The logical consequences of omnipotence

[Celi]

You neglected to actually draw a link between not believing the world is perfect and being 'cruel and hurt'.

I thought it was obvious. If you accept that injustice happens, then you live by that. You have less reason to be just yourself, because that would to be to put yourself at a disadvantage in how you understand the world to operate. Do you see how this would be different if you understood there to be complete justice? How a person rationalising justice prevailing might have a totally different outlook to yourself?

Oh, I get it. You're saying that someone with belief in absolute justice is more motivated to do good things and avoid doing bad things. I suppose I can understand that.

But people do have an ingrained sense of morality. Like I mentioned a few pages back, people don't need the promise of Heaven or the threat of Hell to follow their own morals, and while I know you're not talking about the afterlife specifically here, it still applies. You say that I 'have less reason to just be [my]self' because that would put [my]self at a disadvantage in how [I] understand the world to operate.' You assume that a lack of belief in absolute justice leads necessarily to cynicism, which isn't true. I recognize that, in the chaotic universe I live in, I could ignore morality altogether, which would often be to my material advantage. But I don't want to. Through reason and my ingrained sense of morality, I can follow my own morals. Same goes for any sane person.

In fact, I'd argue that if either of us is cynical, it's you--you assume that in a chaotic universe, people would have no reason not to be complete asses to each other all the time. I have more faith (heh, not that kind of faith, you know what I mean) in humanity.