On Thursday, January 3, 2013 5:53:56 AM UTC-5, rclough wrote: > > Hi Craig Weinberg > > Tsunamis and other forces of nature are themselves amoral*, but > their effects can be good (enhance life) or evil (diminish life). >
Are you saying that God is powerless to change nature? > > *Since God causes everything to happen, he also, although > reluctantly (the theological term is God's "permissive will") > mustl cause evil to happen as well. "I cause the rain to > fall on just as well as the unjust" says the Bible. > Crap happens. At the same time, the Bible teaches us > to appeal to God to "deliver us from evil." > If appealing to God doesn't deliver you from tsunamis, why bother? > > > [Roger Clough], [[email protected]] <javascript:> > 1/3/2013 > "Forever is a long time, especially near the end." - Woody Allen > > ----- Receiving the following content ----- > *From:* Craig Weinberg <javascript:> > *Receiver:* everything-list <javascript:> > *Time:* 2013-01-02, 16:06:10 > *Subject:* Re: The evolution of good and evil > > > > On Wednesday, January 2, 2013 3:58:45 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: >> >> On 1/2/2013 12:46 PM, Craig Weinberg wrote: >> >> >> >> On Wednesday, January 2, 2013 3:05:10 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: >>> >>> On 1/2/2013 11:13 AM, Craig Weinberg wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> On Wednesday, January 2, 2013 12:57:34 PM UTC-5, Bruno Marchal wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> On 02 Jan 2013, at 02:01, Craig Weinberg wrote: >>>> >>>> Chemotherapy Good or Evil? >>>> >>>> >>>> Better than nothing for most people having some disease. >>>> Worst than THC injection, plausibly for the same group of people. >>>> >>>> Here the Evil is only in the fact that minorities hides information >>>> from the majority, and this for the minority's interests. >>>> This leads to harmful consequences for the majority. >>>> >>>> Bruno >>>> >>> >>> I was thinking more of how chemotherapy is ambiguous as far as it being >>> something which can enhance life by inevitably diminishing it, but sure, >>> the politics of it is an issue also. >>> >>> If I had to get into a definition of good and evil I would go more >>> toward a political direction - senseless inequality of power tends to lead >>> to corruption and crime. Crime and corruption tends to lead to scapegoating >>> or a misuse of sense. The combination of corrupt actions and distortion of >>> truth to cover them up is probably as close to evil as I can think of. >>> >>> >>> Anything that causes great net suffering of people can be considered >>> evil: cancer, small pox, AIDS, tsunamis,... I see no reason to limit it to >>> social/political causes. >>> >> >> Do you think that viruses and tsunamis are well served by the label >> 'Evil'? >> >> >> ?? I'm not interested in serving them. >> > > Obviously. I meant 'Do you think that it serves us to label natural > phenomena outside of our control as Evil'? > > >> Values are human values and each person has his own - although there is >> a lot of consistency. I think society and individuals are well served by >> labeling some viruses and tsunamis as 'evil' because that means we should >> cooperate to mitigate them. And in fact we have: We eliminated small pox. >> We created a tsunami warning system. Actions I count as good. >> > > The action of mitigating damage is good, just as the intentional neglect > of such actions are evil, but the non-human cause of the damage is neither > good nor evil. If you get an electric shock, it does not mean that voltage > is evil. > > Craig > > >> Brent >> Unfortunately it is the prerogative of evil that to seem so is to >> be so. >> --- Bertrand Russell >> >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/everything-list/-/SzjN6yHj9NsJ. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<javascript:> > . > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] <javascript:>. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/everything-list/-/CVi-z-eL6skJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
