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'If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. B

'If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name doesn’t change, and to that name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil. Socrates taught us: “Know thyself.” Confronted by the pit into which we are about to toss those who have done us harm, we halt, stricken dumb: it is after all only because of the way things worked out that they were the executioners and we weren’t. From good to evil is one quaver, says the proverb. And correspondingly, from evil to good.' --Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

bonoboTP 6y ago
While it is true that we all have aspects of each in us and depending on time and place one or the other may be more prominent, there is large variation among people regarding temperament and personality. It's just factually not true and dangerous to believe that everyone is the same in this regard. At the same time, we must never think we are above judgment ourselves. All of us need to count with the possibility of being on the evil end sometimes.
nefitty 6y ago
I don’t believe in free will. It has been a much different experience than shedding my belief in God. When I was young I used to “sense” someone always watching me, to the point of feeling shame in natural situations like bathing. One day the feeling just faded, and it was a palpable change in my perception of life. With the absence of free will, that intuition has been extremely difficult for me to hold onto. It is fleeting, even after hundreds of pages of books reiterating the fact. To approximate the intuition, when I see someone in a morally questionable situation or experiencing sheer bad luck, I try to remember to tell myself “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”
- cutemonster 6y ago
  > I used to “sense” someone always watching me, How old were you then? And when that feeling disappeared? I'm guessing one or both of your parents were religious? > I don’t believe in free will When you came to that conclusion, how did that affect how you look at life and maybe any meaning with life? Did it make you sadder or happier? You believe the universe is deterministic somehow? Or possibly with some randomness

bonoboTP 6y ago

While it is true that we all have aspects of each in us and depending on time and place one or the other may be more prominent, there is large variation among people regarding temperament and personality. It's just factually not true and dangerous to believe that everyone is the same in this regard. At the same time, we must never think we are above judgment ourselves. All of us need to count with the possibility of being on the evil end sometimes.

nefitty 6y ago

I don’t believe in free will. It has been a much different experience than shedding my belief in God. When I was young I used to “sense” someone always watching me, to the point of feeling shame in natural situations like bathing. One day the feeling just faded, and it was a palpable change in my perception of life. With the absence of free will, that intuition has been extremely difficult for me to hold onto. It is fleeting, even after hundreds of pages of books reiterating the fact. To approximate the intuition, when I see someone in a morally questionable situation or experiencing sheer bad luck, I try to remember to tell myself “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

cutemonster 6y ago
> I used to “sense” someone always watching me, How old were you then? And when that feeling disappeared? I'm guessing one or both of your parents were religious? > I don’t believe in free will When you came to that conclusion, how did that affect how you look at life and maybe any meaning with life? Did it make you sadder or happier? You believe the universe is deterministic somehow? Or possibly with some randomness