(February 26, 2015 at 4:04 pm)The Reality Salesman Wrote: You're on a valid path with your ultimate form of evil, you should tease that out and see where it goes. It's an equally valid concept worth considering as it seems that in order to feel that something g is good, you kinda need a scale, huh? So without bad, what meaning could good have? I just think the word "evil" muddies up the water because it usually carries a supernatural connotation. Fun talk though, enjoy the link!

Well, could we not also understand "evil" to mean the absence of goodness rather than a positive reality of "evil-ness"? In an imperfectly analogous way: we speak about light and darkness. Darkness isn't a positive reality in itself. The word merely signifies the absence of a positive reality, i.e. light.

The "lowest" "amount" of goodness would actually be nothing, i.e. the absence of being. The highest amount of goodness would be complete/full/fulfilled being. A good person would be, therefore, synonymous with a person who lives the most completely human, i.e. perfect <=> lacking nothing proper to humanity, fullness of humanity, fulfilled humanity, etc. life (which begs further questions about that sort of life). An evil person would therefore be synonymous with a person who lives a life which lacks a significant amount of those things that would fulfill a human's being.

I think it is time to leave the concept of positive evil behind us.

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(February 26, 2015 at 1:28 pm)Parkers Tan Wrote:

(February 25, 2015 at 3:17 pm)Ignorant Wrote: Does every person agree about how they think other people should act towards them?

I think people of sound mind do. Do you want to be kicked in the face? No? Then don't do it to me.

What if you ask that question to a person and he says "yes, I want to be kicked in the face" instead of "no"? Is he just a statistical outlier . . . or is he wrong about what is good for him?

Do you kick him in the face? Do you let him kick you in the face? How do you resolve the conflicts with the people whose minds you consider "not sound"? I am authentically curious.

@The Reality Salesman, that is a good point. I have a gut feeling as I read @Ignorant's definition and conditional deductions that there are a lot of missing steps and undefined terms. The definition of good seems unnecessarily complicated by claiming that "goods" are for the sake of other "goods". I assume this derives from a desire to show that all natural processes drive toward "goodness itself" which we arbitrarily name "God". (Why not "pasticholony" instead of "God"?)

In the Catholic Encyclopedia article on "good", they define "evil" to be the absence of "good". I imagine this is a way to thwart any argument that this type of definition could be restated with "evil" replacing "good"? God cannot be "evilness itself", because "evilness" isn't anything?

@Ignorant, is your definition the same as Plato's definition and the definition in the Catholic Encyclopedia? I think your definition assumes a background in philosophy, and this is why it seems so nebulous to me. (I don't know how to criticize your definition, because I'm not sure exactly what you mean due to my lack of background knowledge.)

(February 25, 2015 at 9:32 pm)Beccs Wrote: Volunteered over Christmas in Sierra Leone to help combat ebola.

God gives everyone a conscience. Glad to to hear that you listened to the soft still voice and had the ability to act upon it. All that is left for you to do now is recognize the source of the voice and thank it.

(February 26, 2015 at 9:27 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:

(February 25, 2015 at 9:32 pm)Beccs Wrote: Volunteered over Christmas in Sierra Leone to help combat ebola.

God gives everyone a conscience. Glad to to hear that you listened to the soft still voice and had the ability to act upon it. All that is left for you to do now is recognize the source of the voice and thank it.

These are just empty claims and you know it.

Thankfully many religious people manage to be decent people DESPITE their religions.

(February 26, 2015 at 9:27 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:

(February 25, 2015 at 9:32 pm)Beccs Wrote: Volunteered over Christmas in Sierra Leone to help combat ebola.

God gives everyone a conscience. Glad to to hear that you listened to the soft still voice and had the ability to act upon it. All that is left for you to do now is recognize the source of the voice and thank it.

My god given conscience tells me the bible is bullcrap. I guess he screwed up. Then of course there are the complete sociopaths who don't have empathy by definition.

(February 26, 2015 at 2:04 am)Godschild Wrote:

(February 25, 2015 at 10:31 pm)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote: Just calling them as I see them. If you don't like your willful ignorance being called out, do something to fix it.

You're blind as a bat.

You calling someone blind would be funny if it weren't so sad.

You consistently make baseless assertions with absolutely no evidence to back them up while denying established science with plenty of supporting evidence.

Buy a clue GC.

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(February 26, 2015 at 1:43 pm)Esquilax Wrote: Positive claims entail the burden of proof, and "the geologic column does not exist," is a positive claim. Are you seriously telling me you've been here for as long as you have and you don't understand such a basic concept of argumentation?

You underestimate the power of willful ignorance and intellectual dishonesty. Both are strong with this one.

(February 26, 2015 at 9:27 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: God gives everyone a conscience. Glad to to hear that you listened to the soft still voice and had the ability to act upon it. All that is left for you to do now is recognize the source of the voice and thank it.

yeahhhhh no... were just electrical synapsis and grey matter buddy that is pretty much the human brain and consciousness in a nutshell.