Hey, anyone out there worried about the fact that there is EVIL ( 
) in this world that was created by a good God? If so, worry no more–I have a link for you:
My goodness, the threads you start!!
These arguments often leave out the fact that we are thinking beings. Whether our beginnings were by chance or design, I don’t think any entity could have predicted how things would turn out. We’re perfectly capable of creating our own evil.
JessieK wrote:
My goodness, the threads you start!!
I never used to do this kind of stuff before my mind was taken over by a gang of Evil Monkeys. 
Bretton wrote:
We’re perfectly capable of creating our own evil.
Hmmm… I think that may have been JessieK’s point, too. 
He can’t help it, he has no choice. He was planted here for infiltration purposes.
It’s been good for him to be here, look what he’s learned…
The wheat among the tares, while growing up you have a hard time telling them apart. But also if you uproot the tares before the harvest, you could damage the wheat.
I’m concerned that there is evil.
The passover hagadah says: In every generation and evil person arises to wipe out the Jewish people.
And each generation such evil does rise with such an attempt.
Anyone who tries to wipe out another Nation or race is evil. They really never have a reason, they fabricate a lot of “reasons” from thin air.
Amen.
post deleted for the good of mankind.
“French Catholic Church Apologizes for Silence on Holocaust,” New York Times,
October 1, 1997
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/frholo.htm
It may seem that, by providing the link below to a 1998 review of Pierre Manent’s The City of Man, I’m already throwing this thread up for grabs. On the other hand, Daniel’s reflection does raise in its own way the problem of history and of man, and the convulsive controversies over these questions have certainly been central to much of the evil we’ve seen in the most recent centuries. The review, by the way, is by Russell Hittinger who, last I knew, was teaching somewhere down Walden’s way. I believe he specializes in ethics. I’ve admired some of his past work very much. Anyway, here’s the link to the review:
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft9812/reviews/hittinger.html
Interesting that the review starts out with this comment:
“To love democracy well, it is necessary to love it moderately.”
This is true, when you consider that a democracy in it purest form can become a lynch mob. Much of history is complete with charismatic individuals whether good or evil, getting the people worked up in reacting (many times without thinking). Today, it’s even worse and it’s on both politcal sides - they get people worked up, excited about something then worried people throw money at it as their response - I’m sick of it.
Another verision of this is, something goes wrong - someone is blamed for it by some politcal opportunist, the lynch mob goes after the person blamed without even rational thinking, etc. It’s happened throughout history.
So democracy as pure ruling of the masses without a due process of law can be more trouble than it’s worth. I think this is why our founding fathers put so many checks and balances in our system of government, although it’s still not perfect.
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Another “philosophical” discussion? Sorry, but the missus is waiting
Evil Schmeevil!
Every religous tradition worth its salt has at least one theodicy–an explanation of and, in most cases, a remedy (or remedies) for, the “problem of evil.” That Dr. Weicker apparently limits our options to some sort of groping and meaningless Darwinism on the one hand and some unspecified form of Christianity on the other seems somehow stingy in the context of the ‘Global Village.’ I mean, I think that is his point when he says:
“This is the full answer given by Christianity, an answer to the entire problem of evil. Of course, this answer can only and ultimately be grasped as the answer by the gift of faith. The most an essay such as this can do is remove the obstacles and prepare the ground for the seed to be dropped. But that, I hope, is no small thing.”
The passage falls short of denying that there are any other “full answers” out there. Nor does the assertion that “this answer can only and ultimately be grasped as the answer by the gift of faith” in itself deny that there are (a) other answers or (b) other paths to those other answers. Still, he does not have much room for the theodicies–the explanations for the apparent existence of evil in the world–offered by the world’s other traditions, the ‘truth’ or ‘falsity’ of which no one I know is in a position to demonstrate one way or the other.
However, he does manage a not-too-subtle ‘across the board’ dismissal of VIRTUALLY ALL THE ESTOERIC TRADITIONS OF THE ENTIRE EAST (FROM INDIA TO JAPAN!). Vedanta, Mahayana, Taoism & Zen would all seem to fall at once, since “we cannot embrace cosmic indifference. We are repelled by a heartless universe and cannot shake our conviction that evil really is a problem. The solution to the problem of evil cannot simply be the dissolution of the existence of evil.” (OUCH!) I guess the Buddha, Mahavira, Nagarjuna, Lao Tzu, Saigyo and Dogen, to name a few, need to get some of Mr. Wiker’s ‘faith.’ What arrogance. He may be repelled by a heartless universe. Me, I’m repelled by such a meagre grasp and reductionist dismissal of the insights of some of the world’s OTHER religious traditions.
I’m just a simple country boy and I’m no expert on EVIL, but every now and then I can sense when something is WRONG. There’s something wrong in that article, I just can’t put my finger on it. Likewise, you don’t have to have a doctorate in religion (or anything else, for that matter) to grasp that something is WRONG when the leadership of a country fails to provide to its people anything more than mud with which to build their homes while, at the same time, pursuing one of the most aggressive and clandestine nuclear weapons programs in the Middle East. I will not get into the issue of whether the theocratic regimes of certain Middle Eastern countries are EVIL. But who could witness this devastation and not sense that something is WRONG?
Me, I avoid the big questions–I try to accept those things that I can’t change. But every now and then, I need to rail against one ingredient in the current crazy stew that is the Middle East–the needless medivealization and pointless suffering of so many people. Talking about evil as an abstract concept or as some sort of impetus to feel the rapture leaves me cold.
My very best wishes to the entire Chiff & Fipple Community for the year and years to come,
Tom Dowling
See also Jeffery Burton Russell’s excellent six volume work on the personification of evil throughout history.
“care about evil?”???
Not particularly. That’s big picture BS. I have plenty to worry about between government, illness, accident, weather, and most of all human stupidity to go worrying about abstracts. I leave that to the various theologies’ shamans and ivory tower types.
Life would be boring and even meaningless without evil.
I spent years doing neighborhood council work (crime watch, etc. etc) as well as debating various social welfare schemes to protect people from their own self-destructive tendencies.
In a moment of, perhaps, clarity, I wondered: what would it be like if everyone had decent self-esteem, went home to their kids, did not cheat on their spouses, didn’t spray paint grafitti, didn’t buy porn, etc. etc. etc.?
In one sense, its like the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. But then I thought: it just wouldn’t be life in any sense that I know it. I guess we would be bored to tears, never feel the need to do good and ennobling works etc etc. So much of what we do thrives on the the tensions of fear and dysfunction to motivate us away from them.
I know other posts on this thread have tried to address this in much more verbose terms (six volumes!!), but I am not sure whether its of any value to complicate it. Though it gives some folk something to read…
Without this life, there is no need for afterlife. For those who claim to need no afterlife, they have not managed to show me that they are capable of making this life worth living through their realized ideals. I keep witnessing the diminishing of sense of purpose of the secular humanists as they hit their forties, especially if they chose not to have children. I guess it’s called Existential Frustration. I have frustrations, but not that one. Its a Boomer thang, so youngsters forgive me.
Sorry – coming in late for this thread.
So . . . the gist of the article, as I understood it, is that Evil is a necessary evil. 
Or is it, evil is a necessary Evil? Oy vey! I’m getting a headache!
– Dan M.
Genesis 3:22 “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.”
I guess we weren’t first…
Ouch – don’t want to make this too heavy a discussion . . .
In the ancient Hebraic (Semetic?) mindset, monotheism encompassed both good and evil. The problem of evil, set in the simple logical form of if this, than this, not this, etc., was not a problem prior to the inter testimental period.
What this verse is looking at is a violation of the first commandment.
(Ducks and runs) 
– Dan M.