Evil People

Discussion in 'Faith & Religion' started by Yvonne Smith, Apr 13, 2020.

  1. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    I screwed up----I was responding to a post that Dwight Ward made in the first of this thread.
     
    #16
  2. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    Thanks for the reply, Ken.
    .
    The experience of human touch and human speech is perhaps as important as the need to be kept warm and fed, and to be free from pain, although all of these needs are important.

    Jeffrey Dahlmer came down with an itchy.rash at the age of about 4, I think. To keep him from scratching his rash, he was admitted to the hospital where he was.put on a stainless steel table and his hands and feet were strapped down. The doctor advised his parents not to visit the child, as he would only beg them to come home. This situation lasted for weeks, as I remember.

    When I read this I thought "Well, that explains poor Jeffrey."
     
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  3. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    OK but that still doesn't mean it's truly evil by definition of evil.
     
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  4. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    Lou, please try to rephrase your questions. I'm not sure how to reply.
     
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  5. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    I don't agree, Ken, but I can only give an egregious example, not an analysis. To the Nazis, killing Jews, Gypsies and others wasn't evil. To their minds they were purifying the human race. The Holocaust is perhaps an event which can stand by itself as raw evil, beyond anyone's opinion of it.
    I'm almost making your point for you, though. The Nazis' perception was that it wasn't evil.
    I am not making my point well.

    If evil is a matter of perception, are we to assign to all perceivers of evil equal qualifications? i.e., are we to assign the Nazis' judgement of what's evil as valid as anyone else's judgement?
     
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    Last edited: Aug 27, 2020
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    To argue that evil is not a matter of perception, you pretty much have to agree that there is a standard, don't you? Since there are and have been, several human standards, many of which are contradictory, wouldn't that standard have to be divine?
     
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  7. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    That sounds familiar. Didn't one of the early church fathers give that argument? - that because man had a moral sense, God must exist, because where else could that moral sense.come from?

    I hunted for a long time. It's St. Thomas Aquinas I was thinking of.
    The argument from morality is the apologist argument that God is the source of all morality,[1] and therefore, if objective morality exists, God must exist.[2]
     
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    Last edited: Aug 27, 2020
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  8. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    It wasn't a badly phrased question. I was just trying to get you to flesh it out a little more.
     
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  9. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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  10. Patsy Faye

    Patsy Faye Supreme Member
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    @Dwight Ward
    Maybe you sense evil in someone due to their eyes. Eyes are the windows to the soul and you can't disguise what lurks there.
     
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  11. Ed Wilson

    Ed Wilson Veteran Member
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    I think you are talking about intuition or a sixth sense. Just because you perceive what you perceive, that doesn't mean it's true. There are some people who are very good at deception, and it could take a lot of time to really know the inner person. By their deeds you shall know them.
     
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    Last edited: Aug 28, 2020
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  12. Ed Wilson

    Ed Wilson Veteran Member
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    If appearance was reality, the world would be flat.
     
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  13. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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  14. Joseph Carl

    Joseph Carl Very Well-Known Member
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    Dwight, you've enlightened me with an article of news I was unaware of. As if we didn't have enough reason to reject the BLM movement's foundations, based upon marxism, anarchy, the advancement of lesbian rights, and promoting black against white racism, we can now add evil associations to their list of credentials.

    I don't expect you to necessarily believe the vast number of supernatural beings that inhabit our world and interact with human kind, both for God's purpose and against it, but any Bible believing Jew or Christian should know and respect the reality and significance of such beings. Doing so not only helps one better understand world history and current events, but it arms a believer with truth and strength to follow the right Godly path in life.

    For anyone interested in angels and demons, believer or not, I've just watched an excellent video on the subject that summarizes the supernatural world around us. Understand, it's based on Bible scripture, not secular experiences. It really is interesting and informative though - and a sermon worth any Christian's time.

     
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  15. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    I read C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters when I was about 22. It's online now as an audiobook and I gave it a listen. I'm not a believer but it's intriguing. I disagree that lesbian rights are a problem.
     
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