Good and Evil, Part 4 - The nature of reality.

The term God is shorthand for the "first cause", God or Gods that create and control the universe.

It is possible we live in the universe of the spaghetti monster, the Matrix, or a Star Trek holodeck. If this is so, then all our observations and reasoning is base on faulty data. Thus there would be no further discussion. We would be limited to "sacred scriptures" or the words of the holy men. We would be, in effect, no better off than a insane person who cannot trust what appears to be the reality around him.

I prefer to think that if there is a God, he isn't lying to us. For if he is lying to us, then even the words of holy men and "sacred scriptures" cannot be trusted.

There either exists a God or doesn't. It is possible there is no God. But this can never be proven. The existence of God can be proven if he decides to make himself known to us. But a universe in which God is not interested in human affairs would appear the same as one in which there is no God.

Why is God important? Because some people in an existence of some sort of life after death. And they believe that how they live their lives will effect their status after death.

What is the point? To try to find a common basis for good and evil. One that doesn't matter if you pray to God five times a day, once a week or never.

The face of evil

"Taliban assailants on a motorbike gunned down a Christian aid worker in Kabul on Monday and the militants said she was killed for spreading her religion"

"A spokeswoman for the aid group, SERVE — Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises — said it is a Christian organization but denied it was involved in proselytizing."

link

Good and Evil Part 3, Perspective II

The current scientific estimate is that all life on earth will end in a billion years. There is nothing that can be done. So no matter what you do it will all eventually end. Those who wish to "save the earth" are only doing so for a short time, in relative terms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

"In fact, even during its life in the main sequence, the Sun is gradually becoming more luminous (about 10% every 1 billion years), and its surface temperature is slowly rising. The increase in solar temperatures is such that in about a billion years, the surface of the Earth will become too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life.["

Of course, we all have a shorter timeline, i.e. until our own deaths. Some believe they can achieve partial immortality by having children. For those who acknowledge evolution, a million years from now mankind descendant's, if they survive, will have changed, possibly into multiple branches. And possibly none representing anything they exists today.

The shape of the earth is changing, the continents are drifting. In one theory the fertile crescent region may have turned in deserts over the last 10,000 years because the Indian subcontinent smashing into Asia. The additional heights of the mountains may have shifted wind patterns.

The most recent ice age peaked 20,000 years ago ending about 10,000 years ago. This global warming took place without man's significant contributions.

Then there are things like the Yellowstone caldera. This super volcano last erupted 640,000 years ago. Its previous eruption was 1.3 millions years ago. So it could erupt in the next 100,000 years, destroying most of life in the western United States.

Good and Evil Part 2, Perspective

There are an estimated 10 billion billion stars. If only one out of Billion stars had a plant where life exists, that leaves 10 billion planets with life. To assume the earth is the only one that developed intelligent life seems highly improbable. But even if we assume that, Life has existed approximately 3.7 billion years. Evolutionists believe that homo sapiens appeared less than 500,000 years ago (250K-400K). Modern humans appeared less than 100,000 years ago. Written history is less than 10,000 years old (approx 6,000). But even if way say man in the pinnacle of creation, what is the correct religion? Are the oldest more important than the newest? Does the numbers of followers matter? Can there be more than one correct religion, even if they contradict each other?

Lets assume there is a correct religion, i.e. one that has all the correct answers. The one with most members is Christianity. At approximately 2.1 billion members it is less than one third of the population. So most of the world is following a religion that is not correct in all things. But even Christians cannot agree on all things.

So what does this mean? To me this means we all should have some humility when we think we know what God would want.

Good and Evil, Part I.

This is the first on what I hope will be a series of thoughts on the nature of good and evil, religion and its effect on politics.

My thoughts wander on the basis of good and evil. Many believe in the "scriptures" of their religion or in the speeches of their spiritual leaders. I wish to take it down to a more elemental level.
Actions can be described as neutral, good, and evil. Sleeping is an an example of a neutral act. It may benefit their person, but doesn't effect others positively or negatively. Arson is an evil act. I have yet to discover a society that doesn't think arson should be a crime.An evil act is one that negatively effects another person. A good act would be one that benefits another without any material benefit to oneself. All good acts should give at least some psychological benefit to the one performing the act. Buying something at the store is a neutral event, it benefits both the purchaser and seller.

Many of societies problems come from people believing in "scriptures" and not analyzing the good or evil of the deed.

Take the Ten Commandments, which some believe should be the foundation of our laws. It contains proscriptions that would hard to enforce in mixed societies, like keeping the Sabbath holy and "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery Do not have any other gods before me." This has always been strange to me. If there was only one god, then all god worship would by default be worshipping that god. What it is in effect saying is that all other religions are wrong. Not very good for a pluralistic society.

Many religions/societies believe that "outsiders" do not deserve the same rights as though who "belong". This allows or even requires them to do "evil" acts to others.