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> It’s powerful not because it’s correct – nobody literally thinks an ancient Carthaginian demon causes everything However an absolute majority of human beings

by User23 4y ago

> It’s powerful not because it’s correct – nobody literally thinks an ancient Carthaginian demon causes everything However an absolute majority of human beings do believe evil is literally spiritually personified. This is of course part of the appeal of strict materialism: once you accept that there are purely spiritual beings that can have an effect on the visible world, it's pretty much an inescapable conclusion that at least some of the evil we see is their work. One can't deny their possibility or even probability without denying anything non-material. Of course at that point you pretty much lose the ability to talk about evil in any meaningful way. Morality becomes nothing more than an expressed personal preference and like any other personal preference you have no grounds for denying others' right to disagree. You can appeal to some vague concept of "harm" or "rights," but others can just disagree that harm is wrong or that rights must be respected.

pfortuny 4y ago
I do not agree on the personification of evil (especially among Christians, who are whom I know). They believe there are persons who chose evil (the devil and his demons) but they are not the personification of evil. As persons, their existence is somehow “sacred” and in some sense “good”. This is Aquinas’ explanation which I deem satisfactory for the time being. One can commit oneself to evil but one cannot become “evil”. As a consequence, even the devil deserves the benefit of the doubt, as Thomas More said. A human being, so much more.
dustingetz 4y ago
gently disagree and propose that in the same way that they don’t hear you, you aren’t hearing them
jancsika 4y ago
> it's pretty much an inescapable conclusion that at least some of the evil we see is their work. It's not inescapable, but it's certainly the first conclusion to jump to. :) But even then, it's been in a kind of god-of-the-gaps scramble for some time. Even for the families who go around talking about how "blessed" everyone is, there's usually a mom or somebody in there who read and understood one of a thousand child-rearing psychology books. "We're so blessed to have had great pre-K instructors in this community which we researched while looking for communities with decent schools" is a far cry from attributing most of the human condition to spiritual hijinks.
JPws_Prntr_Fngr 4y ago
> Morality becomes nothing more than an expressed personal preference and like any other personal preference you have no grounds for denying others' right to disagree. Religious faith makes no difference here. When a radical islamic meets a protestant, all they can do is assert their preferences against each other, until they finally resort to "denying others' right to disagree" - aka coercion.

by User23 4y ago

pfortuny 4y ago

I do not agree on the personification of evil (especially among Christians, who are whom I know). They believe there are persons who chose evil (the devil and his demons) but they are not the personification of evil. As persons, their existence is somehow “sacred” and in some sense “good”. This is Aquinas’ explanation which I deem satisfactory for the time being. One can commit oneself to evil but one cannot become “evil”. As a consequence, even the devil deserves the benefit of the doubt, as Thomas More said. A human being, so much more.

dustingetz 4y ago

gently disagree and propose that in the same way that they don’t hear you, you aren’t hearing them

jancsika 4y ago

> it's pretty much an inescapable conclusion that at least some of the evil we see is their work. It's not inescapable, but it's certainly the first conclusion to jump to. :) But even then, it's been in a kind of god-of-the-gaps scramble for some time. Even for the families who go around talking about how "blessed" everyone is, there's usually a mom or somebody in there who read and understood one of a thousand child-rearing psychology books. "We're so blessed to have had great pre-K instructors in this community which we researched while looking for communities with decent schools" is a far cry from attributing most of the human condition to spiritual hijinks.

JPws_Prntr_Fngr 4y ago

> Morality becomes nothing more than an expressed personal preference and like any other personal preference you have no grounds for denying others' right to disagree. Religious faith makes no difference here. When a radical islamic meets a protestant, all they can do is assert their preferences against each other, until they finally resort to "denying others' right to disagree" - aka coercion.