I beg to differ Sir Slip. Vicious, heavy, flagitious, heinous, iniquitous, irreclaimable, irredeemable, unredeemable, unreformable, nefarious, villainous, peccable, peccant, obscene, vile, reprehensible, extremely wicked, deeply criminal, horrible, wicked ... Each of these terms are easily recognizable by any and all of us and determine to one degree or another the degree of badness an act or person has achieved all on their own.
Terms such as evil, sinful, ungodly, of the devil, satan, malefic, having or exerting a malignant influence, malevolent stars, a malefic force and a slew of others imply a degree of badness lower than can be imagined and strongly implies the existence of a supreme being and a supreme villian of which we are mere pawns in need of forgiveness and redemption. It just seems to me that the human species has labored long enough under the yoke of guilt and worthlessness that our religions heap upon us. For those who counter with the rapture that allegedly captures some of the faithful, remember that it takes blind belief and faith in a supreme being in order to achieve that rapturous state of bliss. I'm sorry but did someone once say that ignorance is also bliss? We do not need a supreme being to tell us what is good and bad. We can figure it out on our own if for no other reason than that we're so good at it -- being bad that is. So let's take Christ, Muhammad, Buddha, Krishna, and all the other manifestations and put them in their proper place in the well-illuminated handsomely decorated corner display hutch of ancient worships and begin to deal with things on an even playing ground. Anyone who brings in god or any of it's minions is automatically disqualified. There is only one rule that is needed. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The worse someone does you the badder they are and vice versa. On Jun 26, 7:09 am, Slip Disc <[email protected]> wrote: > Exactly, the degrees of which something is good or bad, happy or sad > etc. There are other words that describe these degrees. A person > who wins lotto might not just be happy but elated, ecstatic or > exhilarated. So what word describes, in your world, the worst of the > bad? Is there such a thing as an evil deed that is not religiously > affiliated? Maybe I've been disassociated with religious context for > so long I don't get the religious slant. I tend to put more religious > emphasis on words like diabolic or satanic. Evil to me is worst than > wickedness. I do agree that religions have instituted much > ecclesiastical subjugation throughout history which by their very > nature could be interpreted as evil (as they define it), however I > wouldn't assign the word evil exclusively to religious entities in our > time. It's just another word for me. > > On Jun 25, 6:53 pm, gruff <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Just as nothing is black and white, nothing is pure good or pure bad. > > It's always a matter of degree, I think. My personal views on > > religion neither interfere with my objective perceptions of relgion > > nor mitigate the degree of oppressive control most religions have > > exercised through the delicate art of evil. (with nods to Rigsey.) > > > On Jun 25, 3:17 pm, Slip Disc <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Sounds good on the surface, Gruff, but what about the extremes of > > > bad? Do we view heinous crimes as just bad behavior? Perhaps your > > > perception of evil is maligned by personal views towards religion. > > > Does evil only have a religious connotation? > > > > On Jun 25, 4:28 pm, gruff <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Evil is a religious term of art designed to put the fear of god into > > > > you by classifying some human behavior as bad and other, far worse, > > > > evil, because you only suffer temporarily for being bad but if you're > > > > evil you go straight to hell and burn for all eternity. I prefer to > > > > use the terms good and bad to classify human behavior. Good and bad > > > > do not carry the baggage of religion and thus make for a more perfect > > > > balance of judgment. > > > > > On Jun 24, 1:51 am, Lee <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > A simple question, or is it? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. 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/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
