The Assignment Continues

[ailbhe]

I've managed 600 words plus quotes so far. Perhaps I should tell you what the question really was, given the response I got before: "Is the free-will defense a convincing solution to the problem of evil?" (and yes, I think it is, if you think that evil is a problem).

Query - does it bother any of the Jews reading my journal that I write God out in full? Would you be more comfortable if I wrote G-d? I'm not hugely religious either way, you see, but I've read the reasons why religious Jews never write the full name out in a public place.

Now I feel like I've done a bad thing by writing "Jews". I used to feel this way when I wrote "black people" and "Pakistanis". I'm not making a bigoted generalisation or being offensive, I'm asking a question so that I can not be offensive. Now stop feeling guilty, Ailbhe.

Comments

[meirion.livejournal.com]

just as a matter of interest, have you read G.R. Evans' "Augustine on Evil"?

-m-

[uitlander]

Query - does it bother any of the Jews reading my journal that I write God out in full?

Well I decribe myself as an aethetist, but I was brought up in a fairly lax jewish household, in a jewish part of London. I have no problems at all with you using 'God', to be honest I've always thought the 'G-d' business a tad pretentious, and part of the 'oh we really don't want to integrate into a community, we just want to exclude people from our little club' brigade. And no, the term 'Jew' is not in any way offensive - it is an accurate description of a religious adherent and/or an ethnicity. Had you said 'yid', or any of the other countless insults, that would have been a problem. You're just being accurate.

[megabitch.livejournal.com]

Evil - depends on your definition of evil. One person's evil may be another person's good. And if there was no evil, how would you define good anyway?

Several years ago, I had an argument with one of my uncles. We'd been discussing karma and re-incarnation. A toddler (about 2 years old) had been killed when a stray bullet from a fight on the street went through the front door of her house (which was closed) and hit her in the head. As far as he was concerned the child was too young to have done anything to be "punished" for (he still didn't "get" the concept of karma) and therefore the argument of reincarnation and karma was bogus. To him, the death of that child was evil, period, no discussion, no argument. Now, I agreed that it was sad and must have been soul-destroyingly terrible for anybody who knew the child, But I couldn't call the incident "evil".

How do I know that the soul that was in that child had not _chosen_ to go through that in order to teach a much needed lesson to another soul on their journey? I don't. I don't have all the answers, and I object very strongly to anyone who tries claim that they do.

Of course, if there is no soul, then there is no reason for any of the above. But there also is no "good" or "evil". This is it. Nothing beyond the here and now matters worth a damn. So do what you please, because there is no account to be taken, so you might as well go for what you can get now.

I don't have all the answers, and I object very strongly to anyone who tries claim that they do.

[liadnan]

.. or, as my current .sig quotes JS Mill putting it, "It is given to no human being to stereotype a set of truths and walk
safely by their guidance with his mind's eye closed."

[liadnan]

Remind me to lend you, if you haven't already read, James Morrow's "Towing Jehovah" trilogy, particularly "Blameless in Abaddon" wherein God is put on trial for crimes against humanity in allowing evil.. sharp, thought provoking, and funny into the bargain. One of my favourite novels.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

It's sad that neutral descriptive terms like Jew, black and Pakistani have acquired offensive overtones. It's implicitly saying that members of those groups are somehow lesser, and so we should politely ignore the fact.

[ailbhe]

Nope. Should I?

[ailbhe]

I have no problem with saying "He's black" or "she's Jewish", but I do feel guilty when I refer to "black people" or "Jews" - I think because it feels like it might be a generalisation.

I'm working on it.

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

But do you have a problem saying "Catholics" or "Christians" or "Muslims"?

[ailbhe]

About the only time I don't is when I say something like "Christians believe that Christ was the son of God" or "Catholics are taught to believe in transubstantiation". I spend a lot of time double-thinking myself. The potentially implied "all" in what should be a simple plural is what bugs me, I think.

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense, then.

[ailbhe]

Natural evil - I'm working on the basis that if people were all lovely and sensible and shred out the knowledge, people wouldn't live next to live volcanoes. Yes, I see the holes in it, but I'm working on plugging them. I may have to invoke time travel.