Evil anyone?

Posted on August 30th, 2004 by Jeremy.
Categories: Religion.

Lately I have gotten into talking about Evil, death, fear and the like….so let me expound

I’ll start with a quote from one of my faves C.S. Lewis “Remember that, as I said, the right direction leads not only to peace but to knowledge. When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. you can understand the nature of drunkeness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.“

a healthy mind vs. a non-healthy mind.

As I continue on this lovely journey of life, I begin, which makes me think as it says above, that I’m getting “healthier”. I tend to realize the foibles and inconsistencies in my person quicker than I have in the past. My hypocrisies, though still prevelant, are becoming less frequent, and I’m getting better about not talking smack to people. These are all good things. But they are also concepts that revolve around the idea of “good” and “evil”.

Politics abound in the world of late. A polarized nation becomes more and more polarized over every little matter. Yet what I find the most amazing is when people defend one side, and when you ask them what they base their ideology or their concept of “right” and “wrong” on, they have no answer.

Truth, as I was talking to one of my friends, is really a societal creation. It’s not something that exists, yet they will go and support suicide bombers in Palestine. Isn’t that a bit inconsistent?

If you believe that Truth is what we make it. If there is no real definable right and wrong, then how can you intellectually, with honesty, defend ANY position.

Even someone who says, “Everything you do is okay as long as you don’t hurt someone else”, is really admitting that somewhere there is this unwritten “moral” rule that says we shouldn’t hurt others. But where does that come from? If it is something that is engrained in our psyche for civilization to thrive, then logically it’s a flexible principle. If I say that I don’t want civilization to thrive, who are you to tell me that I’m wrong?

Obviously I believe in God and the Bible as the word of God “the Rock” as it were. My morality is based on these pieces of letters and writings that were put together and placed in a particular order and now lie in my hand. It’s either true or it isn’t.
I tend to think it’s true just because it ends up doing and saying all this stuff that if I were going to believe in something I wouldn’t have put it that way. It’s completely counter culture.
“meek shall inherit the earth”
“Love your enemies”
no sex before marriage
and a bevy of other ideas that really fly in the face of normal everyday standards.
So back to the point in the ramble. Learning to become a better person. And sometimes that comes with selfcriticism. But isn’t that what you should do? I mean “There but by the Grace of God go I”, and I’m as screwed up a dude as the next guy. But for my life to run a little smoother, just like a company or factory, you want to know what doesn’t work, and fix it. You begin to scrutinize a bit harder and try and streamline those faculties that aren’t performing to standards that they should. Alright…there is my religious dribble for the day. Carry on.

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