Re: A reason for existence of God
Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2023 9:43 pm
You can have your own definition of evil but that does not explain all the features of reality well. To me, there are Good and Evil. Good is the state of pleasure for example whereas Evil is the state of pain for example. Between we have neutral when there is no pain or pleasure. We also have the concept of right and wrong which apply to what we do, Good or Evil are fundamental aspects of reality as I defined and we should do Good or Evil depending on the situation. Good is not essentially right and Evil is not essentially bad. You need a sense of judgment and fairness to see what is need to be done namely right and avoid wrong.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pmNot merely "absence," but "negation" of "corruption" of, as well. If evil merely meant negation of good, then it would be neutral, not negative.bahman wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 6:31 pmSome Christians that I used to discuss with them think that evil is the absence of good.K1Barin wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 5:33 pm
You have a obvious flaw of Logic in that. When I say 1 is good, I don't say 0 is evil. 0 is nothing and of no importance. That is where the positive weight comes from. If 1 is good, Logic is based on good or nothing. And if 1 is evil, Logic is based on evil or nothing. Good and evil are not absence of each other; they are negative of each other.
So, for example, "animosity" is not merely "the absence of affection." "Absence of affection" might better be called "indifference," or "coldness" or "lack of engagement." If we call something "evil," it must go beyond the merely neutral.
But what is the case is that evil is not a thing-in-itself. It depends on the corruption, destruction or misdirection of something positive.
Ok. Killing is not however evil. It could be good depending on the situation. Think of a person with locked-in syndrome. He is suffering from his/her current state of life so to me it is good that a doctor simply finishes his life.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pmThe point, I think, is that the property "evil" being merely a corruption, destruction or negation of "good" -- is a dependent property on the existence of those properties it would negate. There has to be the positive if the negation is going to exist. So before you claim "evil" has happened, you already must know there is a thing called "good." And you must imagine you know what that "good" is.Why not assign God as evil?
In this case, it might be, "the good is for people to be alive," and "the evil is for them to die in earthquakes." Okay, then...something evil is causing earthquakes, plausibly. But prior to that, there has to be something good that grounds the existence of living beings deserving of not being killed...and since you want to say that "god" is evil, you can't allow that the same "god" is good, or is the source of the good you're wanting to question the negation of.
No, there is one God, either Good, Neutral, or Evil. Not two or three. A Good God creates Good so there could be only Heaven. Neutral God creates neutral so you can experience Good, neutral, and Evil. This seems to be the case fi there is any God. And finally, an Evil God creates Evil basically Hell. Of course, I don't agree that Evil is equal to corruption. So your stance of a God creating Good and another corrupts it does not work.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pm That's hard to get you head around, maybe. But it's a real problem.
So you would have to be thinking there were at least two "creators," one that created good, and one that corrupted it to evil. But if you do that step, two problems immediately appear:
There is no need for two Gods. Please see my previous comment.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pm 1. If you assign them the same weight, then you have no Supreme Being. So the concept "God" no longer applies to it, since "Supreme Being" is one of the true synonyms of "God." So you would have to say you don't believe in God, but in "gods." And you'd be a polytheist. And you'd have to say there is an evil "god" or "gods," but also good "gods." So now you've wrecked your thesis that THE God, the Supreme Being, could be evil.
How do you know that He is not Evil? What if He lied to you about what is written in Bible? There is no Heaven but Hell awaiting whom that follow what is written in the Bible.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pm 2. If you assign the "god" to which you attribute the good the status of superiority to the "god" to which you attribute evil, (which you would have to, since evil is derivative an inferior to good) then you could plausilbly be talking about a Supreme Being again. But then He's good, not evil. And then you've got something like what's described Biblically, and one wonders why you bothered.
What do you mean by "both"? I cannot understand what "both" is referring to.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pm And there's a further problem. It might be even more serious.
Whichever you do, you need an objective set of criteria by which to judge the status of each. But those criteria cannot be borrowed from any reference to the "gods" themselves, since the purpose of the objective set of critieria is to give you solid grounds upon which to JUDGE both. But from where are you going to get such a set of criteria, since you cannot now refer to creation or to the Supreme Being in order to ground your concept of justice?
No, I have not lost my basis for judgment. How about you? Do you really think that what you believe is the truth?Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pm So now you've lost your basis for judgment, and are thrown back on making your statement read, "Evil means 'whatever Bauman dislikes,'" a definition bound to satisify nobody, not even yourself, since you know full well you're not the center of the universe or the unimpeachable grounds of truth.
For me, there is no God (by God I mean the creator of everything from nothing), period. There are Gods however who are Good, Neutral, and Evil. These are supreme beings not the creator of everything from nothing! They however can create things from something.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pm So to get your criteria to say, (as you suggest) that "God is evil," where do you go? Where is the location of the objective moral criteria to make justifiable your indictment? From where, or what, will you draw them?
I know what is objectively Good or Evil. You don't.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pm So you can't "assign" anything. You're not qualified to know whether or not something is objectively evil or good, because you have no grounds or basis for either assessment.
I don't think so.Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 8:19 pm Ironically, to make the claim "I think God might be evil," you would need to draw your criteria from the Author of Good, i.e. from a Monotheistic, good God.