From: Brett Hutley (brett_at_hutley.net)
Date: Wed Sep 15 2004 - 17:45:43 PDT
On Wed, Sep 15, 2004 at 09:06:36AM -0500, Dale A. Raby wrote:
> Normally I don't forward items like this,,, but... well, you be the
> judge.
>
> Simple logic......
>
> DOES EVIL EXIST?
>
> This may or may not be a true story but it is a nice bit of logic
Hmmm... not wanting to tread on religious toes here, but as an atheist
I have a small problem with this story. The problem is actually accepting
the existence of the absolutes "good" and "evil" (and that's where
the professor went wrong). I think there are actions that are "good"
within a particular moral framework or culture, and those that aren't -
this is "Ethical Relativism" in philosophy. If you believe that there
are absolutes "good" and "evil", then you may as well believe in an
entity that defines a strict moral code of behaviour.
For a fun look at the rational consistency of your beliefs, check out
"Battleground God" at http://www.philosophers.co.uk/games/god.htm
(Note that this game doesn't try to determine whether God exists or not,
but merely tries to determine whether your beliefs about the existance
on non-existance of God are internally consistent).
-- Brett Hutley [MAppFin,CISSP,SANS GCIH] mailto:brett_at_hutley.net http://hutley.net/brett Key fingerprint = 0DEB CBD5 74CC 84BA C71A 1215 2ED0 7684 AFA9 17C3 -- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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