Over the years we have created myths and stories to explain evil. We have demonized the human body and the very proicess of human propagation, sexuality. We have created the idea of hell to literally scare the "hell" out of people. Job was an admirable effort and phenominal piece of poetry designed to explain evel but has failed miserable.
We have demonized all of existence portraying the "world" as evil; the body as evil etc.
What is the source of evil? What and where is hell? I often wondered what Augustine's problem was with sex.
Evil
Evil
Sex is seen as fleshly weakness compared to spiritual strength, because Christ was seen as the perfect example of spiritual perfection, we mere humans were to try to imitate him and seek purification and perfection and the physical body has always been the enemy and something to subjugate, old Augy wanted to be the closest living thing to Christ,but battled horrificly within himself, lived as a total hypocrite then admited his humanity towards the end ,even changing his views on humanity and flesh, poor darling all that suffering only to see it was'nt the end of a spiritual life or the evil he'd preached for years.
Evil
"Evil" appears to be as man made as "good". We dwell on it more because it's got the greatest shock value and the most likely opportunity to feel better about ourselves in comparison. There are no lack of promising judge and juries in the world. Yet their headhunts are not often seen as the very evil they seek to destroy. Having read a few history of the world books recently it is glaringly obvious that mankind seems to enjoy evil very much.
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nvalleyvee
- Posts: 5191
- Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2005 8:57 am
Evil
Ted wrote: Over the years we have created myths and stories to explain evil. We have demonized the human body and the very proicess of human propagation, sexuality. We have created the idea of hell to literally scare the "hell" out of people. Job was an admirable effort and phenominal piece of poetry designed to explain evel but has failed miserable.
We have demonized all of existence portraying the "world" as evil; the body as evil etc.
What is the source of evil? What and where is hell? I often wondered what Augustine's problem was with sex.
Dang.......I really thought it was the Puritans who brought that belief to this country. I think the year was about 1650.. They were KICKED OUT OF ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Mayflower rings a bell......:wah: :wah:
We have demonized all of existence portraying the "world" as evil; the body as evil etc.
What is the source of evil? What and where is hell? I often wondered what Augustine's problem was with sex.
Dang.......I really thought it was the Puritans who brought that belief to this country. I think the year was about 1650.. They were KICKED OUT OF ENGLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Mayflower rings a bell......:wah: :wah:
The growth of knowledge depends entirely on disagreement..........Karl R. Popper
Evil
nvalleyvee:-6
The Puritins did indeed bring it over. It began as early as Augustine if not before.
The problem is that it is a strictly western interpretation of the ancient writings and beliefs that has hung on until this day. It has affected North American faith with what is not the original understanding of the scriptures and thus has corrupted the original Christian faith in a very negative way.
One of the ways it has done this is in its stress on individualism which was not stressed in the early church. Christianity relates as much to community as to anything else. This stress on individualization idea is a bastardization of Christianity and has led to all kinds of very stupid ideas about wealth and how society should operate.
When we read the book of "Acts of the Apostles" we find the origins of communal living which is an absolute no no in the US. They, with the help of McCarthy, saw reds under every bed post and that "gentleman" hurt a lot of folks in his witch hunts. That was no better than the witch hunts of Salem.
Shalom
Ted:-6
The Puritins did indeed bring it over. It began as early as Augustine if not before.
The problem is that it is a strictly western interpretation of the ancient writings and beliefs that has hung on until this day. It has affected North American faith with what is not the original understanding of the scriptures and thus has corrupted the original Christian faith in a very negative way.
One of the ways it has done this is in its stress on individualism which was not stressed in the early church. Christianity relates as much to community as to anything else. This stress on individualization idea is a bastardization of Christianity and has led to all kinds of very stupid ideas about wealth and how society should operate.
When we read the book of "Acts of the Apostles" we find the origins of communal living which is an absolute no no in the US. They, with the help of McCarthy, saw reds under every bed post and that "gentleman" hurt a lot of folks in his witch hunts. That was no better than the witch hunts of Salem.
Shalom
Ted:-6
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nvalleyvee
- Posts: 5191
- Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2005 8:57 am
Evil
So Ted.........I think we agree.
The growth of knowledge depends entirely on disagreement..........Karl R. Popper
Evil
nvalleyvee:-6
That also means that we are on the same page as many scholars.
Shalom
Ted:-6
That also means that we are on the same page as many scholars.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Evil
As an addition to this topic I post from another forum:
On original sin.
God is the good
and all things which proceed from him
are good.
Heldegarade of Bingen
Just to be is a blessing.
Just to live is holy.
Abrahan Heschel
The doctrine of original sin is not found in any of the writings
of the Old Testament. It is certainly not in chapters one to three of Genesis
Herbert Haag
It would be a perversion of the biblical data to reduce God's
dealings with his people to the one concept "salvation'"
The concept of original sin is alien to Jewish tradition.
Elie Wiesel
pg 42-43, "Original Blessing", Matthew Fox.
"Augustine mixed his doctrine of original sin up with his peculiar notions about sexuality. Thus for him all begetting of children and all lovemaking were at least venial senful because one "lost control." Gnosticism also defined original sin as human sensuality. Biblical spirituality cannot tolerate this put-down of the blessing that sexualityand lovemaking are by veiled references to original sin. The sooner the churches put distance between themselves and Augustine's bad scriptural exegesis and translation and Augustine's put-down of women and of sexuality, the sooner original sin will find it proper and very minor role in theology." pg 50 Ibid.
Shalom
Ted
On original sin.
God is the good
and all things which proceed from him
are good.
Heldegarade of Bingen
Just to be is a blessing.
Just to live is holy.
Abrahan Heschel
The doctrine of original sin is not found in any of the writings
of the Old Testament. It is certainly not in chapters one to three of Genesis
Herbert Haag
It would be a perversion of the biblical data to reduce God's
dealings with his people to the one concept "salvation'"
The concept of original sin is alien to Jewish tradition.
Elie Wiesel
pg 42-43, "Original Blessing", Matthew Fox.
"Augustine mixed his doctrine of original sin up with his peculiar notions about sexuality. Thus for him all begetting of children and all lovemaking were at least venial senful because one "lost control." Gnosticism also defined original sin as human sensuality. Biblical spirituality cannot tolerate this put-down of the blessing that sexualityand lovemaking are by veiled references to original sin. The sooner the churches put distance between themselves and Augustine's bad scriptural exegesis and translation and Augustine's put-down of women and of sexuality, the sooner original sin will find it proper and very minor role in theology." pg 50 Ibid.
Shalom
Ted
Evil
Here is a good example of evil and what Jesus was opposed to.
Our culture is deeply engaged in sadomasochism-understood here as
the haves lording over the have-nots. How so? Let's take contemporary
capitalism and the world distribution of wealth and power as an
example: In the 1960s, the overall income of the richest 20 percent of
the world's population was thirty times that of the poorest 20 percent.
Today, it is 224 times larger! In the 1960s, the richest 20 percent held
70 percent of the world's revenues; in 1999 it was 85 percent. Today the
income of the richest 225 people in the world is equal to the income of 3
billion poor people. The income of the three richest people in the world
is equal to the collective national incomes of the poorest forty-nine
countries! It would take no more than 5 per cent of the overall annual
sales of arms in the world to feed all the starving children, to protect
them from dying of preventable diseases, and to make basic education
accessible to all.
This is from an article by Matthew Fox.
Shalom
Ted:-6
Our culture is deeply engaged in sadomasochism-understood here as
the haves lording over the have-nots. How so? Let's take contemporary
capitalism and the world distribution of wealth and power as an
example: In the 1960s, the overall income of the richest 20 percent of
the world's population was thirty times that of the poorest 20 percent.
Today, it is 224 times larger! In the 1960s, the richest 20 percent held
70 percent of the world's revenues; in 1999 it was 85 percent. Today the
income of the richest 225 people in the world is equal to the income of 3
billion poor people. The income of the three richest people in the world
is equal to the collective national incomes of the poorest forty-nine
countries! It would take no more than 5 per cent of the overall annual
sales of arms in the world to feed all the starving children, to protect
them from dying of preventable diseases, and to make basic education
accessible to all.
This is from an article by Matthew Fox.
Shalom
Ted:-6
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rainbowsmiles
- Posts: 394
- Joined: Sun May 29, 2005 6:55 pm
Evil
"Evil" appears to be as man made as "good". We dwell on it more because it's got the greatest shock value and the most likely opportunity to feel better about ourselves in comparison. There are no lack of promising judge and juries in the world. Yet their headhunts are not often seen as the very evil they seek to destroy. Having read a few history of the world books recently it is glaringly obvious that mankind seems to enjoy evil very much.
Very well said Koan!
Very well said Koan!