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From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Jones on free will and evil
Message-ID: <712@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 4-Jun-84 15:01:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.712
Posted: Mon Jun  4 15:01:08 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 6-Jun-84 04:29:53 EDT
References: <7343@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 32

The reason human beings don't "always do the good thing" is because our
behavior is determined by our chemical makeup.  Since we evolved from
so-called lower animals, we continue to have chemical running through our
body that result in "animal" behavior (behavior that enables animals to
survive in the "wild").  No one ever asked a carnivorous animal whether it
was being "good" or "evil" when it slaughtered another animal in combat.
("How horrible!  That great big whatever just killed that extremely cute
little whatsit and now it's going to eat it!  How cruel!")  Kind of strange
to try to impose such "good" and "evil" constructs on animals.

In human beings, the notion of good (vs. evil) has always depended on who
you were talking to when.  With our more complex brains, we invent the
notion that good is 1) that which pleases me as opposed to causing me harm,
2) [as humans grouped together] that which is beneficial to members of this
group as a whole, 3) [eventually]  that which is beneficial to a given person
without causing harm to another person.  (Given the nature of things, one
realizes that one cannot find absolute "good" and "evil" in the real world
[unless you subscribe to unilateral imposition theories], so you attempt to
work it out as best you can.)

One nice thing about these more complex brains we have, is that they provide
for the development of these sorts of societal constructs, and that they
can help us to make a logical determination (or sometimes an illogical one,
if you get the wrong info) as to what behavior patterns are worth following.
We'll continue to exhibit "animal behavior" as long as we continue to occupy
animal bodies, but it's nice to know that we have the intelligence to engage
in logical behavior patterning (in some cases called "postponement of
gratification", perhaps the first symptom of real intelligent behavior).
If only such thinking were applied by more people in more areas of living.
-- 
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
				Rich Rosen    pyuxn!rlr