Posted on 09/03/2007 9:09:43 PM PDT by goldstategop
I think victimhood can create evil but it is also used as a tool for evil. Many people fake victimhood to get what they want or hurt others.
Have you read the Phaedo ?
Yes it is. In fact almost all cultures subscribe in one form or another the moral calculus of a necessary evil. The difference between Al Qaida and the Christian is that the Christian has a more refined moral calculus. Militant Islam simply sees all outsiders as evil and therefore they must be converted or killed. It is the same simple logic of anthrax.
But a Christian sees that destroying evil does not always result a greater good. The Christian knows that adultery is a sin but it does not serve the greater good to kill all adulterers. It does not serve the greater good to kill Jews just because they are not Christian.
It was written by Socrates. I don’t read much in the way of philosophy - mainly history and science.
Is it about the nature of good and evil?
Exodus 20:
4: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6: And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Exodus 34:
5: And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
6: And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
7: Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
8: And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
“Socrates made no reply to this question, but after a little while he stirred, and when the man uncovered him, his eyes were fixed.”
It could also be argued that Satan tempted Adam with lies that made Adam appear to be the victim of God’s withholding a specific fruit from him, thus denying him knowledge, power and status.
Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Acedia, Ira, Invidia, and Superbia.
I believe you are right on the money except I would substitute the word "pride" for "weakness".
Satan tempted Eve.
I think Prager should have added that defective brain chemistry and genes can also cause people to do evil acts. When a man murders his mother because he really hears voices in his head telling him to do it there’s something wrong with his brain.
Oh! Prager did mention genes. Never mind.
Aside from all the discussions on this thread, I do appreciate Prager’s contention that the idea of victimhood has led to much evil. People like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have hurt Blacks and America in such a huge way that will never be acknowledged. On an individual basis, I have seen “victims” easily justify their evil actions, and I have sometimes been guilty of doing it myself. It is sinful and wrong, whether on an individual or group basis.
That's especially true for intelligent life to develop. Without murder and tribal warfare we would not have had the need to develop intelligence far in excess of that needed to find food. Most human traits can be traced back to their usefulness in war making. Both good and evil come from war, good for team playing skills and tribe loyalty, bad for forcing evolution to happen much quicker than occurs naturally.
Good and evil, and the 7 deadly sins, are likely normal byproducts for intelligent life to form throughout the universe. This also explains why we can't find anyone out there. They are hiding.
We might want to rethink sending out intelligent radio signals into deep space. There are digital radio techniques that make a signal appear to be statistical white noise. Most of the universe has probably adopted this.
Conscience is nothing more than habit patterns and beliefs of good and evil. Therefore it’s going to be different with every person.
Your post reminded me of this poem by Robinson Jeffers, written as World War II was beginning:
The Bloody Sire
It is not bad. Let them play.
Let the guns bark and the bombing-plane
Speak his prodigious blasphemies.
It is not bad, it is high time,
Stark violence is still the sire of all the worlds values.
What but the wolfs tooth whittled so fine
The fleet limbs of the antelope?
What but fear winged the birds, and hunger
Jewelled with such eyes the great goshawks head?
Violence has been the sire of all the worlds values.
Who would remember Helens face
Lacking the terrible halo of spears?
Who formed Christ but Herod and Caesar,
The cruel and bloody victories of Caesar?
Violence, the bloody sire of all the worlds values.
Never weep, let them play,
Old violence is not too old to beget new values.
So he would believe that man was created with evil in him. Otherwise, where does evil come from?
“If a shark or a bear can rip you limb from limb without compunction, why not another human? It is not evil that requires ....”
There are two definitions of Evil: ours and Gods’. Actually there is only One but I am speaking here in terms of the way the world functions. ACTS (by a reasoning, thinking human as opposed to an animal)may be EXPRESSIONS of that persons evil but the evil exists BEFORE the act is done or even contemplated. That brings us to the One definition of Evil: That of God, and it is simply this- “I, a man, am the moral center of the universe and as such I define ‘right’ and ‘wrong’”.
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