the bible and evil

[einsteinian77]

How well does the biblical depiction of evil, things such as sloth, lust, greed,...etc, compare to your opinion on what is truely evil? Or are you one of those people who just thinks evil is a relative term.

[Zero]

Originally posted by einsteinian77
How well does the biblical depiction of evil, things such as sloth, lust, greed,...etc, compare to your opinion on what is truely evil? Or are you one of those people who just thinks evil is a relative term. I think that religion is the ultimate evil, so maybe I'm a bit biased...[g)]

I think the Bible reflects the mores of ancient Middle Eastern clerics, nothing more or less.

[Kerrie]

i am considering this topic religious as i can see the path leading that way, therefore it must be locked...sorry...

*edit* thread has been moved and reopened...i am doing this once, as we do not start new religion threads.

[vedder]

einsteinian, if there is a god and it wanted the exact same thing from everyone, wouldn't it have made everyone the same? Since everyone is different that leads me to believe that our hypothetical god expects different things from different people... I think that means evil is relative.

[Jimmy]

Consider the Golden Rule:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

What if someone didn't want you to do the things that you want to be done to you? What if you enjoyed pain and your current partner did not? Would it be evil to do it anyway? It certainly would be bad from the partner's point of view.

The golden rule certainly isn't flexible enough to apply to all situations. I suppose it works well enough within a group of common minded people.

I think I prefer the Wiccan Rule although I am not a Wiccan: An if it harm no one, do as ye will.

Obviously the concept of good and evil isn't black and white. As far as the bible goes, there is good advice to be found in it. You just have to use common sense. One shouldn't follow the bible blindly.

The only model we can really apply good and evil to is our own species. Morality probably doesn't exist in most of the animal kingdom. I say most because I don't know if that would apply to monkeys or other, higher animals.

We can speculate about the morality of other species that may exist in the universe. An alien species may be evil from our point of view but they may not even understand the concept of good vs. evil. Are they evil?

[Sikz]

Yeah, good and evil are very hard concepts to define.

BTW the Rede is "An it harm none, do as ye will." Not that there's much difference between "none" and "no one" (or between "if it" and "it")but uh... Just thought I should clarify that. Hehe.

[einsteinian77]

I appreciate it kerrie[:)]