1. What is evil?
I have to be honest, it isn't really a question I have asked myself often. I can look at something and determine if it is evil, but the technical definition of evil kind of floats at the edges of my mind, a half formed answer that probably wouldn't hold up to closer inspection. I was reading this book the other day and this is how it defined evil:
"It seems to me that evil is a kind of ultimate greed, a greed so all-encompassing that it can't ever see anthing lovely, rare, or precious without wanting to possess it. A greed so total that if it can't possess these things, it will destroy them rather than chance that someone else might have them. A greed so intense that even having these things never causes it to lesson one iota- the lovely, the rare and the precious never affect it except to make it want them.... Evil can't create, it can only copy, mar, and destroy, because it is so taken up with itself. So good would also be a kind of selflessness. " - Arrow's Fall (Mercedes Lackey)
I'm sure that this isn't the perfect definition, but it makes a lot of sense to me. Satan is hungry for power and is willing to do anything to have that power. Christ on the otherhand did the most completely selfless thing possible and gave his life for us.
2. Does doing nothing make you guilty? or Does a refusal to save a life make you a murderer?
I suppose I present a biased opinion just from the phrasing of the question, but it is truly something that I have been asking myself. There has been and will probably continue to be a great debate over stem cell research and to me this is one of several ethical questions that has been raised. If this technology has the ability to save lives do we become guilty by refusing to use it? Now I don't totally understand all this stem cell stuff, but it seems to me that we are being asked to choose between a current life and potential life. So the question becomes is it murder if we use it or if we don't?
More questions to be looked at in future posts (if I get around to it):
3. Does God want us to be rich?
4. Should Christians be involved in politics?
5. Christianity and warfare?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Evil is hard to define but "I know it when I see it." (kind of like porn)
Anyway, to me evil is a total self-centeredness (which I guess is greed in a way). It's being so focused on what "I" want, feel, have, etc. that there is no interest in or room for others except to see how they can supply what "I" want. By this definition, there is no compassion, no empathy, no righteous indignation, no love.
Michelle,
About stem cell and destroying life to save it. When did God say that our ultimate goal in this life was to live as long as possible and stay alive at all costs? Of course God does not condone murder or suicide, so if we are alive, we shouldn't go and end that on purpose. Paul said that to die would be gain. First of all, the only kind of stem cell research that shows any kind of promise is adult stem cell. The big debate is to whether the govt. should shell out our tax money to destroy human life. Stem cell research is allowed by the private sector. If it was so promising, the why aren't very rich people who invest money in research investing, knowing they will get a big return? Because it doesn't show promise. BUT.... even if it did, each one of those embryos is a tiny human with a soul, put in there by God. Created by God, intended to live on this earth by God. Even if it could save us from every horrible disease, it would be wrong. There are millions of souls sitting in the deep freeze in some laboratory, waiting for someone to deem them worthy to have a chance to live. If someone has a disease, it is not murder to let them die from it if there is no cure. God knows when a sparrow falls from the sky, he knows when each human faces physical ailments. Death is horrible and the result of Adam and Eve's sin, and it is inevitable. So, if we cure every disease, there will still be old age. I think that the cures and vaccines we have now are put on this earth by God and figured out by humans, but could God really approve killing the innocent souls of those babies? And they are babies, no matter what the world says,and you will know some day when you have are pregnant, how you love that child from the day you know it is there. Not from the point of which abortion is not legal. This is not one of those gray areas as the media, liberals, and even some people who believe in God would have us believe. Would you approve of taking a woman who just found out she was pregnant, removing the microscopic child and dissecting it in the name of research? Just because these embryos are started in a petri dish, doesn't make it any less human or alive. Just ask someone who has had a child by IVF. Anyway, your delimma concerned me and I know you didn't tell your opinion either way, but I wanted to let you know mine. Where are you going on your next mission trip? Thanks, Karen Pirkle
Post a Comment