I must point out that you’re asking a very clever question here… I doubt you’re gonna get enlightened answers.
May I compliment you on your avatar? Now that I came across it I might need to change mine LOL (I’ll work on that)
Regarding the title of your thread do you really want to know how deep the rabbit hole goes?
Brendon Urie.. King For A Couple Of Days Age: 36 Gender: Female Posts: 2394
April 22nd, 2007 at 10:11pm
People are the root of all evil.
Man created the laws of religion.
Religion is just an abstract creation.
There's nothing wrong with repeating common sense.
Hiding behind the false sense of security of the status quo supported by the majority won't spare you the awkwardness that perhaps you lack personal opinions, and you might be full of "common" and little sense. Maybe you should read a paper written by a great mind entitled precisely: Common Sense.
Brendon Urie.. King For A Couple Of Days Age: 36 Gender: Female Posts: 2394
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:09am
PentatonicA:
druscilla; in rags:
There's nothing wrong with repeating common sense.
Hiding behind the false sense of security of the status quo supported by the majority won't spare you the awkwardness that perhaps you lack personal opinions, and you might be full of "common" and little sense. Maybe you should read a paper written by a great mind entitled precisely: Common Sense.
My personal opinion is that you're being a smartass.
I also don't believe religion is the root of all evil.
People are.
Religion is not evil in itself.
"There is no good or bad, but thinking makes it so." - Shakespeare
Basically, we fuck everything up.
My personal opinion is that you're being a smartass.
Aren't you the insightful one?
druscilla; in rags:
I also don't believe religion is the root of all evil.
People are.
Religion is not evil in itself.
"There is no good or bad, but thinking makes it so." - Shakespeare
Basically, we fuck everything up.
Isn't it empowering to think that ultimately we got control over things? That we're so utterly important that there's very little that isn't caused by us, created by us, destroyed by us, created for us and us alone and our leisure?
Evil doesn't exist is just people that decides to commit evil acts. Isn't that a reassuring notion? A wrong one, but reassuring...
How much panic would cause on people to come to the realization that most things around them are completely and totally out of their control. And I'm not talking only individually but also to a collective level.
There is such a thing as True "Good", and there is "bad". In this universe more specifically this planet, the majority is "bad". The majority of things/beings/factors/situations (etc) that mounts up to form this planet are bad and yeah humans are part of the problem, but they are certainly not the cause of it. They actively participate on it but they aren't the "root" of it.
Brendon Urie.. King For A Couple Of Days Age: 36 Gender: Female Posts: 2394
April 23rd, 2007 at 01:00am
PentatonicA:
druscilla; in rags:
My personal opinion is that you're being a smartass.
Aren't you the insightful one?
druscilla; in rags:
I also don't believe religion is the root of all evil.
People are.
Religion is not evil in itself.
"There is no good or bad, but thinking makes it so." - Shakespeare
Basically, we fuck everything up.
Isn't it empowering to think that ultimately we got control over things? That we're so utterly important that there's very little that isn't caused by us, created by us, destroyed by us, created for us and us alone and our leisure?
Evil doesn't exist is just people that decides to commit evil acts. Isn't that a reassuring notion? A wrong one, but reassuring...
How much panic would cause on people to come to the realization that most things around them are completely and totally out of their control. And I'm not talking only individually but also to a collective level.
There is such a thing as True "Good", and there is "bad". In this universe more specifically this planet, the majority is "bad". The majority of things/beings/factors/situations (etc) that mounts up to form this planet are bad and yeah humans are part of the problem, but they are certainly not the cause of it. They actively participate on it but they aren't the "root" of it.
Well then please, in all your genius and wisdom, explain the "root" of evil that you are so cleverly dodging.
lyrical_mess Falling In Love With The Board Age: 32 Gender: Female Posts: 5278
April 25th, 2007 at 02:55am
I think we've established that mankind is the root of evil and its own self-destruction and blah blah blah we suck. But I've been doing some speculation. What exactly led us to take something meant for our own good and toy with it, manipulate it, and turn it into something that falsely justified running around with burning torches calling it holy wars?
I keep getting this image of a little kid given a bowl of musy peas and the kid just keeps flinging it at his mom. The peas were so he'd eat them and be smart and strong. But flinging them around and painting mommy's face green is just so much more fun. Eating them is boring.
So did we bend our way around the good of religion because being good people was just too dull? At what point did we become so power-hungry that we screwed it all up?
Anji Basket Case Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 15914
April 25th, 2007 at 06:36am
lyrical_mess:
I think we've established that mankind is the root of evil and its own self-destruction and blah blah blah we suck. But I've been doing some speculation. What exactly led us to take something meant for our own good and toy with it, manipulate it, and turn it into something that falsely justified running around with burning torches calling it holy wars?
I keep getting this image of a little kid given a bowl of musy peas and the kid just keeps flinging it at his mom. The peas were so he'd eat them and be smart and strong. But flinging them around and painting mommy's face green is just so much more fun. Eating them is boring.
So did we bend our way around the good of religion because being good people was just too dull? At what point did we become so power-hungry that we screwed it all up?
We developed bigger brains than any other animal in relation to our bodies.
Within every clan of animals, or pack, or pride, a system of hierarchy develops. There is an alpha male and an alpha female. And omega males and omega females. This happens purely because of survival of the fittest and is the key major player in evolution. Every and any group of species living together contains these individuals, it's part of the community.
Ancient humans too were as such, but only so much as a survival instinct was concerned. But then, thousands and thousands of years ago, the same process of evolution which kept us living on moderation only for our survival would result in our supreme ruling of the world. One of our ansectors develops a weaker jaw than the rest of his species due to a simple mutation of his genes. The result is that he can't chew the tough, raw meat as well as his fellow being, but he is the most brilliant of them all. Since the jaw muscles which would usually hold the bottom jaw closer to the skull has freed a little, there is less presure on his brain, allowing it to grow bigger than normal. His children as well have this mutation, they are just as smart, with their big brains. So on so forth, big brained beings are taking over the world. And throught evolution, after each generation learns more and more about the world, knowledge is passed on. Humans are getting smarter.
With the same system of hierarchy that I talked about before, the fittest become the smartest and now it is the survival of the smartest. The alpha male learns to manipulate everyone into liking him, loving him, doing things for him, worshiping him. He uses his brains to teach his juniors. Though very crude, explainations are offered for everything. Lightening is magic fairies, fire is the dangerous but useful tool, rain is mystical water falling from the big pouffy stuff in the sky.
After many more thousands of years, the use of magic to describe the events of nature are changed into the belief of a higher being controlling events. Thus, religion is born. Things happen, blah blah blah, now here we are.
The little kid is just exploiting the power he has over himself and his mother. He doesn't have to eat whatever his mother puts in front of him, and he can make his mother do whatever. Or maybe he also wants to prove that he is powerful and that he can take care of himself. To make other's do what you don't want to do, exploiting them as well, to give himself power.
In this day and age, man has created so many machines, and jobs to do what we don't want to do or can't do. For exapmle, television is either a means of information or entertainment. We watch television to amuse ourselves or keep us informed, because we have no other way or don't want to do something to amuse ourselves, or we're just too lazy to buy a paper. It does that for us, because we are the lazy generation and we have learned that our power over the remote can control how entertained we are at a time.
We have learned the idea of freedom, and learned how to relax and have fun. This is something few other animals have learned. Most animals are forced to stay constantly alter for survival reasons, like how we used to. But not anymore. Throwing mushy peas is just an example of that.
So really, it's God's fault, if you believe in Him, that we've become all power greedy. Or perhaps Satan's...
Anji Basket Case Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 15914
April 25th, 2007 at 06:38am
That was all just a theory. The end bit.
lyrical_mess Falling In Love With The Board Age: 32 Gender: Female Posts: 5278
April 25th, 2007 at 06:47am
Technically, if Satan exists (I don't believe he does), it's God's own creation. Because God is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, all-everythinging and He's so cool yadda yadda. If He has that power, he can stop Satan. Satan is God. Or maybe we're Satan.
Anyway, Indian languages have something called prakruti and vikruti. Prakruti is the proper word. The word for God is "daivam". Over time, it becomes warped and this is called vikruti. Often it's supposed to mean the same thing as the prakruti form. But "daivam" became "daiyam" and the latter is the word for demons. Just a thought.
The Doctor Falling In Love With The Board Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 8786
April 25th, 2007 at 01:27pm
Evil is a need, not a thing to be erased.
If there was no evil, then there would be no definition for good, meaning neithere would exist.
Seeing as we're pondering the root of evil, how about this...
Prior to religion (or in the absense of religion), things like sex before marriage etc. were not seen as evil. Enter religion. All of a sudden these acts are considered sinful and disgusting.
So, religion may actually create 'evils' to battle against?
I mean, if there was no evil in the world, there would be no point of there being a good (i.e. God)
Whatever concept of evil humans have put forward throughout the ages, the fact remains that there is no complete, absolute explanation of evil. This is partly because evil, like the concept of God, is not something humans can properly explain, especially under the constraint of using words as their means of expression.
The most dangerous misconception about evil is that It is believed to be necessary in order to balance “Good“. This misconception actually justifies evil and is a deadly trap. It locks people into tolerating, and, worse still, embracing evil, thus giving evil the same glory and importance as Good. If that be the case, there would be no need to fight evil, there would be no need to counteract evil, and there would be no need to work on oneself towards purity and Goodness. If evil were necessary to balance Good, then one's house should be open indiscriminately to marauders as well as friends at all times.
Many people believe that love conquers all, but Love does NOT conquer all in this realm we inhabit mainly controlled by evil. In fact, Love cannot conquer evil in this evil creation. Love can only appear to conquer evil in this evil realm because evil surreptitiously manipulates, suffocates, exploits and abuses True Love for Its own selfish purposes. It has often been observed that when Love no longer serves evil's purposes, evil can turn and reveal Its ugly face without remorse or conscience.
Many people do not believe in the existence of absolute evil, even though all at some time in their lives have experienced evil and the influence of evil.
The affirmation that evil exists, yet, it is not absolute, only seems to triumph over the dilemma of either denying the reality of evil because of God's goodness and intrinsic power, or denying God's goodness and infinite power because of the reality of evil.
Many have been puzzled with the problem of evil and cannot comprehend why evil exists when the creator of all things is supposed to be infinitely good. Since one cannot dismiss the unlimited goodness of God, one cannot accept that God could be responsible for the evil we perceive in this world. One then wonders how a perfect and benevolent God who created the world could permit so much misery, suffering, pain, and injustice.
On this plane, good and evil are so intertwined, that even a seemingly good act is tainted with some degree of evil. The powers of evil, which do exist and do threaten us, do not exist out of necessity. Good can, and should, exist without evil.
To say that evil is only apparent suggests that evil is only an illusion. Even if some evils are illusory then the fact that the illusion exists and makes us suffer and often blocks our path is itself an evil. The mere fact that humans and animals are subjected to evil, and all its horrendous consequences, which invariably include pain and suffering, is evil.
Evil is not just wanton killing. Evil consists of the nexus of suffering and the conscious intent to cause suffering. Anything that deliberately causes suffering is evil, whether it is moral evil or natural evil.
Evil cannot be forced out simply by denying its existence. It cannot disappear simply by an argument; its existence or non-existence is independent of any such consideration.
TheBeginner Shoot Me, I'm A Newbie Age: 33 Gender: Male Posts: 16
October 7th, 2007 at 03:24pm
Root of all evil?
What is evil? well it depends on what meaning we give to pure good
Evil and Good are human terms so the root of evil will be found in humans.
Is killing an other person evil? Well we all, i hope, will say yes but what if this person killed your parents before?
The EgO could also be the root of all evil, i want to have, i am big, i am better, i am, i am... and so on..... you just ARE, as the others ARE.
Religion is surely not the root of evil, everything can be manipulatet so that it can harm others...
How can you recognise happyness if you never suffered?
That does not mean you have to suffer always to recognise happyness but you surely have to do the experience once...
the best to you all
TheBeginner
Anji Basket Case Age: 34 Gender: Female Posts: 15914
October 7th, 2007 at 07:04pm
My Marxist point of view:
As Karl Marx, the non-Marxist said, (And yes, I do realise how contradictory this is.) 'Religion is the opiate of the masses.'
Now, if this is so, than not only is religion not evil, it is infact nessecary, in order to dull the senses of the otherwise clueless working class. Of course, without the working class, there would be no upper class/aristocracy. Without the producers, there would be no owners and this is one of the fundemental concepts of Marxism.
Now, the question has been given time and time again, why doesn't the working class do something about it, because of course they are under treated and the profit being made is kept by the owners who continue to keep wages low which is exploitation, and exploitation = power.
This is where the quote comes in. It is proven that the most pious of the population is the working class, because that have been conditioned since birth to believe in their place. They see not the divisions of classes and merely what their jod is is different to what rich people's jobs are. They spend their lives, dwindling around with nothing to do but their jobs, nothing to work for but their bosses, they have no other purpose other than what they can produce. Those born into the working class often end un in the low end schools getting cheap or free education and this is considered a bonus. Religion has therefore always been used to maintain this sense of selflessness within the working class. As the Bible says, 'It is easier for a camel to squeeze throught the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter Heaven.'
However, in return to the literary context, opium is a man-made leaisure drug, the key words being man-made. It is therefore implimenting that religion is a creation, one which divides the classes and dulls the lesser educated people's minds. This would suggest that the higher class infact has created religion, which history has shown to be partly true, though the founders of religion were obviously not so high in the social ladder.
Boy, that was a hell amount of thinking to do after Thanksgiving dinner, and Rugby World Cup. All the alcohol is settling in and I'm getting a headache now from thinking. So I'll post this now and let people reply and finish off tomorrow. Goodnight, think tight.
You can't have a god and not satan. Its a balance, when I used to believe in god this is what I worked out a long with a lot of other people.
Theres god. Creator of hell heaven and earth( apparantly)
Theres statan. Ruler of hell.
Then there is us in the middle. If your good and do everything people say, you'll go to heaven if your evil you go to hell. Simple as.
Its a balance, we are stuck in the middle of beliefs where people think that heaven and hell is real. Face it, there couldn't he a heaven without a hell because where would all the sinners go?
worn-out astronaut. Had A Life Before GSB Age: 31 Gender: Female Posts: 28177
October 8th, 2007 at 02:51pm
schooldropout:
You can't have a god and not satan. Its a balance, when I used to believe in god this is what I worked out a long with a lot of other people.
Theres god. Creator of hell heaven and earth( apparantly)
Theres statan. Ruler of hell.
Then there is us in the middle. If your good and do everything people say, you'll go to heaven if your evil you go to hell. Simple as.
Its a balance, we are stuck in the middle of beliefs where people think that heaven and hell is real. Face it, there couldn't he a heaven without a hell because where would all the sinners go?
Well if there isn't a hell then there is Satan and if there is no Satan then there is no sin so therefor everyone would be good and go heaven.
That was the primal plan, but then an angel ~rebelled~ and stuff and messed up Gods plans.
Sure you can. Christianity's principles are not the only way to form a religion. I mean, you also have Satanism. There is a satan and no god in some forms of that religion.
