Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site pyuxn.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!pyuxww!pyuxn!rlr 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