hmm. This is interesting and similar to thoughts I've had. I guess I'd go one step further. Throughout Genesis 1, God creates the world and declares everything "Good." Then, once Adam & Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and EVIL. Then, immediately they know things like shame, etc, and start labeling certain things, even parts of themselves which God had already declared "good" to be "evil." It seems you think the concept of good & evil is the basis of morality and, thus, a good concept. I think that the mere desire to label things good and evil is an attempt to usurp God. Jesus says over and over "Judge not one another" because only God alone can judge good and evil. Yet, that's exactly what Adam and Eve wanted to do - to take over God's job of judging between good and evil. And it is the same thing we still inherit from the religions of the Bible. God declared all of creation good, so it seems declaring anything evil or taking that right from God is the sin. You are right in that animals don't make such judgments, so they also don't have things like warfare and bigotry, so far as we know. If you think about it, there is nothing in nature that is evil. Anything "evil" is an invention of humankind, because our original sin was to invent the concept of "evil," which didn't exist before then. It was only after there was such an idea of "evil" that evil could be committed.
Sorry this is poorly written. I'm in a hurry. I hope some of it is clear.
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leanerbean.livejournal.com at 04:18pm on 2004-07-25
It seems you think the concept of good & evil is the basis of morality and, thus, a good concept.
I think that the mere desire to label things good and evil is an attempt to usurp God. Jesus says over and over "Judge not one another" because only God alone can judge good and evil. Yet, that's exactly what Adam and Eve wanted to do - to take over God's job of judging between good and evil. And it is the same thing we still inherit from the religions of the Bible.
God declared all of creation good, so it seems declaring anything evil or taking that right from God is the sin.
You are right in that animals don't make such judgments, so they also don't have things like warfare and bigotry, so far as we know.
If you think about it, there is nothing in nature that is evil. Anything "evil" is an invention of humankind, because our original sin was to invent the concept of "evil," which didn't exist before then. It was only after there was such an idea of "evil" that evil could be committed.
Sorry this is poorly written. I'm in a hurry. I hope some of it is clear.