[OT] Who would/could deny evilness?:Bible quote

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While the Christian Scientists DO deny that "evil" is more than a false thought, and their founder, Mary Baker Glover Patterson ... Eddy was (believed to have been) a vegetarian, most of us, particularly those who are ethical vegetarians, look at the overwhelming attacks, not on the World Trade Towers (though that is ONE example) but upon (not one but) MANY nonhuman species in so many ways: food, fur, fun, etc. Is OUR species evil, or are all species evil (they attack one another), or is evil must a thought which makes life hard for us?All part of ethics and meta-ethics, to be sure, but surely humans do NOT (at least not any longer) have rational reasons for eating meat, and certainly not SO MUCH meat, nor for the reasons that humans are eating meat and animal products.Those of us who are "rationalists" can merely think that most humans are not (yet?) fully rational. To be sure! But do we have a historical role had agents of social change, helping to effect (bring about) a positive change in the way (segments of) our species behaves?Surely at SOME level we have an influence on others, but can this become our overarchign "life's work"? our purpose for living? for having been born? I'm not really sure, but I suspect that, if we elect that as a life's direction, it will be as a result of choosing it, not from having discovered a divine revelation -- though some HAVE claimed that ultimate level of significance for doing "redemptive" work.Others feel that such work can be compassionate and humanitarian, even at the level of missionary efforts (as in building schools and hospitals -- why not helping to re-educate humans re: diets).But is there "evil"? Well, at least there is much of what is MEANT when we use the word "evil," and ethical vegetarians are ACUTELY sensitive to the horror and destruction, as are those who observe and reflect upon the human toll in misery in our hospital wards, police stations, skid rows, etc.Many who look at these with "worldviewish" approaches might look at "social evil" as a list of ills and wrongs, with wrongful diet as one of numerous wrongs or ills, but not the only ill or wrong -- though surely one of those numerous ills and wrongs which influences much of our health and our social relationships with others. (I think that, when vegetarians and "vegans" display wrongful behaviors and destructive behaviors towards themselves and others, they undercut the "moral" claims that vegetarianism might otherwise have. But that COULD be a different issue.)Maynard S. Clark vegicate1 <simonpjones wrote: , "elisabeth_rb" <erbraun@u...> wrote:>Simon, (and all the team here)>Simon, I was surprised at your saying that Satan was the evil in >things. You quoted Christ on the adultery front, but it's worth >remembering that Christ spoke of, (and TO), the Devil as a real >personality!> >On the Satan front, I don't think that anyone is stupid for >believing that he exists, but I do feel that he likes it when > people don't - means his tactics are pretty effective. > However, I also don't think it's quite on to blame all evil on > him. Sure, he influences things on the earth to an alarming > degree, but humans are free to make their own decisions and act > on them. > > Also, perhaps it is a little out of harmony with the gentleness > of the vegan ethic to be calling others "stupid"??> Love and mango,> Elisabeth.Elisabeth: Who could deny evilness,horror ,what ever you want call it exits.The quote I used was from Genesis 1-29, It clearly states that humans and animals and every thing that has the breathe of life in it should eat the plants should be theirs for food,I can't see how it can be interpreted to mean any thing ,unless we have a different understanding of what words themselves mean!p.s what does mango mean?yours SP

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