what is good and evil?

Cino said:
..How to reconcile the benevolence with the omnipotence, is what people struggle with. It's a tough one, especially when grieving over the loss of a loved one.
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Back to the same old question, eh .. WHY?
Why have we been given life? Why do we have to be "tested"?
Why .. why .. why? :)
 
muhammad_isa said:
Back to the same old question, eh .. WHY?
Why have we been given life? Why do we have to be "tested"?
Why .. why .. why? :)
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My opinion is, that it is to large parts a complicated "blame game" our psyches play. We like to pass the buck when it comes to blame, and attributing misfortune to some external agency, along with the blame for it, goes a long way to redeeming those parts of our selves that confuse taking responsibility with taking blame.
 
Truthseeker9 said:
I agree that's it the price of the freedom. God allows bad things to happen to good people or causes them to happen to test the character of the person and to help us to grow in character and spirituality.
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It's not a case of 'God allowing' as if God decides who does what to whom and when.

Its the nature of Nature. We keep shifting these things onto God, when really it's just the way contingency works.

It's a pretty poor God, imho, who has to inflict bad things in order that good might come of it.

Personally I think this idea is a sentimentalism, a means of justification and an answer to the question 'why'.

And, I've just seen Cino offered a better answer ...
 
Why do people find comfort in misery? And why must we punish ourselves when the world does a very good job for us? True there is suffering all around us, however, a great deal of suffering is self-imposed or uneducated to the fact it is self who chooses to suffer.
 
Truthseeker9 said:
Sorry, I'm having trouble following you.
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A willful rebellion against the light. Lucifer, the fallen one. To be evil reqiires a deliberate intention against the good?
 
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If God is all and God is good, then the lack of God would indeed be the lack of good.

But I think evil may require deliberate intention somehow, to 'kill' the good? I don't know. It's just speculation.

"Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do" Wiser heads than mine have debated it for millennia?

The point is imo that true polar opposites, like fire and water, or electron/proton do not explain light and darkness -- where darkness is not the opposite of light but just the lack of light.

But nor do darkness and light explain good and evil?

EDIT
In criminal court, after considering mitigating circumstances, a judge every now and again will say to the accused: You are purely evil.
 
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RJM Corbet said:
..In criminal court, after considering mitigating circumstances, a judge every now and again will say to the accused: You are purely evil.
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Wish for others what you wish for yourself.
I suppose it could be argued that some people don't care if they are robbed or assaulted,
but I find that dubious .. unless they are mad, of course.
There is a fine line between evil and madness, I suppose..
 
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Beautiful said:
Very wise my friend, @KnowSelf, this is called Equanimity and is the highest virtue both in Judaism and Christianity, and in Hindiusm and Buddhism, and most other
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Although equanimity is a virtue in Judaism and some, like the Baal Shem Tova, emphasize it more than others, it is not the highest virtue in Judaism.

Curious how you arrived at that determination.
 
Beautiful said:
So it is a virtue, but not the highest virtue? Ok haha
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Neither, I'm afraid, is it the highest virtue in Christianity.

Temperance was regarded as one of the cardinal virtues in the ancient Greek world, and is universally regarded as a virtue per se. In Christian theology they are called the 'moral virtues' and can be acquired by practice and habit.

The Theological Virtues — Faith (pistis), Hope (elpis) and Charity (agape) (cf 1 Corinthians 13:13) — in the Christian Tradition are the highest virtues, and highest of all is 'Charity' although the Greek term is agape which is a term almost unique to the New Testament and speaks of 'love' but in a way significantly different from 'eros' which defined most if not all 'mystery religions'.
 
Purity is not necessarily a precursor to what is good, pure evil also exists
 
RJM Corbet said:
If God is all and God is good, then the lack of God would indeed be the lack of good.

But I think evil may require deliberate intention somehow, to 'kill' the good? I don't know. It's just speculation.
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Doesn't good also require intent?
 
wil said:
Never met those people.

I've met people who don't believe.

I've met people who hate what religion has done to people.

I've met people disappointed in the G!d they believe in.

I've not met anyone that hates G!d, maybe others understandings of G!d.
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Well, I hated God for a while until I realised I my theism had no basis, ( a born-again- atheist? :>) ).

Nowadays, I don't hate anyone, but can unashamedly become angry at certain situations created by people.
 
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