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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greg or e who wrote (14358)	3/16/2011 7:45:46 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 69300

"All..'Harming'.. is caused by.. Misknowledge.." The Buddha's..View

To: Greg or e who wrote (14358)	3/16/2011 10:16:50 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

I imagine we are coming at this from rather different starting points. Evil as a universal human experience? I don't see it that way. Of course, all I have is one singular human's experience, and the stories of others that I can (should, must?) evaluate for "fit" into what I know. That experience (with limits and qualifications necessary because I am not an authority, merely a participant) does not give weight to the reality of evil as a cohesive force. Ceterum censeo it is dangerous to speak at all about universal human experience ... is there such an animal, and how can we islands of cognition (Pope notwithstanding) test that? You describe the objective existence of evil as a "universal human experience". You grant it the status of an axiom. I do not, and (whether as a result or completely otherwise - I do not know) I examine the premise, and my tentative but internally consistent conclusion is "sorry, you just lost me". I am human and rational and somewhat intelligent. I have a lifetime of experience and introspection under my belt, and I cannot agree that the human experience of evil is universal. That is why I "slide back" to talking about bad things ... that does fall inside my understanding of universal human experience. Do I have the evil/redemption thing backwards? I contend that it does not matter. Looking at the logic, it is reversible. Cause and effect are symmetric: if A then B; also if B then A. Since I don't see B, I can't really comment on A except as a cultural phenomenon.