Was wondering what ya'all thought of the notion of the 'inherentness" (????) of good and evil
To be sure...not an original thought ala Neitzsche, taoists even descartes.
My thoughts run to whether it is an inherent part of the human condition or is it simply a series of categories we need for societal survival?
To argue the former often involves man's position in the universe and his place in God's plan.
The later suggests it is an artefact of our societal system and, as such, if that were to change so to would the parameters of good and evil.
As I write it seems a bit easy that the word God seems to spring from the word good and the word Devil is but one letter away....hadn't noticed that before
Is what we do as people divisible along this dichotomy naturally or do we decide?
The answer to that has been debated through the ages. - and inevitably ends up in the realm of the theologians.
We've all heard of "rogue elephants" but do we then as a matter of course go on and describe it as evil or bad?
Or do we put it down to an aberration of nature. a gene gone bad.
It seems then we include a notion of the will component of the act. And....along our typical human "top of the evolutional tree" gift from most religions....we do not ascribe the elephants behaviour as being an act of will, do we?
For if we did..surely the good/evil division would spring to mind.
For me...good and evil have no real immutable basis.
For me it is not a religious construct but a sociological one.
It is a framework whereby we - as humans with a genetic need to compartmentalise and categorise - divide behaviours along lines that lead to a more stable and homogenous society.
And along the lines of "might makes right"....the line in the sand is a shifting and evolving division with a few core beliefs that have worked for so long they are accepted as immutable.
