What is Evil?

This is a very deep question because it has so many people confused about the real difference between a “sinner” and an “Evil” person.

A sinner can make bad moral decisions that may or may not harm others.

If we steal a pencil from work, we are a sinner, but we would not be classified as an Evil person.

If we look at the dictionary definition of Evil we find things like “1. Morally bad or wrong; wicked. 2. Causing ruin, injury, or pain; harmful.” – American Heritage Dictionary

When we are born, we are all born with “free will” or as my moniker says with “Free Agency.”

I choose the word “Agency” because it shows that we are free to “choose” good or bad. I also choose it because I always want to point out that “others” don’t make choices for us. “He did what he did because others bullied him, so it wasn’t really his fault.” Baloney! He made the choice. Nobody “made” him do it, not even the “devil!”

As we journey through life we are moving toward a preponderance of morally good decisions or one of mostly bad moral decisions.

(Update - Added the words intentionally - FAR )
If those decisions intentionally continually do significant harm to others, or if they only once intentionally do the ultimate harm to many, (murder), one might classify them as an evil person.

At one time I thought, (and even blogged on it), that we should never hate anyone or anything, and after further review, I need to correct the stance that we should never hate. We should never hate people or a person, but it is O.K. to hate evil.
(Update - Maybe better word(s) than hate would be "fight against" - FAR)

Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. – Ps. 97:10

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. – Prov. 8:13

Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. – Amos 5: 15

We have to recognize that some people are truly Evil and we need to stop making victims out of them because they didn’t get their spinach when they were little, therefore they must be looked at as what they are, Evil.

If there is Good, there must be Evil. There are quarks and anti-quarks; there are protons, and anti-protons, the ying and the yang. Anyone who denies that there is Evil, is deluding himself or herself that there is balance in the world.

Note update on the word "hate."

"Biblical Hebrew lacks the necessary language to exactly define the comparative sense, i.e., 'more than' or 'less than'. Instead it tends to express two things which may be comparatively of different degree like 'first' and 'second' as extremes such as 'first' and 'last'. In this way love and hate whilst appearing as opposites may in fact be related but lesser terms such as 'love more' and 'love less'. " See Hebrew Studies - http://www.biblicalhebrew.com/nt/lovehate.htm

So, perhaps we should say we "dislike" evil instead of saying we "hate" evil. - FAR

NBC Got it Wrong!

Anyone who has raised children or studied psychology understands the concept of positive reinforcement or positive feedback.

Whatever you reward, you get multiplied or continued. Whatever you give consequences for, will get diminished.

NBC decided to air the video of this Monster that was in a human body. It can’t be measured but the above truism says that this monster will be copied because there will be others who see that he got just what he wanted…. air time to be famous and voice his grievances as a “victim.” More evil has been done in the name of victim hood than any other excuse I can think of.

Some will say he was mentally ill and therefore we should feel sorry for him.

It has been well established that all of us have had many painful episodes in our life and we do not react this way. Even Jesus had a very painful life.

Only a person who has no understanding of the moral consequences should be pitied, not the person who has psychological difficulties. In my view he clearly knew he was doing something that was wrong, but as most monsters, he justified it by seeing himself as a victim. And that, many feel, gives them license to do evil to the innocent.

Some will say we should “forgive” him, as Jesus would do. This statement shows the ignorance of those who think they have read and understood the bible, but as the bible says, if you don’t have the proper spirit when you read it, it will not be understood. They will see it as “foolishness.”

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. - 1 Cor. 2: 12, 14 “

We are to forgive those who have wronged “us”, but only those who have been wronged by this monster can forgive “him”.

We should be seeing the pictures of the true victims on NBC, those wonderfully innocent 32 school children who were taken in the prime of their life, but instead we see video and pictures of this monster.

Why do they not show a person at a football game that runs on to the field to get “face time?”

Because they really do know that rewarding him with just what he wants will only encourage others to follow in his footsteps.

NBC is not going to feel complicit for any copycat episodes, but they should. Shame on them!

A confluence of views that conflict.

I have been having a nice conversation with a fellow blogger named Truth Or Consequences who has made me realize what might be a common misconception about people who happen to share a worldview that is similar to mine, so I decided to blog on that misconception.

I will start by saying that I have many views that happen to conflict in one or many areas and that makes those who read my positions on my views to think that I look for things to confirm my "preferred existing views" at the expense of one of my other views, when in reality, I look for things to try to “solve” the conflicts that exist in my “multi-faceted” worldviews without trying to prove or disprove any of them. Most people will accept any position that agrees with theirs without much thought, and summarily dismiss an opposing view without much inspection.

I usually find that just because there are some "missing links" in my views that I don't throw the baby out with the bath water. The preponderance of data or information is good enough until something else comes along. But on the other hand, if something comes along that completely shoots down one of my views, then I change. I have even changed religions because of that very thing.

First Example, I believe in God. The reason that I believe in God can be summed up in the statement above about the preponderance of data or information that makes sense to most people in the world. There are too many things that can't be explained by science because they are not in the part of this Universe that we can measure. Science will tell you for example that they may be other dimensions, such as suggested by "string theory", but we just don't know yet.

How is it that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of people who have had “out of body” experiences, especially near death ones, and in almost all cases they related almost, if not exactly, identically experiences. Hovering above their body…. moving toward a light…etc, etc. Read the book "Life After Life" by Dr. Raymond Moody, for the inspriation of your life about this concept, (if you have an open mind or are inquisitive.)

The concept can be further investigated in the question..."What is a mind?" Is the mind the essence of life? Is it the intelligence within us, or the spirit or soul of man/woman?

Where there is smoke there is usually fire. There is just too much information on the metaphysical side to ignore, so why not investigate with an open mind.

I also believe in Evolution but also believe that Man was created in the image of God. This view has a built in conflict, so I look for opinions or facts where possible that might give me a better handle on what might make “more” sense than what the current view I hold presents. Such as what the book “The Science of God” by Gerald R. Schroeder did for me in this wonderful book that I could not put down until I finished it. One of the top Ten books I have ever read!

Another example is I believe in Physics and for a long time I had a problem with the conflict of the notion that the Universe being created in six days, yet my logic and science told me it was Billions of years old. So, again, I looked for views that could help me solve that conflict, but not to prove anything one way or another. Again enter Dr. Schroder and his book above.

But to an outsider, it would appear that I was looking to “prove science wrong” in order to prove the other view right. Nothing could be further from the truth. My core view is that both Science and my other conflicting views must be in concert as the truth and facts must agree.

I also believe in Global Climate Changes, but I also hold the view that there are those in the world with agendas that wants to make us believe that man is bad and especially modern man and his excessive use of resources.

And so they look for ways to force their assumptions to arrive at the conclusion they desire. It is well known that the scientific mind wants to be able to “explain the world around us” and that we all have bias.

If a scientist holds a worldview that man must be causing the Global Climate Changes, then he will begin his Hypothesis with that assumption. Everyone knows that Conclusions are arrived at by way of the opening assumptions. Make the wrong assumptions and you arrive at the wrong conclusions.

So, to those who truly have an open mind, they will seek out dissenting views that may or may not fit the current “majority view” since the press and those in academia generally hold anti-conservative views and thus will try to “force” their agenda and views to fit their desired outcomes.

For those who believed that the world was flat, it was rational not to sail to far or they would fall off the edge of the world. But today, if you go against the mainstream views, you are acting irrational. Once the minority view is found to be true, then the whole paradigm changes, but today if the “majority of scientists” say something, then it “must be correct.” After all how can the majority ever be wrong?

Is Anthropogenic Global Warming a new Religion?

From “The Great Global Warming Swindle” – Wikipidea

“The concept of anthropogenic global warming has developed into a modern religion, with sceptics treated as heretics and labelled as "global warming deniers", in order to equate genuine scientific scepticism with holocaust denial. Retired university professor Tim Ball says in the programme that he has received death threats because of the sceptical statements he has made about global warming.”

Search on Google for the One and a Half hour video as I am doing at this very moment. Search "The Great Global Warming Swindle Video - Full Version."

The summary of the documentary is on Wikipidea as mentioned above.

The programe mentioned above is a documentary made by British Televison Producer Martin Durkin at Channel 4. Britian television Channel 4 is far from a Conservative right-wing propaganda source. However to be fair it is made with the intent of being polemic, but that should not disqualify it.

For those who blindly accept the “majority opinion” on matters for the sake of saying that the majority must always be right, are missing the point that often it is the dissenting view, such as the world is not flat, and the sun does not revolve around the earth, that gets the label of hertic and is supposed to just shut up and go away.

Seekers of the truth appreciate and read both sides of an issue so as not to be lead to the “might makes right” bombastic shrine and do not just read the press or reviews of their great leaders from academia who try to stop the bleeding by taking things out of context and giving false conclusions about the books or movies by those terrible heretics.

Everyone knows that the Globe is always changing it's temperture, but is it conclusive that the cause is mostly man-made or that there is anything that can be done about it without making someone a very nice profit, or by getting some very nice grants? Follow the money.

There Ought to Be a LAW

Which group makes this cry daily? They are so blinded by the need to control everyone else's lives that they are taking away everyones liberty.

Laws are for the purpose of "forcing" people.

FORCE is the antithesis of FREEDOM.

The next time you here this cry, remember that each law we pass, we will in almost every case "take away freedom."

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." (George Washington, 1732 - 1799)

IT IS FORCE!