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Conclusion, seek refuge in a remote cabin in the forest, seek no companionship, just find solitude in nature as a means of avoiding evil.
If I could, that is what I would do. Get a small house somewhere in the Alps and live a simple life with my animals, classical music collection and glorious mountain nature. And let all the other crazies kill each other if that is what they want.
If I could, that is what I would do. Get a small house somewhere in the Alps and live a simple life with my animals, classical music collection and glorious mountain nature. And let all the other crazies kill each other if that is what they want.
By the time me and my partner retire...this is exactly what we are going to do. I look forward to it even though it is many many many years away.
I wish I could quit my science job and live out in the country side of France and work at a flower, cheese or wine farm. Hanging out with nature all day long...it would not seem like work at all to me.
Or move to Tasmania and live the life of an adventurer in that lush nature.
I will say it at once: I do not believe in the story of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit in God's garden, and the guilt for their action somehow falling onto the entire human race. If that story were true, then God would be the one responsible for making them face the temptation unprepared.
But still, sometimes it seems to me that humanity has a natural bent to being evil. Other species would kill for food or in self-defense, and humans do that too, of course. But unlike other species, humans seem to enjoy doing harm to other living beings (whether fellow man or other species) even when it brings no tangible benefit to themselves whatsoever, just for the fun of it. Just recently there was a thread on CD about kids who put their baby sibling into a hot oven. I can imagine those kids did not know what they were doing at first. But when the screaming started, these kids knew very well that the baby was suffering, and they still did nothing. And that is only one example.
People, both children and adults, inflicting pain on animals, for no use whatever. Trophy hunting. People throwing their garbage all over the place, trashing their neighborhoods, painting graffiti tags on walls. People being obnoxious and rude to others for no other reason than they can do it. And so on, and so forth....
So, what do you think, do people have an innate inclination to evil, or are they fundamentally good, but sometimes misguided creatures?
Some people are good, some bad. I think it is the small minority who are bad, but they seem to hit the headlines!
I live in the centre of a small city and do not see much "evil" around me. I see a lot more kindness and neutral actions than bad or wrong ones although I am more likely to remember seeing something done that was wrong than a non wrong done. For a simple example you notice a person walking down the street and not picking up after their dog but if they do pick up after their dog you don't even think about it as that is what most people now do. Same for littering or not littering.
If you want try to compare the homicide rates of New York City from today's rates to those of the late 1800s.
My belief is that some people do wrong a lot of the time but I do think that most bad actions are done by people who normally are good people. We all have the ability to do good or bad and for the most part we choose to do good. I find it some what ironic that many of the religious people have stated that we atheists have nothing to live for are also the ones who think that humans are basically evil. I think we have so much to live for and almost all humans are basically good, at least to start with. That seems the more hopeful or optimistic outlook on life.
People are innately self serving without strong moral/ethical influences. Those positive moral influences often come from books, family, church, organizations such as Scouting, internet, and teachers. More affluent/better educated populaces usually have more exposure to positive moral influences. Plus they tend to already have material comforts and fewer costly addictions such as drugs.
If I could, that is what I would do. Get a small house somewhere in the Alps and live a simple life with my animals, classical music collection and glorious mountain nature. And let all the other crazies kill each other if that is what they want.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matadora
By the time me and my partner retire...this is exactly what we are going to do. I look forward to it even though it is many many many years away.
...snip....
Try not to hate me but that's what I've done. (Except for the"Alps" part.)
People are innately self serving without strong moral/ethical influences. Those positive moral influences often come from books, family, church, organizations such as Scouting, internet, and teachers. More affluent/better educated populaces usually have more exposure to positive moral influences. Plus they tend to already have material comforts and fewer costly addictions such as drugs.
People take a defensive stance when society breaks down to the point where moral codes are not enforced.
If you examine the places where the most egregious disenfranchisement or even mass killings have taken place, they are concentrated in failed or annihilated states which are essentially in a state of anarchy. Even Stalinist Russia can be seen as a state that selectively used lawlessness to achieve its ends. Their Gulags, and Hitler's concentration camps, and Pol Pot's killing fields were areas exempt from the larger society and its laws and taboos.
I don't think this is because humans are waiting for an excuse to get away with anything they can. I think it is because when the "law of the jungle" applies even partially, people hedge their bets. If your neighbor was a Jew in a country occupied by Nazi Germany, his property would be confiscated and the neighbor and his family would disappear into a killing field or concentration camp. The property would be taken either by the Reich or it might be up for grabs by whoever -- such as given to whoever turned them in as Jews. In this situation it's plain that anyone the state arbitrarily decides is its enemy is subject to confiscation -- state-sanctioned theft. Meanwhile the economy tanks and food supplies become squirrelly. You start to wonder how you are going to feed your family. And as such you could really, really use more arable land, the foodstocks in other people's houses -- and you start to rationalize. Well Vlad down the lane here looks kind of Jewish and he has quite a larder and I've never liked him anyway. If I don't denounce him as Jewish someone else will. And so the rationalizations roll.
Society can bring out either the best or the worst in people. Most stable societies are civil societies that do a pretty good job of bringing out the best in people. When those societies break down, then many more people become their worst selves. It makes sense; we are social creatures and are reinforced by belonging to the group and we belong by conforming to its mores.
The other side of the coin is that not everyone succumbs to the pack mentality. Every fourth person or so will see past their immediate needs and know that they could not live with themselves if they took a neighbor's property and consigned them to torture and worse -- or if they turned away one person asking them for shelter and protection -- no matter what the risks. And there are plenty of heroic tales along those lines, too.
Try not to hate me but that's what I've done. (Except for the"Alps" part.)
You assumption that other people (me) would hate you for achieving your dreams already tells something about the state of mind of the modern man, and this state is not good. What is there to hate?
Last edited by Norne; 12-16-2015 at 09:33 AM..
Reason: bad grammar
You assumpting that other people (me) would hate you for achieving your dreams already tells something about the state of mind of the modern man, and this state is not good. What is there to hate?
Yes. No one is righteous, and no one does good -- not one. Of course, that's what the Bible teaches. I realize though, that you already have discounted the bible and are not willing to accept what it says.
Condemning that infant once again, because even god-in-that-tiny-box created infants to be wicked, evil sinful people..
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