Thursday, February 19, 2009

Evil, what is that

Okay bare with me a little here because i did something very fun the other day after my philosophy class. I proved that evil does not exist. that there is no such thing as evil, that evil is actually good.
(disclaimer this is more a fun thing to play with the philosophies of others not what i would actually hold to, and yes there are probably holes in my logic)

we start with David Hume. Now David Hume is not a christian. he looks at the world and says this about God:
  • If God is willing to prevent evil but Not able to prevent it then he is Impotent (and there fore not really God)
  • If God is able to prevent evil but not willing to prevent it then he is Malevolent
  • If God is neither willing or able then He is both Impotent and malevolent
  • because if God is both willing and able then why do we have so much evil in the world
so that is where we find Hume, Not claiming that there is no god, but rather that he has the power to stop evil but does not desire to do so. god is not the all powerful, Good, and righteous designer.

Hume Proves his idea that God is not good by using the following scenario:
  • lets say there is a person who has no part of this univers. they are in a completely different universe then this one. (a parralle universe if you will)
  • lets say that he is assured that this universe does in fact exist.
  • next he is assured that this universe was Designed
  • and that not only was it designed but the designer was an All powerful, wise, and good being
  • this would give the person an idea of what our universe should look like
  • however that notion would be different then what the universe really is (because Hume figures that if the person is convinced that the designer of this Universe was all powerful, wise, and good then the universe must be a paradise were no evil is. after all a good, wise, all powerful designer would not allow evil into his world.)
  • so now the person is able to come to our universe.
  • this person (becasue of what his preconcived notion of what the univers should be like) would be surprised by the vice, misery and disorder in this world.

My question for Hume is this, if this theoretical person is from an other dimetion or parrallel universe why would he have the same idea of what Good is? for the sake of clarification were are Going to name this person in the other universe steve.
  • let us say that steve is from a world that is an evolutionary world. all things in it have evolved to the state were they now curently are. his world came about by chance rather then beign desined as our universe was.
  • Steve's understanding of the world then is that all systems work toward the evolving of a species.
  • So for Steve the way the universe works is like a watch. all the moving parts work together to achieve that goal.
  • Steve comes to our universe knowing that it was designed, and that the designer is good. why should he expect our universe to not have death destruction and despair?
  • afterall when animals mall something or some one is it not simply the cycle of life?
  • are not natural desastors the natural world coming back into alinment?
  • when a whole population is wiped out by famion, or plague is it not the land contolling the population?
  • now if we add in Neichie's idea that the most importaint thing for ever person to pursue is dominonce and or power to this mix suddenly Murder, War, rape, and so on are just a person expressing his dominance as the stronger of others.
  • therefore should Steve be surprised that our world is the way it is when he would have a much different idea of what good and evil are? it is not more likely that steve would agree with J. L Mackie who said there is not objective good or evil.

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