From: "Robert Seeberger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Reviews for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2004 19:39:38 -0600
----- Original Message ----- From: "Travis Edmunds" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 5:05 PM Subject: Re: Reviews for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"
> > > > >From: "Robert Seeberger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Subject: Re: Reviews for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" > >Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2004 18:52:09 -0600 > > > >Geez Travis, of course "Evil" is a man made concept. > > > >Are we not men? > > > >xponent > >It Lives Maru > >rob > > I didn't think it was that clear-cut for most people Robert. What, with some > of the comments tossed about. >
Lets clarify then. <G>
By religious reasoning, God made a standard for "men" to live by. In attempting to live up to that standard "men" identified gradiations between a sincere fulfillment of that agreed upon standard and outright defiance of the standard. The standard doesn't really ever change, but the gradiation between the standard and defiance of the standard does move with time and changing social views. Therefore, things that were once considered evil can become innocent, but there are some acts that will always considered evil, FREX the taking of innocent life or theft. To some extent the gradial areas far from the polar extremes are ambiguous, while the extremes are solidly set in stone. In this sense the standard and its opposite are universal, and the gradiant between the two are almost solely defined by human understanding of ones and ones enviroment.
(For a secular reasoning, replace "God" with "Society".)
That being said, it is important to understand that evil does not exist independent of sentience (Or is it sapience in this case?). Nor does "Good". Even in the religious sense, "good and evil" are constructs for thinking beings to structure their behavior around. With or without the existance of God, the concept of "good and evil" would still arise since there needs to be some sort of rules whenever 2 or more people are present. So, "good and evil" are not universal in the sense that gravitation is universal, independant of beings who are self aware, but since we do have numbers of self aware beings present , it is universal in every way that counts to us.
xponent Pebble Maru rob
Once again Robert, you have constructed a very relevant and poetic response. However relevant it may be though, it still buys into assumption sets. While your first paragraph, being quite anthropological, is relevant, one still needs some abstract concept of God. It's what it all hearkens back to, and I reject that.
And forgive me my presumptuousness, in stating the "man-made evil" in a way that declared me to be the sole receptacle of that knowledge. Or perhaps more accurately, that concept. You see I admit the possibility that evil is exactly what we are told it is; I just don't believe that. I'm quite the agnostic fellow you see, and I like to think, that I think about things to such an extent, that I have seen all angles as well as I can. And when people make certain comments, that don't seem based in rationality, I get to thinking that they themselves aren't seeing the big picture.
Perhaps I should give people more credit......
Then again........
-Travis
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