Well, I don't know if I've made my political and personal views clear by now. But in case anyone here was wondering, I'll try to summarize them here. I am a lifelong Democrat, and I have been liberal to varying degrees all my life. Though I think that I was more moderate when younger. I don't know how radical I really am. I used to think that supporting gay marriage put me out of the mainstream. Actually it's quite common now. In fact a majority of Americans that describe themselves as practicing Catholics support gay marriage. I do, e.g., support a strong defense. So I may have some different views. But mainly I am a pragmatist I think. Since at least 1996, I have been rethinking concepts like justice and retribution and even mercy. I think so-called evil is really a disease and problem. And although I've never been in trouble with the law, and don't plan on being, I really sympathize with people who are considered criminals, for example, and other outcasts. They need the most support, because they are the least likely to get any support. People should be held accountable for their actions, and some people should be segregated from society, sometimes for life. But always humanely. And other options should always be explored. Societal problems are always complicated, and have more than one cause. As I often tell people, I often admire attorneys and physicians, because they always treat you as a human being, in need of help. I find that commendable. And I am very rational, and always have been. But I think that has always helped me. I always respect people's beliefs, and their right to hold, and hold onto, their political and moral beliefs. I am also gay. But fortunately that is no big deal either. I'd like to help people, but often find there's little I can do. But I am beginning to realize that any positive change you can make in the world is good.
I believe you are reaching an audience here, and your thoughts about this and that are quite interesting. Not many find the time to express themselves so well with words. Keep up the good work!
Just to make it clear the way I look at it. We should always be angry at people who do injustice. But it should be never necessary to hate them. They sometimes say Southerners who discriminate against black people are dirty, and smelly and don't brush their teeth. Discrimination is wrong. But is it really necessary to point out they're dirty and don't brush their teeth?
Hey, that's a good point. I live in a liberal city in the heart of the south, and you get an unfortunate amount of comments like that here. Jokes about incest, illiteracy, etc. Kind of hitting below the belt if you ask me.
Also, not to try to resurrect a zombie thread, but I also wanted to share this. Natural Evil is an interesting phenomenon is theology and ethics. I think learning about it might have been one of the things that led to where my belief system is now. Please read: Natural evil is evil for which "no non-divine agent can be held morally responsible for its occurrence" and is chiefly derived from the operation of the laws of nature....Moral evil results from a perpetrator, usually a person that engages in vice, either through intention or negligence. Natural evil has only victims... Examples include cancer, birth defects, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and other phenomena which inflict suffering with apparently no accompanying mitigating good. Such phenomena inflict "evil" on victims with no perpetrator to blame. Natural evil - Wikipedia
Adding more to this zombie thread. Speaking of natural evil, I was thinking recently about the Venus Flytrap. In late 1989 I thought how horrible it was that in nature that something was always killing and eating something. And my aunt said the exact same thing. But you know the Flytrap doesn't do it out of cruelty. It's the law of survival. It's humans alone who have the capacity to be more than the sum of their make up. "Doctor, the sperm whale on Earth devours millions of cuttlefish as it roams the oceans. It is not evil. It is feeding." —Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
there is only one evil that is natural, and that is the choice to be aggressively inconsiderate. and yes lunch doesn't count. needless cruelty on the part of our sapient selves does though. and why is that the one evil, (and only thing wrong with this world or any world), dispute religious texts generally remaining silent on its place and role? because every anxiety, and nearly ever unpleasantness in life, begins with people choosing to be (and shaming themselves by doing so) and yes that includes ANY belief, ideology, economy, et al, claimed as an excuse for it.
