed to follow similar paths to unknown goals many people are concerned about. Without getting off the subject too far, I point to things like propaganda, creating enemies in the press, shading public opinion of allies, overt racist inspired policy such as confiscating babies of mothers seeking sanctuary on the border. There are many, many, many other parallels - border wall, obstruction of justice, voter suppression, investigation threats against political opposition, accusations of rigged elections, inaccurate trade war claims, withdrawals from international agreements, new efforts at militarization and beyond. You don't have to take my word for it...many of us recognized this even before articles were written attempting to warn the public over what is happening. We've now seen violence enter the picture with right wing mobs, the bomber incident with 14 attempts to assassinate leadership of political opposition by a citizen who was manipulated himself. This is all alarming. It's alarming on a significant scale now because institutional protections showing cracks. I'm concerned about the future if this sort of thing keeps happening. But more to the point of your question...my use of the term was to push the thoughts into the darkness where all this kind of stuff belongs. I think people use the term to help characterize 1) level of concern and 2) a lighter level of annoyance. Traffic can seem 'evil' in a sense...the frustration when it ties you up and thwarts your effort for something important. The key word here 'thwart', or 'prevent'. Perhaps this advances the discussion.
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Monotheistic religions posit that their singular God is all good, therefore, , the opposite of good, or Evil, must be caused by disobedience or defiance to the God. I tend to agree with your definition......I was thinking about it because Maisie's scoffing at laws that regulate gun ownership because legislating against EVIL is useless........putting evil in a category of it's own. When I tried to get her to define this EVIL, she pretended that I had introduced the word.....It looks to me like EVIL is treated like a given......like Evil exists outside the purview of Human control....... No one says we should forget about having laws against murder or r*pe or theft..because it's ridiculous to legislate against evil, though we consider those acts evil........We legislate vehicle safety, work-place safety, building safety.....but not gun-safety, because we can't legislate against EVIL........I don't get the logic in that........ It seems to me that EVIL is used as a way to claim transcendence over logic....a handy way to divert from critical thinking......
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ET...you've nailed it perfectly! 
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Monotheistic religions posit that their singular God is all good, therefore, , the opposite of good, or Evil, must be caused by disobedience or defiance to the God. I tend to agree with your definition......I was thinking about it because Maisie's scoffing at laws that regulate gun ownership because legislating against EVIL is useless........putting evil in a category of it's own. When I tried to get her to define this EVIL, she pretended that I had introduced the word.....It looks to me like EVIL is treated like a given......like Evil exists outside the purview of Human control....... No one says we should forget about having laws against murder or r*pe or theft..because it's ridiculous to legislate against evil, though we consider those acts evil........We legislate vehicle safety, work-place safety, building safety.....but not gun-safety, because we can't legislate against EVIL........I don't get the logic in that........ It seems to me that EVIL is used as a way to claim transcendence over logic....a handy way to divert from critical thinking...... They talk about the freedoms...of religious belief, of political belief, but can't allow those who think differently from them to have those freedoms. They never get as far realising what those freedoms actually mean. They think that America granted them in it's Constitution...which is the biggest lie Maisie and Co. tell themselves. The Human Freedoms have existed as long as humanity has. "It seems to me that EVIL is used as a way to claim transcendence over logic....a handy way to divert from critical thinking" It's very shallow "thinking" to act as though they are somehow better humans because they go to church on Sunday...or because they vote a certain way. The first nine or ten blogs posted this morning prove that!
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12/7/2018 10:34 pm |
God controls everything. God has a plan for everything and everyone in the universe. Therefore evil does not exist. Everything that exists or happens is part of HIS divine plan. His will can not be questioned. It is absolute. If you get killed you must realize it was his plan when he allowed the sperm to meet up with the egg. I didn't make it up. I listened in church. Never question or dispute his will. Pray On!
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