Science Negates All of Abrahamic Religions

@moonbus said
We are in complete agreement on that score. Let's just be clear who the culprit is: it's people. An imaginary God-figure kills no one.

So you are saying all the moral evil in the world are all people, they are the root cause?

@kellyjay said
So you are saying all the moral evil in the world are all people, they are the root cause?

We had a discussion about the nature of evil in another thread. I see no reason to rehash it here.

@moonbus said
We had a discussion about the nature of evil in another thread. I see no reason to rehash it here.

Well if it is something you don’t acknowledge and it is independently true without your understanding, you are blind to it in you and all others.

@kellyjay said
You don't make much sense then, you talk about us being a mixed bag but you only acknowledge half the bag. No one is perfect, you know, that's the point.

Let's not dilute the meaning of the word "evil" for ideological reasons, as you are doing.

I think this a more reasonable real-world definition which can be a basis for discussing this topic.

"Evil" is egregious immorality (as already defined in numerous previous discussions, involving doing harm, deceiving, and coercing) and gratuitous, sociopathic action that is gravely detrimental or damaging to others, and which stems from an abject lack or even absence of empathy and compassion.

@kellyjay said
Well if it is something you don’t acknowledge and it is independently true without your understanding, you are blind to it in you and all others.

You are responding to an imaginary interlocutor. You attribute to me views I do not hold.

@moonbus said
We are in complete agreement on that score. Let's just be clear who the culprit is: it's people. An imaginary God-figure kills no one.

Indeed. People kill people in the name of imaginary gods.

@kellyjay said
You don't make much sense then, you talk about us being a mixed bag but you only acknowledge half the bag. No one is perfect, you know, that's the point.

Falling short of perfect doesn't render us evil. You are free to believe it does, but you are wrong, depressingly so.

I'd go further and say you do humanity a huge disservice and frequently betray what it means to be human and what it took for us as a species to get here.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Falling short of perfect doesn't render us evil. You are free to believe it does, but you are wrong, depressingly so.

I'd go further and say you do humanity a huge disservice and frequently betray what it means to be human and what it took for us as a species to get here.

what it took for us as a species to get here.

"Don't hang back with the brutes!" -- Tennessee Williams, Streetcar Named Desire

What I find fascinating about the OT: it preserves the cultural memory of a pre-historic time when humanity (in the MiddleEast anyway) was only slightly civilized. The polity in Egypt, Persia, and the Levant at the time of the Exodus was dominated by the Alpha Male model of authority, who basically did whatever he could get away with; the concept of the Rule of Law (or Rechtsstaat, in German) was inchoate. Unlike the Greeks, who proposed a democratic authority model to replace the Alpha Male model of civic authority, the Hebrews of the OT proposed to oppose the human Alpha Male authority model by a Superhuman Alpha Male model of authority.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Falling short of perfect doesn't render us evil. You are free to believe it does, but you are wrong, depressingly so.

I'd go further and say you do humanity a huge disservice and frequently betray what it means to be human and what it took for us as a species to get here.

You guys cannot even see evil for what it is. What does it mean to be human, what do humans do, we can look at the track record, does that need to be spelled out to you? There is nothing that sets you apart from any of the ones that do these really horrible things, you think you are better than the rest, you don't do some of these bad evil things in the same frequency or as nearly as bad, the bad things you do are not really that bad? On top of that you are always trying to find a way to tear down God, what would you have shouted when Jesus was on trial?

@kellyjay said
You guys cannot even see evil for what it is. What does it mean to be human, what do humans do, we can look at the track record, does that need to be spelled out to you? There is nothing that sets you apart from any of the ones that do these really horrible things, you think you are better than the rest, you don't do some of these bad evil things in the same frequency or a ...[text shortened]... e always trying to find a way to tear down God, what would you have shouted when Jesus was on trial?

@kellyjay: "B... bu... but, pople are evil!

@AverageJoe: "B... bu... but, Hunter's laptop!

I really don't know which of you is more vapid.

what would you have shouted when Jesus was on trial?

I would not have shouted anything. Pilate found no fault in him (John 18:38). It was an angry Jewish mob which called for his execution.

@moonbus said
@kellyjay: "B... bu... but, pople are evil!

@AverageJoe: "B... bu... but, Hunter's laptop!

I really don't know which of you is more vapid.

what would you have shouted when Jesus was on trial?

I would not have shouted anything. Pilate found no fault in him (John 18:38). It was an angry Jewish mob which called for his execution.

You can look at what people do to each other and claim “not me” if you like when it comes to the evil things we do to one another. If you look at all the things we do to one another and say I do not believe in evil, you are accepting all the things we do to one another as normal, after all, no one is perfect.

Not sure why you mention Hunter’s laptop, are you now attempting to change the subject to politics, that to isn’t science or even spiritual. There is a distinction between being good and evil or not. Please

@kellyjay said
You guys cannot even see evil for what it is.

You are a guy who cannot bring himself to discuss the definition of "evil".