XPost: alt.philosophy.taoism, alt.magick, alt.buddha.short.fat.guy   
   XPost: alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic   
   From: a202010@mail.com   
      
   speaking of "good and evil"   
      
      
   if there is -you- and only -you-   
     driven by the existing conditions   
     and your motivational overlords   
     you'll end up developing a higher   
     level of selfish preservation   
     which we have termed   
     "Cynical Pragmatism"   
      
   - and then you set up man as the measure of all things,   
   - and begin to compare yourselves to each other, and   
   - this leads to a weakening or skewing of even some   
   - proposed standard of excellence.   
      
   such a situation inevitably leads   
   to this capital -C- Cynical pragmatism.   
      
   man entirely driven by one's own   
   self centered interest where   
   one's only standard is; 'good' means   
   getting what one wants and 'evil'   
   means not getting what one wants.   
      
   where the standard is as   
   personal as one's own   
   self interest.   
      
   trapped in a perfect conflict.   
      
   freedom's ideal suggests one doesn't   
   trample another person's freedom   
   in pursuit of one's own.   
      
   Cynical pragmatism runs   
   headlong in conflict   
   with freedom.   
      
   what have we learned here?   
      
   see how God is allowing you more than   
   you are able to allow yourselves?   
      
   God offers you freedom and personal will   
      
   you offer yourselves a perfect prison.   
      
   some passages from a book...   
      
   ===   
   Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,   
   who put darkness for light and light for darkness,   
   who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.   
                                     Isaiah 5:20   
   =   
   "My people are fools; they do not know me.   
   They are senseless children; they have no   
   understanding. They are skilled in doing   
   evil; they know not how to do good.   
                             "Jeremiah 4:22   
   =   
   You have wearied YHWH with your words.   
   "How have we wearied him?" you ask. By saying,   
   "All who do evil are good in the eyes of YHWH,   
   and he is pleased with them" or   
   "Where is the God of justice?"   
                               Malachi 2:17   
   =   
   They repay me evil for good   
   and leave my soul forlorn.   
                            Psalm 35:12   
   ===   
      
   one little thing, see, humans tend towards   
   this inabillity to distinguish good from bad   
   and even call bad good and good bad,   
      
   so, when God says that God will pay you   
   your wages for behaving bad, and -you- see   
   this -as- a 'bad' thing, because for you,   
   good is getting what you want and bad is   
   not getting what you want, and you don't   
   want to get paid your wages for behaving 'badly',   
   then -you'd- be sensing that God is doing -bad-   
   things to you by paying you your wages, and yet,   
   for God, God is only doing the very good thing   
   of paying your wages for your behaviuors and   
   is not -doing- evil to you nor anyone else.   
      
   so, God can say to you,   
      
   "there is no -other- who is doing these things   
   no, -i- bring good, and i, also, bring your wages   
   upon your head which -you- may see as 'evil'"   
      
   and yet, from the perspective of God, it is only good.   
      
   so, we should never suggest that God -does- evil   
   when God is -only- paying you your wages and for   
   God, this is -only- good.   
      
   God just wants you to know, that you shouldn't   
   be looking for some -other-, who is bringing   
   you your wages and you don't like it,   
      
   so, you can't say, "isn't God in our misdst,   
   why are these bad things happening to us?"   
      
   these things which -you- think are 'bad'   
      
   are, oftentimes -just- God brining you your   
   just rewards and when you get paid yur wages,   
      
   that's just you getting what you've got coming.   
      
   only -good- from God's viewpoint.   
      
   but, then, there is also those get their recompense   
   right away, on a continuous basis and those for whom   
   a large debt may be accruing and may just fall on   
   their heads all at once.   
      
   so, you -want- to be among those who get their   
   deeds returned to their heads right away and so,   
   you can make corrections to your deeds   
      
   because if a ton of bricks falls on your head   
   all at once, you may get crushed under the weight,   
   and -still- this is only a good God doing what is   
   perfectly good on your behalf.   
      
   and not a God who is -doing-   
   evil to you nor anyone else.   
      
   if someone -tells- you;   
      
   "pineapples are good"   
      
   do you -know- that pineapples are good?   
      
   if soemone -tells- you;   
      
   theft is bad,   
      
   do you -know- that theft is bad?   
      
   if it is impossible that God could ever steal   
   anything from anyone simply because all things   
   are God's, then you cannot rightly say that   
   God -knows- theft, and therefore -knows- an evil.   
      
   what God _does_ -know- is that actions taken   
   -not- out of 'love' are incorrect actions   
      
   which cannot be taken to mean that   
   God -knows- incorrect action, because   
   God cannot -do- incorrect action.   
      
   which makes Jesus that special exemplar   
   who saw things exactly as you see them,   
      
   and yet, never once acted -not-   
   out of 'faith' and 'love'   
      
   Jesus saw hunger, and humbled   
   himself on the word of God alone.   
      
   Jesus did -not- say;   
   "let's go steal those people's   
   bread because i'm hungry"   
      
   in fact, Jesus, by his great faith, -fed-   
   a multitude with a few small fishes and loaves.   
      
   God -is- -only- Good.   
      
   etc etc etc...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)