Originally posted by heusdens
And there is this alternative
a. God does not exist
b. 'Evil' still exist
c. We have to defeat 'evil'
I have problems with that, so here's my version.
A. God does not exist.
b. evil does not exist.
c. S**t happens, just deal with it and prepare for it.
I do not believe in good and evil in the classical theistic sense. I do not believe that good and evil are "forces", "entities", or anything tangible. Good and evil are
ADJECTIVES that we use to describe things that we like and things that we don't like. It sounds too simple for some of you, but after looking at this problem, it makes far more sense than a pantheon containing devils, demons, angels, and archangels.
But this places us in the position, how to define 'evil' in the first place.
Like I just said -- evil is whatever we, as individuals or as a society, do not like, and wish to avoid as much as possible. my definition accounts very simply and elegantly for cultural reletivism -- We western people see Islamic societies as evil, and Islamic societies see western culture as evil. This is because our societies have different values, and hence, different concepts of good and evil.
In fact, the current state of the world, makes us to be quit suspicious of those, who in the 'name of God' want to defeat 'evil', and give us a definition of 'evil' which is not a truthfull projection of reality.
Evil is all about interpretation. I believe, due to my experience and perspective (and I am not trying to spread this view to you, I'm just explaining it) that Islamic fundamentalism is backward, dangerous, and incompatible with any view of world peace. However, I see US foreign policy since WW2 to be the cause of modern Islamic Fundamentalist extremism, because the CIA and our armed forces have either invaded, or aided dictators in many of those countries, and their indignation (not their actions) is justified. We invaded Iran in 1957, destroyed their western, DEMOCRATIC government, and placed the Shah in power, who was a cruel dictator. We did this all to protect the control over the oil industry that western corporations had. The result was decades of opression and misery -- all because of our meddling.
So who is realy evil, given the hsitorical facts? Both sides have multiple black marks on their record.
That is, we can raise sufficient doubt against the 'coalition of forces' that urged us to use military power to beat 'evil', since they have provably deluted us in the reasons for doing so.
The 'weapons of mass-destruction of Iraq', which some have interpreted as the word of God, coming directly out of the mouth of Mr president George W. Bush, was the evil causing 'us' to go to Iraq in the first place, and defeating the 'evil' regime of Saddam Hussein.
Exactly. There are few people or tings that are 100% good or 100% evil. Evil is in the eye of the beholder. Always has been, always will be. I mean -- what did those tribes think 3000 years ago, as the Hebrews killed every man, woman, and child, and took some of their virgins as brides against ther will? You see a righteous Hebrew guy slicing open your pregnant wife's womb, and spilling her guts and your unborn child onto the ground, and what could you possibly think other than what evil people those Hebrews were.
But it is clear now, that that 'evil' was just a phantom of the thought, and a fication of mere imagination (although some 'attempts' were made to create some proof beyond all reasonable doubt..), and did not exists at all.
Precisely.
So the question remains as to what 'evil' we have to combat...
I got my own opinions about that!
The evil we have to combat is ourselves. Evil is a weakness. It is a weakness on the part of men to follow rules that they proclaim to believe in. Men say they will never drink again, then a few weeks later, they are caught in a bar. People vow to uphold the law, then turn around and abuse it.
In my opinion, the origin of all evil is when people make promises to each other, and then turn around and break them. With some people, it's a pathological weakness, something that needs to be educated and trained away. With others, its criminal; they have no intention to stick by their word, and will resist all efforts to re-educated them
