Posted by Stuart (65.93.90.133) on August 25, 2002 at 06:09:40:

In Reply to: Re: The Non-Existence of Evil - The Ultimate Pure Argument posted by Stuart on August 25, 2002 at 05:58:57:

This subject - non-existence of evil - is complex and, for the average person, when put to proper philosophical, linguistic or scientific scrutiny, difficult to comprehend. But for those who would like to reach upward a little, you may now read The Truth:

Human beings are of two dimensions: physical and abstract, those aspects perceptible to the senses and those that are not, such as ideas and linguistic elements (words that characterize a person, such as "good".)

Things which are perceptible are those which are perceived by the various human sensory inputs. However, human senses are extremely limited compared to mechanical sensors and the sensory systems of many animals, plants and insects; thus, those outward existences which the human eyes see are visual and limited, that which the ears hear are audiory and limited; that which the mouth tastes are interpretations of the mouth and tongue's sensory inputs, and limited; the nose, olfactory and limited; the skin, tactile and limited.

"Time" is measured by clocks but is not "real" in the same sense as the visual. "Time" is a psychological sense; as is music. Sound is "real" but the composition of sound into music is psychological. Hot and cold are relative terms, not real, as are darkness and light. Life and death are "spectrum states" of being. There is no scientific understanding of what makes a thing alive and what makes it inert or dead. Abstractions are concepts of the mind. But many argue that everything - every thing - is a concept of the mind, limited by the brain's capacity to interpret signal input. That which appears real, is not.

The solidity of steel is belied by the fact that if we empty the space between the nuclei of its molecules and its surrounding electrons, to our own eyes, a ball of steel would disappear. Ninety-eight percent of all "matter" is empty. Ninety-nine percent of the "known" Universe is also empty.

Mind itself is an abstraction which has no outward existence. Whereas we consider the Brain as real - it can be weighed, touched and its electrical and other activity measured, a "thought" has yet to be seen or touched or weighed. Yet, in cognitive psychology, thoughts are taken as "things". All man's characteristics and qualities form both a physical and abstract existence, with the physical just as non-real as the abstract.

The abstract or intellectual realities, such as all the qualities and admirable perfections of humans, exist only in relative terms and are the result of perception, culture, world-view, geography and education. By themselves, they do not exist - neither good nor evil, light or dark, emptiness of fullness. Evil is simply a concept, and, applied to human behavior purely relative (what is good for one is bad for another and vice-versa.) Similarly, ignorance is the abstract opposite of knowledge, which is relative and abstract (a smart person for one is an idiot for another.) All these opposites have no physical, "real" existence.

Sensed realities are absolutely relative and despite our ability to sense them as physical, our senses interpret reality and therefore what is real for us is only interpretively and relativistically real and may not exist at all. Evil is another relative and abstract non-real concept; blindness is the inability to see what the non-blind see; deafness is filled with noise but not the sounds we hear; poverty is true wealth for many cultures and societies; illness and health are both illusions since we are born to die and we all suffer from dying, from the moment we are conceived to the moment our human bodies cease apparent function; weakness is often the greatest strength, just as cowardice is a quality of courage. And none of these "things" have their own intrinsic "reality".

A "thing" in relation to another "thing" may be evil, but at the same time by itself, merely "is". There is no evil in existence; all that God created, He created neither good or evil. Evil is nothingness, just as Good is nothing, both the "good" person and the "bad" person are good and bad to separate audiences. When humans are no longer alive, they are considered dead. But in fact, mutable form is all that exists, pre-life and after-life. Light and dark are both non-existing things. For some darkness is true light, and light is God's strategy for our ignorance - the more we see, the less we know.

It is therefore a Truth that all "things" perceptible or abstract, are psychological, relative and abstract. There is no evil and there is no good. One person may strive for evil and achieve good;; another may strive for good and achieve evil.

Everything - every thing - is nothing while nothing is everything; the universe is both infinite and infinitesimal, especially in the Mind of God.

__________________________________________________________________

this topic is closed - post at bahai-library.com/forum