Talk:Evil is the absence of God/Archive1

This is an archive page, last updated 24 June 2022. Please do not make edits to this page.

Archives for this talk page:

< List>

, (new)(back)

Good and evil

Good and evil as positive and negative electric charges. Protons are not the "absence of electrons", and electrons are not the "absence of protons". The light-darkness and heat-coldness models of good and evil aren't the only logically-possible models! CodeMaster9000 (talk) 23:12, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

Criticisms of the argument

. . . Okay, raising a discussion section for the third edit I have made today which has been followed for the third time by the same user:

1. If you compare God to light and energy, then evil becomes a comparative lack of God, not a complete absence of God. I feel my edits express that more accurately. In fact the statement "Furthermore, if some people can experience a "lack of God", then God is clearly not omnipresent" implies "lack of God" == "complete absence of God". However, "cold" != "complete absence of energy" and "darkness" != complete absence of light." (We can say something is cold, even though it does have some energy present; we say there is darkness, even when there are some photons shooting/flowing around) Thus, I think my copy should be used.
2. We are not wikipedia. Toungue in cheek statements are allowed, and I feel mine are funnier than the xisting ones. Thus, I think my text should be kept.

Thoughts? --Bertrc (talk) 19:54, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

1.) You edit in something like "evil is the comparative lack of God", but are seemingly content with something like "darkness is a lack of light". It seems in the first instance the word "lack" did not convey enough relativeness to you, but in the second instance it did. Why is that?

2.) The phrase "Do you really need us to tell you?" and then refusing to give reasons is the path of the lazy and/or the cowardly. Giving reasons will always trump not giving reasons in my book. A compromise that I would consider with this is to say "Do you really need us to tell you? Oh sod it, I should probably tell you anyway, just in case", but that also sounds a bit arrogant. I say, just leave as it previously was.

3.) The next bit you edited in uses quotation marks inside quotation marks, which is quite unsightly. I will let it slide if you change that, even though I think this humour is too wordy for me and would need incredibly good comedic timing on the part of the reader to pull it off.

4.) The next bit, even disregarding the fact that it added grammar mistakes where before there were none, is also too wordy for me. Additionally, it assumes too much about a hypothetical apologist, where before only the bare essential was assumed. I will let the "most mere mortals" bit slide if you add it back in, although it is not my type of humour, at least it's short. Nullahnung (talk) 20:20, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

2.) Heh. I'll concede that point. I didn't see the need to recap what is covered in the snopes article. Would it be acceptable to simply include my snarky comment, but have it link to the snopes article? My problem is that few people would actually believe this is true when we have been screaming "URBAN LEGEND" at them earlier.

3.) I think you might want to look at that again. I wasn't including quotation marks; I was including double single quates which italicize the included text and do not appear, themselves, in the article. As for humor, I would once again throw that to the wider audience.

4.) Point taken about the grammar. However, the meat of the text still stands as a better (if snarky) representation of the apologist position. According to the argument, you don't experience a lack of God any more than you experience a lack of energy. I think the original writer was trying to be snarky, but I feel my snarkiness is more clever. Still, as with the other instances of my humor, I would be interested in further opinions. --Bertrc (talk) 20:56, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

3.) If that was so with the quotation marks then fair enough.

4.) I think you added too many assumptions about a hypothetical apologist as soon as you wrote "Well, hopefully, the apologists would simply tell him "Dude, that sucks" but among themselves, they would say this", which may or may not be accurate, but it certainly widens the error bars. Just keep it clean and simple, keep the basic essentials that are necessary for someone to be an apologist and run with that, no need to add more. The original version was fine. Nullahnung (talk) 01:37, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

I thought of what may be an extra argument to be used: If a benevolent god exists, why is there lack of Good in this world? We would expect from such a deity to at least put some benevolent things in this world, not just erase what's evil. After all, what's not evil isn't necessarily good, It can be a neutral state of neither harmful or helpful. Also, on second note, why would a benevolent deity "erase evil" from some places and not others? Many of these places "that lack good" have a high percentage of religious people, christians included, and a good part of the places that are more "Utopic" than others aren't very religious (Northern Europe countries, for instance) so it would seem faith is not the answer, even less that a good deity would treat people based on blind faith in one of many just as valid religions, rather on how good of persons they are.

BTW, this is where the idea i expressed is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil#Evil_as_the_absence_of_good , also another thing: we could also reverse that thing and say "good is the absence of evil", as in the idea of good is not a quantity by itself, just as valid as that idea of evil being the absence. After all, someone shooting sadistically an innocent isn't doing something neutral but intentionally harmful. Imadmagician (talk) 07:37, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

Evil is the absence of sanity. An all knowing sane being would understand the cause of every action and see that no action is good nor evil until you compare that act to an ideal standard which that same being would see as a falsehood and not reality. Thus a rational all knowing being would not compare reality to fantasy to divide reality into good (that which seeks the fantasy) and evil (that which harms the fantasy).^{— Unsigned, by: 173.65.109.191 / talk / contribs}

Criticism of the criticism of the criticism

Awall's criticism of the criticism seemed to me to miss the point that what happened was indeed evil and not simply an absence of God. Also, it did not English real good. Therefore, I reverted it. Hertzy (talk) 20:06, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

I 'Englished' just fine. My point was that the deed was evil but all evil is, is the sucking of something good; that is, life. This is completely different than it existing outright, like a virus that needs a host. Please reconsider my submission. ^{— Unsigned, by: Awall251 / talk / contribs} 01:18, 9 December 2015‎

"they experience it in the form of absence, in the form of being taken away something good" and similar constructions in that paragraph do not parse well as English. That's OK, but I am not so sanguine about your logic. SmartFeller (talk) 01:27, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

This was (rightfully) removed from the page. C/Ping it here:

Another Perspective

Evil has to exist so that we have two options: God and not God. If there were no evil, there would only be good (God) left. There is no free will in this scenario. Having more than one option is an imperative to have a choice. Furthermore, choice is an imperative for free will.

Evil is an artifact of the human viewpoint. It does not entail the existence of an ostensible deity.

Now, you may say we do not have free will. We are determined by the environment and our genetics. And I will give you this point makes up the majority of us. But I say we have free will over one domain: our conscious mind. We can think about anything we like. Our genes didn't code for a specific thought at a specific moment in time. Neither did our environment or the interaction between the two.

Two words: intrusive thoughts.

Additionally, though evil exists, it is not truly something, rather the taking of something that is already there: life (murder), well-being (torture or pain), security (rape). Evil takes but does not give anything in return. The pain or misfortune that is left is but a void left when something neutral or positive is taken away. The person being tortured is in pain relative to where they were not being tortured. Evil is relative to good like dark is relative to light. But Good is not dependent on evil, as well as light is not dependent on dark.

This paragraph attempts do define evil, but ignores the intent of the evildoer. This prompts a question: Are ignorance or incompetence equivalent to evil?

Evil is the taking of something good because of it is seeking to fill its internal void, or absence. Therefore, a more appropriate definition would be: Evil is the absence of God, which manifests as the taking of things that are good.

See above, regarding the intent of evildoers.

Finally, the argument cannot be compared to hot and cold because these could reach an equilibrium point (50 to 50 point). But light and dark could never meet at such a junction. Instead, light would eradicate dark at the speed of light, which nothing can go faster than. So, it is more like 99.999 to .001 ratio. These are completely different operating principles and cannot be compared. The argument can only apply to one example. Therefore, it is only one case, one argument, in one instance: light and dark compared to good and evil. No other example can be made because they all fall short.

Not even wrong. A steady temperature may be the result of a thermodynamic equilibrium, but that equilibrium need not be a comfortable temperature for humans. Likewise, the speed at which darkness is "eradicated" has little to do with how humans perceive any degree of lightness or darkness.

and my response as to why the above argument still fails:

To be clear, the above argument is completely predicated upon one individual's definition of "evil" and the belief that anything that falls under that person's definition of evil is completely incompatible with that same individual's definition of "good" (hence the advocacy for the light/dark analogy). One could easily think of examples of one person's definition of evil being incompatible with another's definition of evil. At the end of the day, phenomena are neither good nor evil, but only categorized as such through subjective reasoning made by observers.Petey Plane (talk) 16:56, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Hey, Petey, I hope you don't mind that I fisked your c/p above. Regards, SmartFeller (talk) 17:20, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Dear Awall251, I don't think your edits are going to stick as long as you keep comparing evil to material phenomena/entities such as viruses or the wind, since that's (rather obviously) a false analogy. Evil solely exists as a human social/value/motive interpretation of human acts (for instance, I've seen no one argue that male lions are "evil" for killing the cubs of a pride when they take it over from its prior leader), whereas wind and viruses would and do exist regardless of whether humans are involved in the equation or not. So, to claim that evil exists in the same objective way that wind and viruses (i.e. independently of a human perspective) is not a sound foundation for an argument. ScepticWombat (talk) 06:34, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Doesn't God pretty much define what is evil and what not via the ten commandments and a few other verses in the bible? From an apologist's point of view, "evil" should be pretty well defined (if not, he can still use his own moral compass, since God always seems to agree with apologists). Now that we've dealt with the definition, let's take a look at the "evil is the comparative lack of god" argument: Darkness is the comparative lack of light because space remains dark unless it's lit up by passing photons. Physically speaking, darkness is the ground state (or closer to the ground state). Likewise, a cold atom has less heat energy than a warm atom, again, the cold atom is closer to the ground state (no excitations, O Kelvin). If that's comparable to evil being the comparative lack of God, that means that evil is kind of the ground state of the universe - a ground state which can only be excited into a higher state by a local excitation of the God field G(x). Does this mean that God is so incompetent a universe designer that he can't build a universe which follows his rules (a.k.a. what is "good") so that he has to amend them via biblical edicts and his physical presence in the form of G(x)? --Imaginative username (talk) 20:01, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

Imaginative username, I think the point of this analogy is that only the first commandment defines evil. The rest are just symptoms we can use to recognize evil (or, to phrase it differently, to recognize when a decision is being made from a place where you have centered/grounded your life on something other than God) --Bertrc (talk) 13:37, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Also: An apologist would probably interject and claim that evil only entered the universe due to Original Sin, probably in an event which lead to spontaneous symmetry breaking of G(x) (read a bit about the Higgs Mechanism if you don't get this). However, this would mean, that mankind can undo a fundamental part of God's Creation by just eating an apple or something, which would make us quite powerful compared to God... not quite as powerful as Him, but since He hasn't been able to fix the damage a mere two humans did to the fabric of His creation 6000 years ago, we should be in the same order of magnitude. Which is infinite power, if God is omnipotent. Really, this answer begs more questions than it answers. --Imaginative username (talk) 20:01, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

@Imaginative username, well, it depends on whether you take Genesis literally or literarily. Regardless of your view of Genesis, I think you are essentially discussing the problem of evil. You brought up omnipotence; that is a lot of power; Assuming God is omnipotent, IMHO, the best response is the transformative theodicy --Bertrc (talk) 13:37, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Well, yeah, I did bring up the problem of evil because that's pretty much what this entire discussion is all about... But back to topic: You said that only the first commandment defines evil, i.e. thou shalt have no gods before me. In other words, "evil" and "not evil" hinges upon belief in (the abrahamic) God. However, the italian mafia is a rather christian bunch, but they violate pretty much all the commandments 4 through 10. Does that make them good persons? What about the Ku-Klux-Klan (christian organization) or ISIS (not christian, but they believe in the abrahamic God as well)? Or, on the other end of the spectrum, decent people like Einstein or Hawking who did a lot of good but happened to be agnostics or atheists? What about Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Jains etc. who accidentally live in full compliance with commandments 4 through 10 but happen to not believe in JHW?

And the transformative theodicy has its problems as well... I don't see any internal inconsistencies in the assertion "Mankind is unable to comprehend God's plan", however, once you try to harmonize that with the rest of christian dogma, it becomes problematic.

Assuming that God's plan for humanity can be sufficiently summarized by ten commandments, why does He keep setting precedents when He breaks His own rules, usually by creatively killing people who defy Him, His chosen people or just because He's in the mood? Is it okay when He does it, because He's God? Why does He allow bad things to happen to Israel all the time? Wouldn't it be easier to subtlely convince the attacking Egyptians that it would be a better idea to attack Nubia instead? Or how about settling the Israelites on Cyprus... it's not that far away and, being an island, much harder to attack. Or He could establish a pocket dimension for Israelites only, rendering an attack on them physically impossible. The Cyprus and pocket dimension solution wouldn't even affect the Egyptians' free will.

Also, why did God create humans with an intellect too low to understand His heavenly plan but high enough to question his very existence for which he didn't leave any hard evidence? Was it an experiment what happens when you leave a bunch of semi-intelligent apes stranded on a rock for a few thousand years with a set of rules that was only revealed to a random tribe of bronze age shepherds? If so, then "good" and "evil" is just a spectrum of observables of the experiment ("good" = the test subjects followed the rules, "evil" = the test subjects rejected the rules). Also, God sucks as an experimentator because he couldn't resist influencing the experiment a few times when it was already going on: The Great Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, miscallaneous minor cases of dickery and, finally, a hard reset of everybody's test score via the (kind of) sacrifice of some dude who may or may not have been He Himself, His son or some random prophet. --Imaginative username (talk) 01:17, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

Definitions

Surely 'the absence of God' is some form of limbo (including 'the bits of beyond between the galaxies'), 'the absence of consciousness sufficient to understand the concept of God' etc.

'The absence of God' is no more evil than 'notwhite=black.'

And - which God(ess)((e)s)? 82.44.143.26 (talk) 17:28, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

We don't actually mention of Augustine of Hippo

Oversight? Stuff people can go to ToW for? He is famously the first philosopher articulating this exact idea, and it's even called Augustinian Theodicy in the more theologianish set. If I just modified the summary to say "The idea was originally proposed by Saint Augustine of Hippo" in like the third paragraph, would it be an improvement? ikanreed ^{🐐Bleat at me} 20:45, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

The obvious question

The absence of which Deity/ies?

And how do the Spanish Inquisition/sacrificing vast numbers of people in the name of one faith or another/other kneejerk examples fit into this argument? 86.134.53.74 (talk) 21:17, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Good vs Benevolent

Regarding this change I certainly agree that omnibenevolence sounds better, but I don't think "benevolence" and "good" are equivalent. Benevolence is not really the opposite of evil; "Good" is the opposite of evil.

The "absence" argument addresses somebody saying "If God created everything, then He created Evil." Or "If God is present everywhere, such as this evil situation, then He must be evil, Himself." It does not address how He could still be considered "benevolent" when he allows Himself to be so absent from a situation that we consider the situation evil.

To phrase my point differently: I think we should use "good" instead of "benevolent". God can be good, even though He is present in an evil situation; He simply is not included enough in the situation. However, if I may stretch the "evil == cold" analogy to a breaking point, my retort would be: "He must not be very nice (ie. must not be very benevolent) to leave us feeling so cold." Thus, IMHO, claiming evil is like cold does not support the claim that God is benevolent; it simply supports the claim that God can be good and present in an evil situation (or good and the creator of all things). --Bertrc (talk) 21:18, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Omnibenevolent=loving everyone, how could an evil person/God love everyone? Christopher (talk) 07:22, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Your question is a little tangential. My thought is that "good" fits better thematically, even if it does not sound as good rhythmically. The "evil is like cold" argument attempts to address a particular claim: "If God is present in <blah> and <blah> is evil, then God must not be good." The argument isn't really meant to address the claim: "If God is present in <blah> and <blah> is evil, then God must not be omnibenevolent." (at least, not meant to address that claim, directly) I'd like to use "good" instead of "omnibenevolent" because there is a direct equivalence comparison between "good" and "evil", whereas the relationship between "omnibenevolence" and "evil" is less direct. The direct contrasts to "omnibenevolence" are "malevolence" and/or "indifference". --Bertrc (talk) 19:36, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

I hate to sound salty, but

Please, no — not another talkpage filled with Bertrc's false analogies to heat and cold.

Last time, it was omnipresence you (completely fallaciously) tried to explain away in terms of "heat and cold".

This time, I see it's moral good and evil that's being subjected to your pseudophysical advances. And like before, the very definition of the word "omni" seems to elude you.

For the record, your above proposed equivocal switching of 'benevolent' for 'good' is pretty embarassing, especially considering your likely motive — that the word 'good' (cf. 'evil') shoehorns more readily into 'heat' (cf. 'cold') than does the relevant term, 'benevolence'.

Heck, If only I knew you'd been toting the same incoherent pet analogy for years, I wouldn't have gotten so indignant at your refusal to abandon it — even as parades of 18-wheelers kept running over its head repeatedly. My bad. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 13:46, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Aw, Dude, you're the salt of the earth! Don't hate yourself! --Bertrc (talk) 19:37, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Moving a thread from a talk page

The following was originally just supposed to be general navel-gazing about the nature of God and good and evil so I started it directly with a user on their talk page; however, it boomeranged right back to discussing the analogy of evil being the absence of God (and evil not being some self-existent construct) so I got permission to throw it back onto this page. We got bored with it, but other people might want to play around. This contains the "Evil is like Cold" fork of the concersation; the "Transformative" fork of the discussion was moved to the other article's talk page --Bertrc (talk) 19:24, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

Omnibenevolence vs Good

Hey Christopher, I started a thread in the "Evil is like Cold" talk page. --Bertrc (talk) 21:20, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Moving this here, since it is a bit off topic (I am just philosophizing)

You posted: Omnibenevolent=loving everyone, how could an evil person/God love everyone? Christopher (talk) 07:22, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

For specificity, I'd say "omnibenevolence == wanting the good for everybody", rather than "benevolence == loving everybody". I think loving somebody means more than just wanting the best for them. I think it includes an investment into their well-being; tying your own happiness with theirs; driving your decisions around them, etc. --Bertrc (talk) 20:06, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Regardless, I think we evil people can exhibit either trait. We can love everybody; we just love ourselves more than we love other people. We can want good for everybody; we just don't want to let other people's good interfere with our own good stuff. --Bertrc (talk) 18:54, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

You really are being pedantic now, I'm still waiting for how this solves the PoE. Christopher (talk) 08:02, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

He didn't want the best for amputees, or Holocaust victims. Christopher (talk) 08:03, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't know we were discussing that directly. I was just musing about the nature of and perspectives on evil. Heh, you say "pedantic", I say "precision"! :-D :-P~ ;-) Let's consider 3 flavors of the Problem/paradox of evil:

1) If God created everything and God is good, how can there be evil/suffering? He must not be good if he created evil or he didn't create everything.

2) If God is present everywhere, and God is good, how can there be evil/suffering? He must not be good if he is present in this evil situation or he must not be present.

3) If God is all-powerful and omnibenevolent, how can there be evil/suffering? He must not be able to stop it, or he must not be nice enough to want to stop it.

I think you are concerned with the 3rd flavour, but the "evil is like cold" theodicy really only addresses the first two. I think the "evil is like darkness" argument is also good for understanding the nature of evil. . . . Um, before we get really deep into this, are you an amputee or a holocaust survivor (or in a really bad place for some other reason?) I certainly do not want to trivialize things for you, if you are, by coldly analyzing how suffering could exist. I think the "I know what it ain't" view is the best perspective for confronting or dealing with suffering; however, that view is understandably considered avoiding the question if you just want to debate or shoot the bull. --Bertrc (talk) 19:18, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

"Precision"? That's rich — considering you won't even agree that A ⊊ B. And it goes without saying that your false analogy to "heat and cold" is far from multi-applicable; rather, it is not even wrong. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 20:50, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

(EC)I'm not in a position that means I don't want to talk about the PoE, no. The "evil is like cold" argument fails for a number of reasons: 1) It fails for religions where their God is omnipresent as nothing can be the "absence of God", 2) It fails for religions where the God is all powerful and all loving/all good/whatever because even if he wasn't everywhere he could choose to be where a homeless person is to prevent suffering. Christopher (talk) 20:55, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

Cool! I'll trust you and assume that you are not a holocaust survivor or a double amputee and that you are in a good enough place not to be upset if we smugly and analytically consider suffering while sitting comfortably in our ivory towers. :-) I certainly agree with your second point, which I believe is referencing the third flavor of the PoE I list above; that third flavor of the PoE is better addressed by other theodicies. However, I would disagree with your first point. Let me break those up into two sections. --Bertrc (talk) 16:48, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

Evil is Cold vs a Creator God who is Everywhere

So, I claim the analogy of evil being like cold (and God being like energy) addresses that second flavor of the PoE I listed above (If God is present everywhere, and God is good, how can there be evil/suffering? He must not be good if he is present in this evil situation or he must not be present) I think this deals with the nature of evil. Before I state my case, I have to ask you, do you believe energy is present everywhere? Let's put zero degrees Kelvin and outer space aside, for the moment, and just look at the bubble from the Earth's stratosphere down to the earth's center. Within those confines, do you think energy is present everywhere? --Bertrc (talk) 16:48, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

Obviously energy is present everywhere on Earth, and due to vacuum energy isn't it present everywhere? I fail to see how hot and cold are in any way related to the PoE though. Christopher (talk) 17:08, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

Well, it has nothing to do with the classic PoE (third flavor, above) When you say "I fail to see how hot and cold are in any way related to the PoE", are you referring to the non-standard flavors of the PoE that arise when you consider God as the creator of all things or as omnipresent? (first and second flavor I list above) --Bertrc (talk) 23:30, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

Beuller? --Bertrc (talk) 13:55, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

I presume that's a reminder I haven't responded to you, I don't think "evil is like cold" is a solution to any version of the PoE (it could be the solution to one I haven't heard of though). Christopher (talk) 14:06, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Aw, Dude, have you never seen Ferris Beuller's day Off"? Sheesh, you millenials make me feel old. :-) Okay, the PoE's in this case are:

PoE flavor 1) Question: If God is good and God created everything, why did he create evil? The "Evil is like cold" analogy answers this by saying "God did not create evil any more than energy creates cold." --Bertrc (talk) 14:51, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

PoE flavor 2) Question: If God is good and God is everywhere, goodness must be everywhere, so how can evil exist anywhere? The "Evil is like cold" analogy answers this by saying "In the same way that energy is everywhere, God is everywhere, however, just as we feel cold if there is not enough energy present so to do we see the evil in a situation if there is not enough of God's presence." --Bertrc (talk) 14:51, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

So does that explain a bit better how the "Evil is like Cold" analogy can be deployed in response to those two flavors of the PoE and why I feel using "Benevolent" is a strawman, so we should use "Good" in the article? (Ugh, why does auto-correct keep changing my spelling of "flavour"?) --Bertrc (talk) 02:49, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

I'm still wondering why God chooses to operate in a way that's completely indistinguishable from there being no God. Christopher (talk) 07:17, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

. . . Okay . . . I guess we could start a section on that question, but it is a bit of a non-sequitur in this one. Here, we were discussing two flavours of the PoE and how the "Evil is like Cold" analogy can be used to refute the claim that those disprove the possibility of an omnipresent, creator God. So, on topic, Does my previous post explain a bit better how the "Evil is like Cold" analogy can be deployed in response to those two flavors of the PoE and why I feel using "Benevolent" is a strawman, so we should use "Good" in the article? (Ugh, why does auto-correct keep changing my spelling of "flavour"?) --Bertrc (talk) 01:01, 25 June 2017 (UTC)

Evil and God

Please define #which Gods# the absence of which constitutes evil - most of us do not believe in one, many or all of (long list of gods) and #most of us are not evil.# 31.51.113.86 (talk) 21:18, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

For the purpose of the "Evil is like Cold" analogy, we're talking about your generic omnipresent, good, creator-of-all-things god. Any one of them fits the purpose. The idea of the analogy is to show that evil does not disprove the possible existence of such a god any more than cold disproves the possible existence of energy. Typically, a flavor of the Judeo/Christian God is used. --Bertrc (talk) 23:07, 17 July 2017 (UTC)

Evil is a positive choice to do wrong, not an absence of deity. (Just because Bendy XVI stated it does not exist does not mean that Limbo does not exist.)

And where does 'the Devil in particular or devils in general' fit into the argument.

The argument is flawed - and #it is not worth# proving that it is wronger than wrong. 31.51.113.86 (talk) 21:18, 16 July 2017 (UTC)

Dunno about the devils or Bendy, but the perspective provided by the analogy is different from the perspective provided by the claim that evil is simply a positive choice to do wrong (nice pun there, btw) Instead, evil is a choice made from a place where God is not sufficiently included, involved or at its center. To phrase it differentl;y -- When you drill down through the various reasons behind a choice, you eventually get to something akin to "I did this because I ultimately derive my sense of worth, joy, meaning, security, etc. from X, Y, ... and Z, and I made this choice because it supports or protects the presence or contribution of X, Y, ... and Z in my life." According to Christianity (some flavors, at least) all those things ultimately driving your choices are the things you worship and the more you worship things that are not God, the less you worship God. The "Evil is like Cold" analogy claims that the less you are worshiping God (ie. the less you ultimately derive your sense of worth, joy, meaning, security, etc. from God) the more evil a choice will be. --Bertrc (talk) 23:07, 17 July 2017 (UTC)

The problem is - there are many belief systems and many Gods and other entities (of various genders including 'Deity all encompassing'), 'opponents of God' (whether or not conventionally 'evil') and 'Gods in conflict with each other' - and this discussion focuses on the #Christian# God.

Are not 'God/the Devil' and 'evil/good' different categories.

If someone who does not believe in a God/is agnostic/believes that there is no interaction between God and the universe decides to live an honourable life and, as far as possible, make the world (or some small section of it) a better place #because it is the right thing to do# are they not living a better life morally than someone motivated primarily by what some external entity/fear of what may happen after their death? 86.146.100.72 (talk) 09:24, 18 July 2017 (UTC)

See? Now this is the kind of general meandering I had meant to have back on the user talk page!!! :-D Here on the "Evil is like Cold" talk page, we are discussing an analogy that supports the possibility of a good, omni-present, creator God. The Judeo/Christian God is typically used but, as I said, believers of any generic, omni-present, good, creator-of-all-things god could use this analogy to support the possible existence of their god. (By "support" I mean, "counteract claims that the existence of evil disproves a good God could be everywhere and/or disproves a good God could have created everything) --Bertrc (talk) 19:25, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

P.S. You (both?) really need to create your account(s?). --Bertrc (talk) 19:25, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

In response to one point you actually brought up, though, I do not know what you mean by "Living a better life, morally". Without God or some other universal, absolute, external morality, what is your metric for determining who is more or less moral? Your entire paragraph seems to boil down to "Isn't somebody who does the right thing because it is the right thing to do more in the right" which is horribly circular (Normally, I am pointing out this flaw to theists. Needing to point this out to a non-theist is refreshingly novel. :-) ) Why would your metric be based on motivation? Do I even need to ask what you mean by living an "honourable life" or "mak[ing] the world a better place"? I wouldn't even need to cross Godwin to find situations where people's visions of "honour" and/or "a better place" are, by my estimation, repulsively evil. --Bertrc (talk) 19:25, 20 July 2017 (UTC)

Honour is a strange axiom and I'm not sure why this was suggested because we already have secular axioms as part of our everyday morality. Putting the idividual rights and dignity of equal human beings at the centre of our metric is pretty well established in open western societies and it has become increasingly common for philosophers of ethics to do so because in part numerous ethical systems can be developed from that one single axiom (deontological, utilitarian, virtue ethics) and because exploration of these values can be done in a far more rational and humane way than trying to make sense of the horrifically confused and fatally conflicting mess that the bible is on ethics and the horrific examples that God and his prophets have set throughout the long disturbing moral journey that is the bible from cover to cover. It is also selected as one of the principal axioms because in the last century that secular societies have been freed from religious monopolies on good and bad or from religious, cult or even secular totalitarian societies have shown, we've been able openly talk about, question and reflect on the previous centuries of pointless cruelty, individual suffering, gross inequality and through long open conscious difficult dialogue among all of society (not just a dictatorial church) we've successfully started to stop it (though hardly there yet) with an axiom that has so far consistently shown results. Why focus on pointless cruelty, individual suffering, gross inequality instead of an abstract, supernatural, badly defined entity with rambling sets of ethical suggestions and guidelines and demented laws? Because it's a million times better than the horror fest we've seen throughout nearly all of human history and because modern secular humanist-societies have been tremendously successful in making life bearable for most people. A morality based on such a minimalism of axioms ensures that no law is absolute if it leads to the kind of toxic effect on society and individuals that absolute dictated stupid ridiculous religious laws did for centuries. It is also in part done because it leads to far clearer and more consistent moral arguments which is an essential feature in ethical systems. Even the coded law in the bible and most holy books is a disaster-fest of confusion and highly specific bizarre rules which leads to endless stupid debates about non-problems like "the problem of evil" as opposed to say...the psychology of evil and the prevention of sociopathic behavior and rehabilitation of psychopaths etc. When theologians try to put forward a non-ridiculous non-crazy moral road plan...they radically deviate from the grotesque laws and highly ambiguous commandments that is the bible...and develop a "christian morality", it's pretty similar to secular systems...in which case, the bible and God's law is mostly irrelevant. While indeed putting respect and individual dignity of equal humans as the central axiom of a moral system is subjective (as all first principles are in ethical systems)...it certainly kicks the ass of every holy book based moral nonsense in so many ways, including but not limited to: comprehensibility, consistency, logic, strength in axioms, codifiability, flexibility, efficacy, quantity of suffering, the resulting standard of living in secular societies, lack of pointless cruelty, openess of moral debate, inclusivity of moral debate, and so on and so on. 87.218.193.101 (talk) 00:53, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Well, if we knew who was logging in from 86.146.100.72, we could ask them why they brought up honour, but, for all we know, you are 86.146.100.72, logging in from a different IP address. That is why you (three?) really need to create your account(s?). --Bertrc (talk) 23:29, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

As for what you wrote, above, I (and a lot of other minorities) would disagree that you need to look back at previous centuries to find pointless cruelty, individual suffering and gross inequality -- let alone that we have "successfully" started to stop it -- I would be tempted to say you are very optimistic, but you seem to imply that the individual mindset held by many contemporary Western secularists is somehow better than other focuses, such as the communal (particularly familial) mindset held in many traditional non-western cultures. That implication is dangerously ethnocentric and (IMHO) is at the root of much of the inequality and individual suffering which occurred in previous centuries and which is occurring, now. Honestly, I believe most problems are caused by people who are certain that their way is best, because what they think is best is usually just an attempt to defend whatever idol they happen to be worshipping (See my post in the earlier fork of this thread for what I mean by "worship") --Bertrc (talk) 23:29, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

I feel some sort of fallacy in arguments

Just look, first you say that good and evil are human perceptions. Then you use ""man killing wife" example to prove smth. But wait! If evil is a perception, why killing is bad? Killing is a "physical", objective action, it can have any subjective perception. I can think of tens of examples, when one killing someone's wife is a very good thing! (sort of "black widows" or "some psyke women burning children" scenario, etc.) If we say, that moral is completely subjective, we can't argue with any "absolute moral" definitions (like any god-related definitions are). And this is not a contradiction - just a different approach. It means you should split argumentation in two parts: one is about objective-subjective approach and other is about staying in the field of absoluteness. And do not mix them.Teamkiller (talk) 13:23, 3 October 2017 (UTC)

@Teamkiller, hmmmm, when I say evil is analogous to a comparative absence of God, I do not mean that good and evil are merely human perceptions. Saying "That rock is cold but that rock is hot" is a subjective statement; however, underlying the subjective statement, there is an objective truth regarding the heat in the rock (technically, regarding the conduction of heat into and out of the rocks but that is heavily influenced by the actual heat in the rocks; let's assume the rocks have the same conductivity) Anywho, this is akin to evil and good. We subjectively assign a measure of evil/good to an action/situation/decision, but the analogy described in this article claims that there is an objective measure underlying such an assignment: How much is God included in/the driving force behind/at the center of the decision/situation/etc. --Bertrc (talk) 21:37, 19 October 2017 (UTC)

I am not arguing further, just clarifying my position. I've come across at one interesting argument, that while God is omnipresent in physical world, it still may not be omnipresent human thoughts, perception, human subjective "model of the world inside head". And that (degree of His presence in thoughts) is the objective measure of good and evil, because human mind, human soul percept real world only through and with this subjective "model". Objective/subjective attribution is crucial while considering this kind of argumentation. So, yes - while you thoughts is 100% full with God, you killing is good! :) Teamkiller (talk) 11:24, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

@Teamkiller, I'm not sure I quite follow you. This proposed model says that the "goodness" of an action can be measured by looking at what the ultimate motivation of the decision is -- ie. What is ultimately driving it? What are the true foundations of the choice? What thing(s) is/are at the center of the decision, acting as the cornerstone from which all the other blocks of the decision tree are made -- The more that the foundation of the decision is God, the more wholesome/good/healthy the decision is; ie. the more it helps repair this broken world (or, the less it helps break it) Looking at your example, I can imagine a decision to take somebody off life support that could be made from a place where one is truly centered on God; so, yeah, according to this model, if you could truly center your life around God to the extent that Christ did, there might be a situation where killing somebody is the right choice. That's only a guess, though, since I, myself, have a life centered on so many things other than God; if some other option(s) should be taken instead then, if one were truly centered on God, (one of) the other option(s) would be chosen.. --Bertrc (talk) 21:19, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

Take 'somewhere in the middle of nowhere in one of the under-galactified parts of the universe.' Nothing happens apart from particles bubbling in and out of existence and 'some atoms or larger objects' flitting through. There is no real reason for God - or Maxwell's demon - to be there: is this place automatically evil? Anna Livia (talk) 21:32, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I would contest that there is no reason for God to be in a galaxy far, far away; the bubbling of sub-atomic particles into and out of existence is a beautiful harmony of mathematical precision (well, statistical precision, at least) I would particularly disagree with the claim that God is not there. Heck, the whole point of this analogy is to claim that God is everywhere. Its us who bring in other things to jostle with Him at our centers; quarks and bosons, on the other hand, know how to align their lives properly. --Bertrc (talk) 15:19, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

I was referring to the galactic voids (where there is no obvious reason for God, the Devil or a police box to be) rather than a place of light sabres and the Force; apart from those who believe that 'God' (or 'the spirit of creation' etc) and 'the universe' are identical - 'good' and 'evil' require entities with sufficient awareness (however defined) to understand that there is a choice (but 'the right choice' and 'the wrong choice' do not map directly to 'good' and 'evil') - and the 'absence of God' (singular or collective) may not necessarily be 'evil.'

@Anna Livia, :-D Yes, I know. I referred to a galaxy far far away, but only mentioned quarks and such. I'm not sure I agree that 'good' and 'evil' require entities with sufficient awareness. The analogy of this article does not equate evil and good to the sound of a tree falling in the woods with nobody to hear it. Let me propose some additional possible perspectives on good and evil: Existence is broken because we have put something other than God at the center (or, to compete with God at the center) The universe is not meant to work that way, so it breaks. We call this brokenness "evil"; when we witness the effects of this brokenness, we also use the term "evil." At the edges of the universe, I would not be surprised if existence is properly orbiting around God and is therefore not yet broken. I think I would agree that "evil" might require entities that extend beyond the physical world and are therefore able to put something other than God at the center of their existence. --Bertrc (talk) 19:25, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

... and what about 'unintended and long term consequences' (because of Katyn the Polish notables died in a plane accident in 2010 - is Stalin responsible for their deaths?) Anna Livia (talk) 21:35, 26 October 2017 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean about unintended consequences. I think "The Matrix" is a better analogy for that than "evil is like cold". When we have things other than God competing with Him as our foundation, everything breaks down; God simply found a much more sacrificial way of correcting the equation than Neo. --Bertrc (talk) 15:19, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Unintended consequences - as in [1]. Anna Livia (talk) 15:41, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

...Sorry, I'm still missing it. What part of that article applies to the the nature of good and evil or the omni-presence of God?--Bertrc (talk) 19:25, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Some things are done with good intent but create a worse situation/problems elsewhere - and the reverse. If you do things which God approves of but which results in decreasing God's influence is what you do good or evil? If you cause damage with malicious intent but this leads to legislation which has a net beneficial effect ditto?

Do 'doing good' and 'doing evil' have to have a conscious component - and 'it is my nature to do ...' does have this deliberative component.

And does someone who says 'I do not believe in God (etc)/I am agnostic' but still acts to 'do good/improve the world' etc do good or evil? Anna Livia (talk) 11:54, 28 October 2017 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, But what do you mean by "doing good"? How do you define doing something with a "good intent"? Your post seems to presuppose some undefined, objective measure of good and evil; you then seem concerned that this objective measure is not robust or consistent. The analogy raised in this article tries to give a less amorphous definition of good and evil. The analogy claims that evil reflects a comparative lack of God's inclusion; evil is akin to how darkness reflects a comparative lack of light. Specifically, it is not so much your intent or "God's approval" that determines how good or bad your decision is, but, rather, how much your decision is driven from a place centered on God. Certainly, intent and God's approval might correlate with centering yourself on God but I would propose that such a correlation is because intent and God's approval are derived by how much you center your life on God. --Bertrc (talk) 21:16, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

Separately, I think you are also wondering about good/evil actions and good/evil situations. I do not think that good actions eliminate evil situations. A homeless man might use his meager resources to bring food to some other starving homeless family. The homeless man's action might have goodness/wholeness in it, but the situation is still evil/broken (and the situation is due to so many other decisions made by so many other people from a place not centered on God) Let's make it even more awful: As an unintended consequence of what the homeless man did, some biker gang sees the homeless family with food and, assuming the family had money for the food, beats them up and robs them. In such a case, I would propose that the homeless man's action still might have had goodness in it; the biker gang's action . . . not so much. --Bertrc (talk) 21:16, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

See my comments in the next section. Anna Livia (talk) 22:42, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

The basic problem

... is that 'God' and 'evil' are to some extent 'different categories'

Either God (however defined and in whatever number etc) is present in the whole of the universe - in which case there is no 'absence of God' - or there is a partial overlap (as with the universe consisting of 'things' and 'spaces between things') in which case the absence of God is a natural part of the universe.

Then what actually are 'good' and 'evil' and with what are they associated? Can 'inanimate objects' be good or evil 'of their nature'? Simple life (of whatever category - those on Earth such as animal, vegetable or mushroom, or those found elsewhere) - pondweed, diatoms etc? Creatures which have 'personalities' and which can plan ahead/use their ingenuity (pets, tool using birds etc)? Or only those which understand what 'good' and 'evil' (among many other things)? What happens if 'God' is evil/asks you to do things which are wrong or in contradiction with previous utterances/there are conflicts of interest between 'the Gods'?

Is it 'better' to do the right thing (and as little as possible of 'the wrong things' because God tells you to - or 'whether or not there is a God it is the right thing to do'? Anna Livia (talk) 11:01, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, well in answer to your first bit, I think this woefully insufficient analogy claims that God is everywhere, but that He is included to greater and lesser degrees. When you choose some course of action from a place where you are ultimately depending on or hoping for something other than God, then you are challenging God's place as your foundation; you are making Him share that spot with whatever else you are worshiping. This analogy claims that having less of a focus on God is akin to having less light in your room. Just as having less light makes things darker, having less of a focus on God makes a situation and decision more evil. eg. If you make a decision primarily because you want money or power or acclaim or even family, then that decision is more evil and broken (less good and wholesome) than if you made it primarily because you want God. I think that is a bit of an answer to your question: "Then what actually are 'good' and 'evil'". 'Good' is God's presence; 'evil' is a comparative lack of God's presence. As for the mushrooms and diatoms, I think diluting God's presence at the center of our lives dilutes His presence in the world. There are definitely repercussions in nature and the world. Look at the state of our environment; it is broken and we face evil in the natural world because we have put stuff that is not divine at the center of things (money, luxury, power, etc. which leads to pollution, global warming, ozone loss, etc.) Heck, I believe that one lesson we are supposed to learn from the whole Moses/Egypt/plague story is that when we worship anything other than God then entire world falls apart. --Bertrc (talk) 13:10, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Separately, you ask things like "What happens if God asks you to do things which are wrong" and "Is it better to do the right thing [because God tells you vs because it is the right thing to do]". I think this analogy says it is better to do things because your sufficiency comes from God, rather than doing things because your sufficiency comes from popularity or money or anything other than God. The things God tells us to do, perhaps, are to help us recognize when we are not depending fully on Him and to help us to come back to Him. I think we recognize when we do wrong; we hear our conscience speaking to us. eg. If you lie about how much you contributed to a project a work, our conscience (or, perhaps, God) will ask us to search ourselves and to realize we lied because we feel we will only be worth something if we get that promotion; if we accepted that our worth comes from God loving us, then we wouldn't have the desperate need for approbation and we wouldn't lie in order to get it. --Bertrc (talk) 13:30, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

So many words, and not answering the points.

What I am saying is that the absence of God (however defined) may well be just that.

Can pondweed believe in God?

Consider 'a place in the universe which contains a bubbling of particles and one actual object passing through in the entire lifespan of the universe' - (there are likely to be places approaching this.) If God exists there, then the initial question is redundant.

Consider two people: one has a belief in a deity, but still actively chooses to do evil things, cause destruction, badmouths people etc, and the other is atheist/agnostic/other position of a similar nature, but, as far as they possibly can strives to make the world a better place or at least leave things as they are, and money or popularity etc are not part of the equation.

Pascal's wager may be relevant in the context of the discussion. Anna Livia (talk) 17:14, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

@Bertrc God is everywhere or he is in most places but absent somewhere. You cannot have both no matter how much you wish it were so. We never said "when evil happens God is indeed still everywhere but less than normal in this case". The claim is "evil is the ABSENCE of God". It cannot be more concise and clear. The term "Evil is the absence of God" is completely different to your watered down appologetic of "absolute concurrent with shades of non-absolute" argument. They are of two totally different statements and they are not compatible. At least one of those statements (if not both) are wrong. ShabiDOO 20:59, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

And if 'the various gods' divide up the universe/multiverse between them - with 'God of the Gaps' taking on 'the absence places' where is evil to be found?

Your rendering of 'my analogy' #is not what I said#.

Various quotes - 'We are free to do as we wish, but we have to choose to do rightly'; 'The evil that men do...'; 'A fool has said in his heart that there is no God'; and there are others: there is a sentiment that 'evil' (and 'good' etc) has an active component - so is there a category error here? Anna Livia (talk) 23:28, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, yeah, I tend to ramble. You seem bring up two points; I will create two separate sections and try more concisely propose and answer to each. You seem to be asking "Is God in Nature?" and "Can you do evil by centering yourself on God" --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, I think you feel I am trying to have my cake and eat it to; that I am saying "God is everywhere but there are places where God is not." I don't feel I am but let me break that out into its own section (and I apologize ahead of time to poor RBP, who, if he reads this, is going to have to see me try to explain this concept again! ;-) )--Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

Is God in Nature

Anna Livia asked "Can pondweed believe in God?" and "Is God out there where sub-atomic particles flitter in and out of existence?" (Anna also asked me not to write so much) --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

I would say pond weed cannot believe in God because it cannot think; however, imho, God is present in pondweed and among the bubbling sub-atomic particles. --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

. . . I can't help myself! I have to elaborate! (But I will leave the concise answer untouched, above) Anna talks about believing in God and thinking about Him, but that is not really an aspect of my thesis, here. Christians, for the most part, believe that all of creation was designed to be founded upon, invested in and centered on God. Consider somebody who commits suicide if they lose their wealth; their identity was tied up in wealth an/or influence and/or accomplishment; having those threatened can destroy such a person because what they were founding their life upon is at risk of abandoning them. A person in such circumstance didn't just think about or believe in money; instead, money was their reason for being. For somebody who commits suicide because of a break-up/divorce, their idol is that other person. Whatever we found our lives on will devastate us if it is taken away --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

As for nature, nature would be fine and whole -- centered on God and balanced -- if we had not started putting things other than God at our center. From then on, everything began to break and we started being aware of the difference between when God is fully and solely at the center of existence and when other things start challenging His position there. ie. that is why and when we started noticing "evil". --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

Again this belief in one God and that Christian - what about the non-Christians (which will probably include 'sentients #everywhere else in the universe#')? Anna Livia (talk) 22:48, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

As I said in an earlier post, this analogy can be used for any run-of-the-mill, good, present, creator-of-all-things god. The Judeo-Christian God is the most common example. If such a god exists, then this analogy explains a possible reason as to why we experience evil and a possible perspective as to the nature of evil. If such a god does not exist . . . Well, believers in some non-present and/or non-good and/or non-creator-of-all-things god(s) will have to come up with their own rebuttals for arguments that their god(s) does not exist and will have to come up with their own analogies for understanding the nature of evil. --Bertrc (talk) 20:18, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Can you do evil by centering yourself on God

Anna Livia asked us to consider two people: one has a belief in a deity, but still actively chooses to do evil things, cause destruction, badmouths people etc, and the other is atheist/agnostic/other position of a similar nature, but, as far as they possibly can strives to make the world a better place or at least leave things as they are, and money or popularity etc are not part of the equation. --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

There isn't really a question in that post, but considering this, I would ask "Why is the person who is bad mouthing people choosing to bad mouth them?" --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

I do think there is an unspoken question in Anna's post: "In light of your thesis that evil comes from having things in addition to God as our foundation, how would you explain the person who believes in God doing evil?" I would say that, even though the person believes in God, they are still forging their identity from things other than God. There were not many specifics in Anna's post, but, f'rinstance, if the bad-mouther's sense of worth comes from their position at work, they would probably bad-mouth people whom they feel threaten their position at work. Within the terminology of this analogy, the believer is not doing evil because he or she is centering themselves on God any more than you can make something colder by adding more energy to it ; it is the things at the person's center, other than God, that are leading to the evil and brokenness. --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

This is not what I said.

What about all the Christians who have caused much suffering #in the name of God#? Anna Livia (talk) 22:50, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

. . . What about them? Your question is not really clear. Can you be more specific? Are you asking: "In light of your thesis that evil comes from having things in addition to God as our foundation, how could people cause much suffering in the name of God?" If so, I would explain it by saying, although they claim to be doing something in the name of God, they are actually doing it in the name of something else -- For example, we tend to have guilty consciences and desperately want to consider ourselves to be "good". If you have a foundation that includes "considering yourself to be 'good'" instead of having God, Himself, as your only foundation, then you will likely try to classify other people as "bad" so that you can consider yourself "good" by comparison. (at least, according to this analogy) Classifying others as "bad" just so that you can classify yourself as "good" will cause suffering, even if you erroneously claim to be doing it in the name of God. --Bertrc (talk) 20:29, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

If your underlying question is not "In light of your thesis that evil comes from having things in addition to God as our foundation, how could people cause much suffering in the name of God?" then could you ask a question that is more specific than "What about [them]?" :-P~ ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 20:29, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Can God be everywhere without being everywhere equally

Shabidoo said: "God is everywhere or he is in most places but absent somewhere. You cannot have both no matter how much you wish it were so." --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

Comparing evil to cold and darkness is not simply saying God is absent; that is just shorthand (and why I tend to say God is comparatively absent) The analogy tries to say that there is less of his presence and influence; that the situation is less than fully centered on him. To draw a more direct parallel to the analogy of this article: When you say your soup is cold, you are not really saying that there is no heat in the soup; you are actually commenting that there is less heat in the soup than in whatever you are comparing it to and/or than in your tongue. --Bertrc (talk) 01:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)

Response to Bertrc

You state that God is everywhere/is the universe - therefore there is no 'absence of God' - whether evil or not.

You imply that to some extent evil is a matter of what people choose to do (or choose not to do) - possibly others would agree with you here - and in a Christian context - which others might well not agree with - not whether they accept God or a specific (ie Christian) God.

The statement is thus incorrect - and a conflation of 'a state of existence' and 'a deliberate course of action.'

Given that the creation of organic chemicals (by various means) appears to be a natural process and that 'life of various kinds in general' as well as 'sentient life in particular' has occurred once, and there is considered to be the possibility of 'life of some form' having emerged elsewhere in the Solar System, and the length of time 'the Universe' is expected to persist in which the situation can arise, then it is logical to assume that non-sentient life and, possibly/probably sentient life will emerge elsewhere on occasion (see the Drake equation for discussions on number-crunching). Either 'the sentients that emerge will, unlike us, be so innately 'good' they do not need 'saving' #or# they will be the same range of 'good', 'doing the best that they can', 'doing wrong' and 'doing evil' that we do - so how does 'the Deity (singular or plural, of many, one, or no genders as we understand it, Christian or otherwise)' deal with the latter situation? Does 'Christ' have to die many timesto redeem the sentients of the universe or are those who can never be aware of what happens on Earth condemned no matter what they do? Anna Livia (talk) 10:25, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

So many words!! So many topics! :-P~ ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 20:59, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Is Evil a matter of what people choose to do

I did not imply that evil is a matter of what people choose to do. My proposal/implication is that evil is a matter of why people choose to do something; ie. What have they centered their life on which is driving their decisions. What they choose to do, I believe, is simply a side-effect of this why; ie. When we are centered on something in addition to God, then our choices make the world around us centered on something in addition to God. Brokenness and evil in this universe comes from a centeredness that includes anything other than God. --Bertrc (talk) 20:59, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

You are saying that people 'in some manner' choose to do things which are not God-centric.

Is evil in your definition giving topics other than (your) God priority - many others would define evil as 'deliberately making the world or the context in which one or many people live a worse one out of malice..' Anna Livia (talk) 23:25, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

I agree with those others. I also think "deliberately [hurting others] out of malice" is evil; however, I think that that is a very narrow definition of evil. If that were the definition of evil, then I think avoiding evil actions would be much easier; unfortunately, avoiding evil actions is not easy. Consider when I avoid calling a friend who is in need because my time, at the time, is too precious; or when I avoid eye contact with a homeless person because I can't bear the guilty conscience of not doing more for them; or when I mislead people on how far along I am on a project because I worry about my standing at work. At those times, imho, I am not acting out of malice nor am I deliberately trying to make people's lives worse; in spite of this, as a side effect of my actions, I am making people's lives worse and I am doing evil. I take these actions in order to protect something(s) at the root of my being; something(s) that I look to for my ultimate sense of security or joy or worth or identity; something(s) other than God. --Bertrc (talk) 01:31, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

I guess I am proposing looking at the nature of evil from a different perspective -- using a different paradigm, as it were -- Contrary to your first post, I'm not really pointing out that people choose to do things that are not God centric. I am pointing out that their lives are not God centric -- or, more specifically, that their lives are centered on other things in addition to God -- imho, having a life that is not God centric is why we choose to do things that are not God centric. Let me ask you: What is something that you need? Something that will devastate you if you lose it? Does the risk of losing some particular thing paralyze you? That thing is something that you worship, and your decisions and actions are driven from it. Your choices will be designed to revel in, savor, take shelter within and enjoy it. Your decisions will also be designed to protect its presence and inclusion in your life. For example, if your ultimate joy comes from luxury instead of from God loving you, then you will probably need money, which means you will need that job, which means you will need standing among your peers which will lead you to lie about how far along you are in a project or to bad mouth a colleague whom you see as a threat . . . which is evil. --Bertrc (talk) 01:31, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

How does God deal with Aliens

First, I'll see your Drake equation and raise you one Fermi paradox. :-) --Bertrc (talk) 20:59, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

I assume God deals with aliens the same way He deals with us. To-wit, if there is any accuracy in the analogy of this article, they are evil to the extent that they worship things other than Him (ie. to the extent that they look to things other than God and His love for worth, identity, ultimate joy, security, peace, etc.) To that extent, imho, they break the world, they break themselves and they break the community; ie. they cause evil. --Bertrc (talk) 20:59, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

What happens if they worship other gods (which may be of different or complex genders)? Anna Livia (talk) 23:26, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Sure. They probably have non-divine things that inform their choices and decisions, in addition to God, just like we do. In the same way that my idolizing of social position leads to evil (and clouds my understanding of God) so would evil result from anything aliens have, other than God, from which they derive their sense of worth, identity, etc. Hmmm, you probably did not mean that, though. What did you mean by "worship"? What did you mean by "other gods"? --Bertrc (talk) 22:35, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

The Fermi paradox isn't much of a paradox. Imagine a "nearby" alien civilisation. Would it know we exist? I highly doubt that, yet we continue to exist regardless of whether anything else notices. —Kazitor, ^pending 06:20, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

The paradox is not about them knowing we exist. It is about us knowing they exist. There's certainly a chance that we are the first civilization to reach this level of development but there's, like, a 100 billion stars in the galaxy. Fermi's paradox is saying that some of them should have had planets with life that reach our level of technology, in which case we should be seeing some sort of evidence. The galaxy is only 100K light years across. 100K years is not even a drop thirty gallons in the ocean of time. Heck, there are over a hundred stars within fifty light years of us. If any of them have civilizations at our level or beyond, we probably would have noticed them. --Bertrc (talk) 22:35, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

"If any of them have civilizations at our level or beyond, we probably would have noticed them." I disagree, like I said, would anyone notice us? If other civilisations wouldn't notice us, why would we notice them? —Kazitor, ^pending 00:35, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

It is ridiculous to assume we would notice other civilizations. We don't even know about millions of species of deep underwater life here on Earth and have barely studied a fraction of Earth's microorganisms. We can only work out the bare details of Earth sized planets in just a few solar systems and only in systems relatively close to Earth. Our technology is extremely primitive in its utter infancy and there is no reason all civilizations should be as curious as humans are. Sometimes staying in your own little burrow/cave is a good per natural selection. There have been dozens of answers to the Fermi Paradox (which by the way isn't a paradox nor by Fermi). Most of them are totally rational and as good as speculative answers can get. They range from "were the first" to "they are uninterested in us" to "they are too far away" to "non-interference" to "they are so different we cannot perceive them as life" and so on. This link has a pretty good explanation of the paradox for us laymen and laywomen. ShabiDOO 18:58, 12 November 2017 (UTC)

I dunno about that. We're sitting here on earth regularly broadcasting signals using millions of watts as part of our info sphere. How far away would a 10 million watt signal be detectable by a civilization at our level of development (or by us)? And that is just our day-to-day activity; SETI claims that ARECIBO was the equivalent of trillions of watts -- albeit, it was a very focused signal but I'm sure there have been several additional deliberate overpowered signals sent out -- I'd say FERMI's paradox still stands: If some other civilization in the milky-way reached our level of development within the past 100K years (or among the 500 stars within 100 light-years, over the past 100 years) why haven't their run-of-the-mill signals (let alone any deliberate signals) been noticed? Maybe life is common but we are simply the first; after all, somebody has to be. Maybe intelligent life is prohibitively rare which means we might be the only ones but that also seems unlikely . . . doo DOO doo Doo DOO doooooooo --Bertrc (talk) 21:23, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Did Christ have to die for aliens

*whew-boy* Okay, this steps a bit away from the analogy of this article and into the questions of what salvation is and why Christ died. I need a breather before I try to tackle explaining my beliefs on those but I want to keep a place-holder. --Bertrc (talk) 20:59, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

Does Christ die once or many times? Do the aliens know they have been saved? -- Anna Livia (talk) 23:39, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

I would assume once. We are talking about an omnipotent creator of all that exists but who knows? Maybe there is some particular metaphysical suffering unique to the aliens. I guess it would depend on the aliens. --Bertrc (talk) 22:16, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Those on RW tend to have a different philosophical view of the universe of the universe and the inhabitants thereof to you - and might well apply the cosmological principle to other sentient species (they will be the same mixture of positive and negative as us). -- Anna Livia (talk) 23:39, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

. . . Not sure if there is a question there. I prefer the view that any aliens would be able to screw things up just like us to Lewis' idea of aliens that did not fall. --Bertrc (talk) 22:16, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

How does this book fit into your argument? Anna Livia (talk) 23:39, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

. . . Um. It is a book and books are part of creation. My argument is that creation, community and ourselves are all broken/imperfect because God is not the sole foundation/center/heart. So . . . I guess that book fits into my argument as . . . something else that is imperfect and broken because there are probably things in addition to God at its heart? I dunno. :-D Is there something in the plot of that book which you feel has particular bearing on my argument? --Bertrc (talk) 22:16, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

This post is just moving down my place holder for explaining my beliefs on salvation and Christ's death. I feel like I would if somebody asked me to explain derivations while I was still miserably failing to explain addition. --Bertrc (talk) 22:16, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

It has probably dropped off most 'vaguely interested' RWians's look-at list.

The discussion topics I tend to highlight potential lines of questioning for general discussion (rather than answering them myself).

The issue here seems to be that you are using several overlapping definitions.

Is your definition of 'God in the Universe' best described as something like a galaxy - there are places where there are 'things' (from stars and black holes down to dust) and areas where there is 'a present absence of things but where over time there may well be such.'

Possibly your definition of evil needs to be divided up. There is what is generally defined as evil - doing bad things at least partly by intent or inclination (but the intent - good, neutral or bad - may have unintended consequences) and there is 'not being God orientated' (and specifically the Christian God that you adhere to).

The specific question you have to answer - if someone decides to do the right thing (or at least avoid doing things which have negative consequences) without considering whether it is what God wants them to do (or possibly because it is what their God, not being the Christian one, and not for the reasons promoted by the Christian God) what are the consequences for them? Anna Livia (talk) 11:24, 9 November 2017 (UTC)

. . . Well, if we stick my definitions of "the right thing" and "negative consequences" into your question, it becomes: "If someone decides to do something that centers the world more on God (or, at least, avoids throwing the world more off balance by centering it on things in addition to God) without considering whether it is what God wants them to do . . . what are the consequences for them?" To which my answer would be: "They get to live in a world that is less evil and broken than it was before." Unfortunately, I don't think that that is the response you are looking for. So, before I can answer your specific question, the specific question you have to answer is: What do you mean by "Doing the right thing" and "Negative consequences"? --Bertrc (talk) 22:06, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

Separately, the fact that you bring "Without considering what God wants" as a qualifier leads me to infer that you are missing my point. I do not believe evil is an issue of consideration; instead, I am proposing that evil is an issue of one's identity. We do not, ultimately, consider what the objects of our worship want; the closest I can think of is that, if necessary, we consider how to avoid losing the presence and involvement of the things we have founded our lives upon. For example, if you gain your feeling of worth from popularity, you don't consider what popularity wants; instead, you act in ways that you hope will prevent you from losing popularity. Let's take the example of centering your life and joy on some romantic partner. Sure, you might be considerate of what they want, but, in the end, that is just to make sure they don't leave you. I have had several friends (and I have known ex'es of some of my friends) who have become absolutely destroyed and/or unhinged when their significant other leaves them -- I'm talking about complete paralyzation of their lives, restraining order levels of obsession and/or near suicidal levels of wretchedness -- Believe me, they were not being considerate about what their significant other wanted (which was to stop dating them) --Bertrc (talk) 22:06, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

This line is yet another place holder post, under which I hope to write what will probably be an abysmally long (and, likely, simply abysmal) post on my beliefs around salvation and why Christ had to die. Please don't post under this one. Just post under whatever response I have above that you are responding to. --Bertrc (talk) 22:06, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

@Bertec "centers the world more on God". That isn't a definition re: "doing the right thing". Thats just a vague elliptical rewording of "doing the right thing". Definition....it is not. As for "negative consequences" it really sounds almost exactly like "psychologically living in your own personally created interrior hell" in which case, you can dispense with the God part of it and it still makes sense. ShabiDOO 23:05, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

The problem, Bertrc, is #your# definitions, and the #Christian# God - and why do you concentrate on 'courting popularity' (when people operate on a far wider range of motives)? Are you saying some people are born evil? -- Anna Livia (talk) 23:12, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, well, if God does not exist in any way recognizable to the way I believe Him to exist, then I'm just plain wrong. You need to understand that I am proposing a possible way that the metaphysical laws (and, even, the physical laws) of our universe work. Thus, if I am correct (or, at least, not completely wrong) then I'm not describing the Christian God; I'm simply describing God. If I'm wrong, well, then the whole thing gets thrown out the window. To put it another way: Whether you agree with my beliefs or not does not affect whether my beliefs are somewhat on the right track or way the heck off base; my beliefs are somewhat on the right track or way the heck off base regardless of whether you agree with them. --Bertrc (talk) 22:12, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Oh, I just brought up popularity as an example. I think "motive" is too weak a term for what I am describing but I certainly agree that people found their identity on a wide range of things in addition to God. Didn't you notice that I have also brought up wealth, family, and "being a good person" as examples of idols that people worship? Those are not meant to be a comprehensive list, either. You have to examine your own life in order to glimpse the things you worship. What is something that would utterly devastate you if you lost it? You can even come at it in steps: Is there something whose loss worries you enough that you would tell a lie simply to protect its presence in your life? Does its loss worry you because losing it would put something even more important at risk? Is that second thing important because it protects or supports something even more crucial to you? Rinse and repeat until you get to things that you cannot even imagine losing. --Bertrc (talk) 22:12, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Nah, I've never really believed we are evil or sinners at birth. I think it is when we start building our lives and identities around things other than God that we become sinners. --Bertrc (talk) 22:12, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

RWians appear to be more inclusive about what constitutes goodness/doing the right thing than you. -- Anna Livia (talk) 23:12, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, perhaps. IMHO it is not really fair to make that comparison when you won't give me a very solid definition of what RWians think constitutes goodness/doing the right thing. If we assume your definition of "doing the right thing" is the opposite of your earlier definition of evil, then I agree with you; after all, my definition of doing the right thing excludes "deliberately [hurting others] out of malice" while your definition of doing the right thing includes avoiding eye contact with a homeless person because you cannot bear the guilt of not doing more for them. ;-) :-P~ So, the specific question you have to answer is: What do you mean by "Doing the right thing" and "Negative consequences"? --Bertrc (talk) 22:12, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Perhaps you should discuss things with KingDamien1 (sp?) who appears to share similar views. Anna Livia (talk) 23:12, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

He doesn't reply to me!!!! :_( ;-) What about his views do you think are similar to mine? Most of the limited selections of his posts that I have read seem focused on intolerance due to a self assurance that he has a completely correct understanding of what actions are pleasing to and accepted by God (Sorry, @Kingdamian1 but that is my impression) I, on the other hand, try to focus on the self-assurance that, although I am a miserably sinful human being, I, myself, am completely accepted by God (I also try to focus on the belief that centering my identity and life more fully on Him will lead to me doing actions that are more pleasing and acceptable to Him) --Bertrc (talk) 22:12, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, personally, I have tons of subjective, imprecise definitions for doing the right thing that try to express my awareness of the specific objective definition. What is your definition of doing the right thing? --Bertrc (talk) 22:21, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

*sigh* I'm never going to be able to save a place holder, am I? ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 22:21, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

I finally did an initial write up, touching on why Christ had to die. --Bertrc (talk) 01:24, 25 June 2021 (UTC)

Shakespeare

How many RWians think there is more to heaven and earth than in this philosophy? Anna Livia (talk) 10:20, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Sure. Why not. Our understanding of reality will always be incomplete. And that's fine. But we don't want to just make stuff up. Computers Other human beings help us to solve problems we wouldn't have without them.
RSamys (bla) 12:15, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

My goodness, I certainly hope that there is more to existence than what my limitted mind can come up with!!! I guarantee that RBP hopes that heaven and earth are not like my philosophy! :-P~ ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 21:58, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

There is more to everything than Earth and the "post-braindeath-land". There's also the sun, the solarsystem, countless small objects and dust, the space inbetween it all, dark matter, the molecules which transmit the four forces, a history of the past mediated through special relativity...and so on and so on. That's a looooooooooooooooooooot more than a heaven made of Gold with Jeweled gates floating on a cloud. A whole lot more. ShabiDOO 22:54, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

But most of us would enjoy exploring the various heavens that are stated to exist should we find ourselves there - and, no doubt, contributing to their versions of the Wikiverse. (Given the Wikiverse's popularity #of course# it would be an essential part of 'Heaven and its equivalents' for those so inclined.) Anna Livia (talk) 10:51, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

Hehehe. Of course it would be fun to explore all those strange and wonderous heavens. Im sure we'd have a total blast. For the first million years. And then...ugh...meh. Even if there were an infinite number of unique, engaging, surprising realms of heaven, after checking out number 423,416 I can imagine being pretty worn out by it all. That is...unless every day things became more and more joyous and we were enveloped by a growing light within us that brought love and contentment and happiness. That might not get old if it kept getting better and better. But then, that just sounds like one endless morphine trip with an endlessly increasing dose yet no chance of overdosing. So...at what point do you become a mindless dazed and googly eyed addict? And while I'm at it...why is it that an emerald studded gate made of pure gold with pearl trimming...in heaven be necesary if all we do in heaven is surround god and grovel on the ground praising God endlessly? You could just have an old creaky wooden gate and it would be equally irrelevant. I'm just saying. ShabiDOO 02:27, 14 November 2017 (UTC)

There are many gates to many different parts of heaven, not all praise of God will involve singing (and given how some people 'sing' God is duly grateful for this)- and a butterfly would wonder what we do with all our years of life.

Hell and Purgatory (even if one is not Catholic most people are occasionally slightly naughty/do what is convenient rather than what is right etc after all so 'detention to make up for all' this seems reasonable) will also be far more complex than we can imagine.

Going back to the original thesis - a distinction should be made between 'the absence of God' and 'the absence of considering God' (whether the specific God of the proponents of such statements or 'a deity that particularly resonates with the person) - and between 'evil' (which has a component of active choice) and 'indifference' (and its other equally passive equivalents). Anna Livia (talk) 10:12, 14 November 2017 (UTC)

@Anna Livia . . . What does that last post of yours have to do with Shakespeare? --Bertrc (talk) 22:23, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Read the first few words of my comment. Anna Livia (talk) 09:53, 16 November 2017 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I was poking fun at you. It went over about as well as most of my jokes, I suppose. ;-) My implied question was: Why are you bringing up the original thesis in this thread about Shakespeare, instead of bringing it up in one of the threads about the original thesis (or bringing it up in a new thread) --Bertrc (talk) 00:16, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

Comparing 100 years to eternity never goes well. They are incomparable. 1 minute or 100,000 years are virtually the same compared to eternity. As for butterflies living 100 years, I'm pretty sure it would be an agonizing time for them living well past their prime and rotting away over the years. Also...butterflies don't know what humans are or how long they live nor can they imagine how life would be if they lived longer. As for the gates of heaven, there aren't any at all, just in the imagination of people who think the bible is more than a bizarre artifact reproduced with cheap ink printed on cheap thin paper. As for Shakespeare...I too wonder what he has to do with "evil is the absence of God". I've read half his plays and remember nothing of the sort. ShabiDOO 01:51, 18 November 2017 (UTC)

Bertrc - I was 'considering the poor little archive bot which gets confused with too many active threads'; Shabidoo - a reference to the Hamlet 1.5.167-8 quote at the beginning of this section (which is probably the motto of RW). Anna Livia (talk) 12:57, 22 November 2017 (UTC)

Yes, one of hundreds of religion quotes by the Bard, but what does that have to do with "evil is the absence of God"? I cannot think of a single work of literature, theatrical drama or cinema that deals with "Evil is the absence of God" other than the Karimazov Brothers (and even then only sort of). ShabiDOO 17:19, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

There is more to developing Rationalwiki than persisting in this discussion. Anna Livia (talk) 19:30, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

So

… is God the absence of evil, 'the devil' the absence of good etc. Anna Livia (talk) 00:06, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I would say that God is the absence of evil to the extent that light is the absence of darkness. It sounds okay, superficially, but when you dig into it more deeply, it becomes a reflexive, doubly-negating statement that doesn't really hold up. Here, try them on for size:

1. "Light is the absence of darkness" ==> "Light is the absence of not having as many photons shooting around as where it is light."
2. "Heat is the absence of cold." ==> "Heat is the absence of not having as much energy as where it is hot."

I just don't think that cold and darkness have enough actual . . . stuff . . . They are the absence of something; the self-reflexive, double-negation inherent in "the lack of an absence of something" just seems a bit gibberish-like to me. Still, your mileage may vary. Also, no analogy is perfect; I guess there are anti-particles that can annihilate photons and energy . . . Nah, I do not consider the heat of summer to be caused by a lack of anti-particles, since anti-particles don't really cause the cold of winter or the dark of night. --Bertrc (talk) 01:12, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

Hmmmm, I don't think the Devil is a lack of Goodness or God. I'm not entirely sure of all that I believe, regarding the Devil, but I do believe rather strongly that, whatever the Devil is, it is about as comparable to God as we are -- Similar to how, in math, when doing limits and derivatives, as one element approaches infinity, other static or more slowly growing elements (even really big ones) are equally treated as zero by comparison to the infinite value -- Certainly, from most descriptions, there seems to be less inclusion of God in the Devil's motivations (if such a description is applicable) but that goes for most of us, as well. --Bertrc (talk) 01:12, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

What about Loki and the Flying Spaghetti Monster

And what would the absence of Loki, the FSM 'and a myriad of other deities' be individually and collectively? Anna Livia (talk) 00:06, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Well, personally, I do not believe that Loki or the Flying Spaghettis Monster exist, let alone that they fundamentally define some aspect of existence, so I think an absence of them is simply reality as we know it. :-P~ ;-) However, if I am incorrect and they not only exist but also define some underlying aspect we can perceive in reality, then I would assume that their lack of inclusion in something would result in us feeling the opposite/inverse/complement of whatever aspect of reality is inherently defined by their inclusion. --Bertrc (talk) 01:12, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

The point being that the original statement is fundamentally flawed. The Dogger Bank people Deities are by definition 'absent' from the collective consciousness - does evil derive from this? Or from the absence of the Lovecraftian gods? Anna Livia (talk) 12:03, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia . . . Sorry, I am not entirely following your point. Which original statement is fundamentally flawed? --Bertrc (talk) 13:26, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, With regards to Lovecraft's monstrosities being absent . . . I don't think you are entirely following my point; let me try saying it again, slightly differently: Try to remember the urban legend that spawned the view of evil titling this article -- Some mythical Professor was saying "If God creates all things then God created evil; If God is present in all things, then His presence is evil"; the mythical Einstein replies that God defines Goodness and, thus, that Evil is no more created by God than cold or darkness are created by energy and photons -- If I am wrong about Lovecraft's critters and they not only exist but fundamentally define some aspect of reality by their presence, then, whatever it is that we sense more of when they are more present in a situation would be sensed less do the degree that they are included less in some other situation. --Bertrc (talk) 13:26, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

In 'the Great Voids between the Galaxies' nothing happens beyond the occasional particles passing through/appearing and disappearing and there is no reason for 'some or any God or Gods' to do anything until the heat death of the Universe - does evil reside in those places? Anna Livia (talk) 12:03, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia , You could just refer to the universe outside the possible infosphere of human influence. I agree with what you literally said, but I disagree with what I think you meant You are correct to say that there is no reason for God to do anything -- Everything out in the void is working fine, so, yeah, there is no need for God to do anything -- However, I would say that there is a very powerful reason for God to be present: Beauty and existence (among other reasons, I'm sure) Heck, we even get to see much of that beauty. I would surmise that, out in the void between galaxies, God is more fully included and at the center of existence than He is here on Earth. Outside the human infosphere (and outside the infosphere of any other fallen alien race) there is no conscious thought or agency that can try to put something else in God's rightful and proper place at the center of existence. eg. Here on Earth, we let money or power or comfort challenge God's primacy at the heart of nature; as a result, we wind up with climate change and all of its broken, evil side-effects. --Bertrc (talk) 13:26, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

There is no reason for 'Deity or Deities' to do anything in 'the void' - so by the definition given 'evil exists there.'

Evil is 'a course of action' or 'a state of intent (which can include an absence of doing something)'; the sense of beauty/wonder is also a state of mind observing the world - therefore they cannot exist without 'a mind capable of taking action' (the lion that killed Rev. Howard Davidson was not making a moral statement: was this creature, long before humans do evil)?. Deities and evil and 'the physical universe' are two different categories. Anna Livia (talk) 14:09, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Hmmm, I think you missed my point. This article is claiming that God and the physical universe are not separate; that the universe depends on God. It is asking you to change your perspective on what good and evil are, as well as asking you to change your perspective on the cause of "good" and "evil". The article is saying you need to think of "good" and "evil" as somewhat analagous to the physical concepts of "hot" and "cold" or of "light" and "darkness".

According to the argument titling this article, it is a lack of God's presence and inclusion, not a lack of His actions that lead to us feeling that one situation is more evil than another. According to this article, we feel that an action or intent or result or situation or state of mind is more good based on the extent that it is ultimately motivated from a place centered on God (or, conversely, more evil to the extent it comes from a place that is centered on something other than God)

So, out beyond the human infosphere, the universe is ticking along like clockwork because it is fully centered on God. We have not had a chance to try to make something other than God more important, there, the way we have when we strip-mine a countryside, here. Thus, according to this article, since the area outside our influence is properly founded on God, such places are "good" and not "evil". That goes for your creature that existed before humans did, as well.

Additionally, since those places are in perfect working order, God does not have to do anything; He is simply there. It is only within our sphere of influence (and, presumably, within the spheres of any other fallen races) that the Trinity has to actively intercede to bring the world and its people back to their proper alignment . . . At least, according to the argument titling this article. --Bertrc (talk) 13:42, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Separately, I don't know the story of Howard Davidson, but I can think of a hundred ways in which the brokenness of this world and/or of an individual (brokenness == having something challenging God's proper place at the heart) could lead to a lion eating somebody. Think about it -- Hurricanes killing people on the coast are not evil in intent, but they are the evil result of our evil actions. They are the result of us making ourselves (getting comfort, money, etc. for ourselves) more important than God, and we have thus wrecked our climate. (Yes, I am simplifying the situation. The chain of effect is not so straightforward) --Bertrc (talk) 13:42, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

You have have yet to prove your argument: that God exists, that God 'coexists' with some parts of the universe (and the parts where God is not are by definition evil), that God is a he and a Trinity; and your 'Additionally...' paragraph admits that it is conscious action that is significant and that we humans are evil - but as what you define as God created us and gave us free will why did 'He' (why not a more complex gender?) allow us the capacity to become fallen? The hurricanes 'and all other natural phenomena' exist regardless of whether humans (or other sentients) are there to observe them. (talk) 14:27, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Oh, I am not trying to prove God exists. I am trying to prove that the existence of such a God and our experiences of evil are not mutually exclusive. Separately, I do apologize for assuming you believe in man-made climate change; I certainly understand and accept that millions of people in just the U.S. (let alone the rest of the world) think these extreme hurricanes and wildfires would be happening even without us; I should have been respectful of the possibility that you fell in that group. I should have chosen a more direct example . . . let's talk about landslides in Haiti -- Humans have allowed money to challenge God's proper place at the center of our hearts, leading to much of the poverty in Haiti, leading to deforestation on the mountains, leading to landslides. Thus, in a sense, humans have allowed the importance of money to challenge God's place within the existence of those mountains which has lead to those evil landslides that have caused so much suffering. Those landslides would not have taken place were it not for Humans worshipping money over God. (yes, I am simplifying. There are many other idols we have worshipped that have contributed to the landslides in Haiti) --Bertrc (talk) 15:11, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

People (and probably 'other entities with sufficient awareness to understand the concept') believe in one, several or many of various Deities, are uncertain or neutral about the subject (agnostic) or atheist - but can live ethical lives, improving the world/benefitting the entities therein (whether low key (as simple as holding the door open for someone) or significant) or at least neutral. I do not think we will convert each other - but I think my position (as far as possible do things that are a general benefit (or at least neutral), enjoy what you encounter - and make 'the colouring book of your life' as interesting as you can) is likely to be shared by more people on RW than yours. Anna Livia (talk) 14:26, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

*Heh* Forget RW. In any setting, any other view on morality and existence likely has more adherents than mine! :-D --Bertrc (talk) 15:11, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

And the story of HD can readily be found. Anna Livia (talk) 14:27, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

. . . The story of High Definition? --Bertrc (talk) 15:11, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

If you had been paying attention to what I've been saying you'd see the problem here is the incompatibility between two statements: 1. God is all good and 2. God allows evil to happen ... and not about atheists claiming that God is evil (that is an entirely different conversation which I think is pointless considering God doesn't exist). The Evil is the absence of God is not only a terrible argument to get around this (the other being some conjecture that there is a greater good that we cannot understand coming from what seems to us to be pointless suffering) cause the "absence of God" is only just inventing some explanation out of thin air...which is bad enough but worse it doesn't even solve the problem because even if Evil is the absence of God, God either chooses to be absent or set up the rules so that he could be absent...in both cases still allowing evil to exist. Even if evil was the absence of God...who cares? It changes none of the serious problems that theologians have been unable to provide satisfactory answers to. God cannot be all good because he allows pointless evil to exist. In order to get around this problem you'll either have to concede that God is NOT all good or admit that there are limits to his powers, that he cannot create a world where pointless evil doesn't exist. The claim (1) is incompatible with fact (2) unless you accept that there are limits to God's abilities (that he cannot create a world without evil). ShabiDOO 21:23, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, uh . . . Dude? Not to be snippy, but . . . If you had been paying attention to what I said, you'd see that I already pointed out you want the theodicy article. (See what I did there? ;-) ) Seriously, I agree with you. Take a look at the history of the theodicy article. The much missed @Reverend Black Percy pointed out that this perspective of evil does not, in any way, solve the problem of Evil. Heck, I even touched that point up. You are on the wrong talk page if you want to talk about theodicy. This page is purely about a different way of considering the underlying root of evil, and about a counter-argument to the claim that God is or causes evil. --Bertrc (talk) 02:33, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

And as I said these two conversations are not mutually exclusive at all. I have clearly stated that the Evil is the absence of God does not absolve God of responsibility for causing evil. God created the universe and it's underlying rules and he could have set up the universe however he wanted including one where he never had to be absent anywhere or where his absence didn't result in evil. God is free to be as absent or non-absent as he chooses. So yes, God is responsible for every single thing that ever happens in a universe he created and could create in whatever way he wished. If you created an exceedingly detailed simulation on a computer, no matter what you did or how you ran it or how engaged you were in it...you created everything and are responsible for everything. ShabiDOO 10:16, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, uh . . . Dude? Not to be snippy, but . . . As I said, I agree with you that this perspective of evil does not resolve "The problem of evil". You should go ask questions about theodicy over in the theodicy talk page if you want to explore "The problem of Evil". Heck, we even bring up "Evil is the absense of God" over there and explain how it doesn't resolve "The Problem of Evil." Here on this page, you don't need to keep bringing up a tangential subject on which we are all already on the same page. So, aside from the fact that it does not explain why a benevolent God would not be sufficiently present, what are your thoughts about a perspective of evil that views it as a comparative lack of God, similar to cold being a comparative lack of energy? --Bertrc (talk) 15:19, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

I cannot make any sense of what you're trying to achieve. You say you want to talk about a counter-argument to the claim that God is or causes evil and yet I reply that God is the absence of evil isn't a counter-argument that God causes evil because he clearly creates everything. So how on Earth is "God is the absence of evil" a counter argument as you have personally claimed you wish to discuss on this page? As for the argument I've already made my feelings clear, evil is not the same kind of negative phenomena as temperature or brightness. They are not comparable. They are subjective relative human judgements that depend on cultural context and personal opinion (based on a rational moral system or not). Light and temperature are not remotely the same. And to quote Ana, evil is the absence of God doesn't help us define anything. What exactly are evil acts? Saying it's the absence of God doesn't tell me what an evil act actually is. I don't have a special device that helps me detect if God is around so I cannot find out what evil is that way. What is it? Be specific. How does God's absence facilitate evil acts? By what mechanism does that happen? Does his absence actually cause the evil or does it create a vacuum of good enabling already evil people to be evil? Does God choose to be absent or is he only capable of being present in so many places? Or does God choose to become absent because he is repelled by the evil deeds that come from free-will? How do you know this? Why would God set things up this way? And most importantly...by far the most important point: HOW ARE ANY ANSWERS TO THIS QUESTION VERIFIABLE OR FALSIFIABLE? If this is all just a thought experiment then it is a ridiculous one that provides no insight into anything. ShabiDOO 19:47, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, *whew* A lot of questions, and I do not think I can phrase my answers in a way that will convey the idea to you. Heh, I think I need to add a "Shabidoo's answer(s)" section. Once you can phrase some answers there, I might be able to phrase a better explanation for evil. I'll try answering the ones I can here, and will post questions where I need your phrasing in your own section --Bertrc (talk) 16:26, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, I am trying to achieve a few things. In myself, I am trying to further my journey with God by exploring and learning and hopefully increasing my understanding of Him. I hope that I can use what I learn to fix some of the brokenness within this world. I hope I can provide people to an additional paradigm/perspective for addressing the evil in this world. --Bertrc (talk) 16:26, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, I believe you do have special device(s) that helps you detect how much God has been included in a situation you experience of an action you take. Specifically, you have your soul, conscience, gut, feelings, etc. Metaphysical devices for a metaphysical concept. ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 16:26, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, Sure it is falsifiable. When you die, if you cease to exist, you have falsified this idea. If you continue to exist, but there is no God, then you have falsified the idea. If there is a God, but He tells you that Bertrc is an idiot who has no idea what they are talking about, then you have falsified the idea. Heck, I can think of a hundred results after you die that would falsify this idea. ;-P~ ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 16:26, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Summarising

Take 'the whole of the space-time universe' from the Big Bang to the heat death end (what will God do then?)

99.8% of the universe will operate under 'the laws of physics, geology, astrophysics etc' so will not require the Deity's/Deities' attention.

0.1% of the universe will consist of space-time places where God/the Deity/Deities will be seeing 'what happens if I do this?'

0.1% of the universe (probably an over-estimation, but including sentient constructs, Roko's Basilisks, space travellers etc, and the proportion will increase over time 'so long as objects and viable energy sources persist') will involve life that is sentient enough for questions of ethics and the nature of good and evil to be considered.

By the definitions given God/any and all Deities have no particular reason to be present in most of the 99.8% where 'nothing happens' - so evil will be there according to the thesis' logic.

But - it is claimed that God concentrates on the 0.1% of the universe where sentience exist: God or the Deities created sentients often in His/Deity or Deities' pronoun images, so by definition evil should not be there, but, according to the thesis it is.

Different deities and different varieties of a given faith have somewhat different definitions of what constitutes good and evil beyond 'worship [your god] and behave ethically.'

Therefore the initial argument is flawed. Anna Livia (talk) 10:16, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

Not to mention the whole evil is the absence of God is an entirely constructed scape-goat response to a difficult question theologians cannot answer. It is a solution made up out of thin air with absolutely zero basis in holy text. Instead of admitting that there is a complete incompatibility between: God is all good and god allows evil things to happen the answer is: well lets just...uh...say...that evil is just a lacking of God in some places...uhhh. As though that some how gives God a "not have to be responsible for evil acts happening free card". Well, it actually doesn't cause God was, according to descriptions of him, completely capable of creating the universe however he wanted and he certainly could have created one where evil need not have existed at all, where he could exist 100% everywhere all the time (which is the idea you get when reading parts of the bible anyways) or he could have stopped people from ever claiming that he was "all Good". He did none of this. If God exists, then he allows pointless suffering, either by creating it (he created everything right?) or by willfully being absent (according to the infantile so called "solution" to the problem re: evil is the absence of God). If he exists then he is a sadistic, cruel, deranged horrible being that doesn't deserve any respect let alone praise and reverence. But then, there is no evidence that he exists (as Anna points out) so, why should we be entertaining this stupid idea at all? ShabiDOO 12:41, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

The percentages are approximate and the 'Deity Ideas Lab' is theoretical.

'Worship your deity/deities and behave ethically' is a variant on Pascal's wager: would add 'be courteous to others (as far as reasonable).'

The whole argument is based upon a very particular type of God (many deities do not claim to be omnipotent) and what appears to be a flawed definition of evil. Anna Livia (talk) 19:10, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, I think you are getting this discussion confused with the more general theodicy article. This bit is just considering a different perspective on what "evil" is -- ie. Darkness is not actually due to the tangible presence of an existing thing; instead, it is the effect (or our perception) of the comparative lack of tangible photons (light). Similarly, "evil" is not actually due to the tangible presence of an existing thing; instead, it is the effect (or our perception) of the comparative lack of tangible "goodness" ("God") -- Why God would allow Himself to be so insufficiently present as to allow us to feel suffering and evil is a whole other discussion. --Bertrc (talk) 15:30, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

These two discussions are hardly mutually exclusive. The evil is the absence of God is a half-strewn-together absurd explanation that tries to compare something like heat and light (physical properties) with subjectively abstract human concepts. It's ridiculous. ShabiDOO 15:45, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, Yeah, I get that same response from creationists when I try to explain how photosynthetic leaves or the human eye could have evolved. :-P~ ;-) C'mon, no analogy is perfect, and, yes, this is certainly ridiculous if God does not exist. However, if God does exist then I am trying to red pill you, dude! --Bertrc (talk) 16:11, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I feel there are a few flaws in your statement and conclusions when you say: "By the definitions given God/any and all Deities have no particular reason to be present in most of the 99.8% where 'nothing happens' - so evil will be there according to the thesis' logic."

1. I agree that God may not have to do any work, out where the particles flicker in and out of existence, but that doesn't mean He has no particular reason to be present. The magnet in a child's toy doesn't have to actively do work, in order to keep the structure together; however, the magnet does have a particular reason to be present; without the magnet's presence, structure would fall apart. Similarly, in most of the 99.8% (or whatever percent) of the universe, God doesn't have to actively do work to keep reality together; however, God does have a particular reason to be present; without God's presence, reality would fall apart. Basically, God's presence keeps the universe going, even where it is working properly; without Him, those particles would no longer flitter in and out of existence --Bertrc (talk) 16:04, 13 October 2020 (UTC)
2. Even if God had no particular reason to be present among the particles flickering in and out of existence, that doesn't mean that He is not present. What do you consider "A reason to be present"? I know I am often in places where I have no particular reason to be and I am much less awesome than God. --Bertrc (talk) 16:04, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

You're comparing my criticism of the "God is the absence of evil" which is a theory of ABSOLUTE PURE CONJECTURE with creationists unwilling to process facts in a rational way? Seriously? You aren't using a metaphor you are making a claim about a property of God, and that claim attempts to impose a verifiable concept onto an entirely different problem, and one that is completely falsifiable and even escapes reason or logic because we are swimming in a world of utter fantasy, a game of wild speculation in an attempt to square a circle. If God exists then could he be absent in some places and so uh evil and uh blah blah blah? I don't know...if God exists could he snap his fingers and turn all of the clouds into a big wad of pure evil that would rain down evil juice all over us? I don't know...could anyone answer either of these absurd questions beyond: uhh...in a world where a bearded man in the sky actually exists and has all the fantastical qualities that bronze age book said he does...then uh...perhaps??? ShabiDOO 16:59, 13 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, Well, I wouldn't call "Evil is the absence of God" a theory. It is not really trying to prove anything. In fact, it is trying to do the opposite; it is trying to show the fallacy inherent in somebody else's proof. Specifically, it is showing the fallacy in a particular attempt to prove that, if God exists, then He is eViL. The mythical strawman professor tries to say that if God is everywhere, then, since evil situations exist, God must be eViL; our mythical Einstein shows that the mythical professor's argument does not hold up by providing the example of how cold situations exist even though energy is present. The new perspective we get on the possible nature of evil is certainly useful and beneficial, but the perspective of evil being the comparative absence of God, rather than the presence of anything, is not really proving anything. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Bertrc - you appear to have a radically different interpretation of what 'evil' means to the rest of us. For you 'Evil≠God'; for the rest of us 'Evil = deliberate nastiness and malice, and "the usual suspects who prompt a reply of Godwin's Law" etc.

Perhaps the issue is one of 'free will' - we are given the right to choose what to do, and God wants us to choose to do rightly, and has given us a universe which acts in a logical manner. Anna Livia (talk) 23:09, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, My definition is not all that different than yours, although it appears to be broader. I consider "deliberate nastiness and malice, and "the usual suspects who prompt a reply of Godwin's Law" etc." to be evil, just like you do. However, I am trying to convey that I consider the ultimate cause of evil to be ≠God. This is similar to how I can consider an ice cube to be cold, but, at the same time, realize that the ice cube really simply has less energy and, therefore, is acting as a heat sink, pulling warmth away from my fingers. --Bertrc (talk) 02:03, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

So What is the Point?

I'd like to pose a question -- If "Evil is the absence of God" isn't trying to prove something, then what is the point?

The point is to give tools for how to approach life, tools for how to react to experiencing and witnessing evil, tools to manage how you let evil affect you, etc. It is similar to how we believe we exist as part of a concrete world bound by physical laws, rather than as figments of some child's imagination or some simulation on a computer; with the tools from such a belief, we try to act accordingly. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Additionally, although the view does not try to prove God exists -- God does not try to prove He exists; He simply is -- it does undo some attempts to prove God does not exist. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

The point of discussing the idea is to refine the idea to see if it is workable and also to derive additional implications from the idea. eg. When I see the evils in our politics, what is subverting God's place, thus leading to such evil; and what can I do to undo that subversion? When my conscience points out evil in myself, what am I placing ahead of God in my heart or what am I placing my trust in that is other than Him; how do I correct that? --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

You can call a bad argument a "set of tool" or whatever other title you like, it's still a terrible argument, invented out of thin air, in an attempt to solve other problems which lack any good answer. ShabiDOO 21:24, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, Well, I wouldn't call "Evil is the absence of God" an argument . . . ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 02:36, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

What does it mean for God to be at the center of things

@BertrcS, It is a metaphor. Think of how the earth orbits the sun, or of how a magnet holds a child's toy house together, or how the . . . strong and weak? . . . nuclear forces hold everything together. God is kinda like those, metaphorically, for existence.

I don't know how to replace the strong and weak nuclear forces, but if you start throwing other massive gravity wells that can challenge the Sun's primacy, our solar system would fall apart. Similarly, existence centers on God. Most of existence is properly oriented. However, we are able to make choices that are not, ultimately, driven from a place fully centered on God. Those choices are less good than choices that are more fully motivated by a love of God, a dependency on Him, a trust and identity built on the fact that He loves us. Those choices that have foundations other than God essentially push those false foundations into the world around us, thus breaking the world. --BertrcP (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

1) @BertrcP, Did you really have to start a new section? --BertrcS (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcS, Yes. --BertrcP (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

2) @BertrcP, I thought I asked you for an explanation that made sense. --BertrcS (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcS, *sigh* --BertrcP (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Bear in mind

If people stop talking to you it is not because you have 'won' but because you are not advancing or explaining your argument switch to people to more interesting things which actually develop.

'Evil is the absence of God' may make grammatical sense but is not logical/does not make sense in the real world. 'God participates in Kinktober/Whumptober/NaNoWriMo' makes more sense. Anna Livia (talk) 08:45, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia :-D Way to cover your bases!!! You could have just said "I'm not going to fall into your Socratic trap by phrasing an answer to those two questions." Heck, I actually do not have this much time, normally, myself. I was fortunate to be in a lull of work, where I regularly had to wait a couple hours for results. I might have to stop talking to you guys, myself. Don't forget that you posted the question that started all this back in January, and I did not reply for months! I don't think it is ever a win when somebody stops talking so don't worry -- It may be long between postings, but that will be because I am lazy and distracted; it will not be because I don't want to talk to you anymore. --Bertrc (talk) 15:31, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Measure it

I think the whole debacle skips the most important point: there is no objective way to measure god's presence/absence or good/evil. It's simple as that, there is no universal point system, so to speak, that clearly defines a unit's value or expected results at certain points.

Even if we suppose it exists as a 0 to 100 scale, we have no clue how to actually measure it. We know what 50 degrees Celsius is and that allows people to contextualize whether it could be considered hot or cold. Same for light, 10000 lumens can be either too bright or too dark, it depends on the context. There is no such thing for good/evil, just look at all those discussions of "but what about action X under condition Y", lots of context thrown without any measured values. To say that the actions are the measure is circular logic.2804:1B2:182:8DCD:D0D:DC4D:3767:9548 (talk) 20:01, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

I've specifically mentioned this twice. ShabiDOO 22:11, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@2804:1B2:182:8DCD:D0D:DC4D:3767:9548 and @Shabidoo, I like the way you phrased it here. So do things only matter if we have an objective way of measuring them? Assuming that you are not going to fall into my trap by saying "yes", let me ask: How do you contextualize whether something is hot or cold if you have no thermometer or objective physical measuring tool and if you have no means of creating one? eg. let's say that you have fallen overboard from a ship and are trying to swim to some distant remote island; how do you contextualize whether the air you are gasping for should be considered warm or cool? --Bertrc (talk) 20:44, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Question 'the next'

Is there not some sort of category error in the statement?

There are several definitions of evil ('this act or worldview is evil', 'this is an evil which has to be rectified' etc), and a key aspect is the element of sentient participation/choosing to act or refraining from action (respectively in the two examples), and whether or not one believes in the God being described here, dome other deity or deities, no god at all or some other position, one can define some persons or activities as evil. It does not actually matter whether God exists in 'the places where sentience is not and 'scientific laws operate indifferently for the entire history of the universe.' Anna Livia (talk) 11:47, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I'm not sure I would agree with your premise. For example, I believe that the destruction and deaths caused by the wildfires in California are evil. I guess you could stretch your premise to claim the wildfires are due to climate change which is due to human choices. However, if you are willing to stretch that far, then I would say that there is a key aspect which is even lower and more fundamental than the element of choice. Specifically, there is the ultimate underlying motivation or drive for making that choice. The idea titling this article implies that evil occurs when that underlying motive is something other than God --Bertrc (talk) 21:14, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

The gods of the people of the Dogger Bank are now absent - so is the entire universe now evil? Anna Livia (talk) 11:47, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Well, I'm afraid that my education has not included a deep understanding of the religious practices of any population that might have inhabited Dogger Bank when it was above water. Heck, I don't even know it had an indigenous presence (Weren't there just migratory people?) However, I am willing to bet that the absence of their gods makes things evil about as much as the absence of Thaums makes things cold. :-P~ ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 21:14, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

The key issue

One can believe in there being evil (however defined) and malicious actions without necessarily believing in 'the singular, particular or plurality of the Deity or Deities' - and with the vast majority of the universe it does not actually matter whether or not the 'Divine Entity or Entities' exist or do not. Anna Livia (talk) 12:15, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Well, sure! Heck, one can believe in there being darkness without necessarily believing that there is some mYsTeRiOuS thing that acts as a wave or a particle depending on the circumstances. However, just because you do not believe in photons doesn't mean they do not exist . . . and the more you block them out, the darker things will get. Ooooooh, I just got chills! :-D --Bertrc (talk) 21:20, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Questions

So, as usual, I've been completely incomprehensible in my positions. However, due to my penchant for throwing good money after bad, I'll try yapa (That's yet another phrasing attempt)

Over on my talk page, although I requested that she post it here ( ;-P~ ;-) ), @Anna Livia asked: The question is one, you Bertrc, have to answer - why is 'where God (which one?) is not by its nature evil?' If God is coterminous with the universe - God is everywhere and with all sentients, so no-where is evil: if evil is associated with some sentient entities (and most are 'naughty' at most) and involves 'malicious wrongdoing' then 'outer space and the centre of a black hole cannot be evil.'

Please assume that there is a "Personally, I believe . . ." before every single statement, below. I just don't want to have to keep writing that. ;-)

Anyhoo, I am looking forward to exploring this. Feel free to add more sub-sections. Please try not to mix topics. --Bertrc (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Question 1) Which God?

Well, there is only one God in my belief. If somebody out there believes there are many gods, they can latch onto their own philosophies to undercut attempted disproofs of their gods' existences. Hey, I'm glad to acknowledge that if I am wrong and there are many gods or no God, then pretty much all aspects of this perspective on evil fall apart.

Anyhoo, the single God that this view of evil revolves around created all that is. This single God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving. He is deeply and intimately enmeshed and involved with all that He created.

Now, I have no doubt that this section is going to devolve into descriptions and requests for proofs and reasons to believe in God. It is fine that this section will devolve into that but I want to say at the start that the idea of evil being the absence of God is not meant to prove God's existence. It merely provides a perspective of what we call evil that is consistent with the existence of such a God. --Bertrc (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Question 2) Why is "where God is not", by its nature, evil?

Question 2a) Is there any place where God is completely absent?

Okay. First, let me say that, to match this article more accurately, the question should be phrased: "Why does allowing something to challenge God's primacy at the center of all things cause evil?" I will assume @Anna Livia was paraphrasing for brevity. None-the-less, I want to stress that there is no place in this universe nor in anybody's thoughts or actions where God is completely absent. God is not simply coterminous with this Universe, the way matter and energy are; He exceeds the universe (is superterminous a word?)

Evil comes from allowing other things to challenge God's place at the center; to dilute His presence and involvement. However, I doubt anything can fully replace Him, unless He allows it (perhaps that is what damnation is. Perhaps what people refer to as damnation is God granting our wish to be fully and completely without Him) --Bertrc (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Question 2b) Enough stalling. Why is evil like cold? Why is a lack of God like a lack of heat

Okay, okay. Don't be impatient. :-P~ ;-) The direct answer is "Because that is the way the universe works". :-D

Yes, yes, I am being facetious. ;-) I promise you I am not stalling. I am trying to work out a phrasing that meets your needs. Were I to simply answer with my own words, I doubt the phrasing would meet what you need. So, in order to figure out the phrasing that might actually make sense to you, I need to know your answer to "Why is "Where energy is not", by its nature, cold?" and "Why is "Where light is not", by its nature dark?" (I'll break out subsections, since different people might want to give their own answer. Feel free to add your own personal section. Please try not to mix sections) --Bertrc (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Anna Livia's answer to Bertrc

Question the First

@Anna Livia, why is "Where energy is not", by its nature, cold? Why is "Where light is not", by its nature dark? Based on the phrasings of your answers to those two questions, I will try to phrase an answer to why "Where God is not" is, by its nature, evil. --Bertrc (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Question the second

@Anna Livia, what is the definition of 'cold'? What is the definition of 'darkness'? Based on the phrasings of your answers to those two questions, I will try to phrase an answer to "What is the definition of 'Evil'" --Bertrc (talk) 18:38, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Question the third

@Anna Livia, if energy is everywhere, how can there be places where there is a comparative absence of energy? Based on the phrasing of your answer to that question, I will try to phrase an answer to "If God is everywhere why are there (absences of God)?" --Bertrc (talk) 20:01, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Question the fourth

@Anna Livia, Why would somebody go to an art museum or a poetry reading, when they are not needed there? Based on you phrasing to that question, I will try to phrase an answer to "Why would God be out in the vastness of space and black holes where there is no sentience or conscious choices?" --Bertrc (talk) 16:41, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

More deflecting questions with vaguely related questions. How long have we been waiting for you to "try to phrase an answer" or actually even "ever provide an answer". Could you please do us the service and respect of giving a clear and meaningful answer to anything? ShabiDOO 04:45, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, Hey, go answer questions in your own section!! :-P~ ;-) (Kidding) I'm sorry I missed your post here. I honestly have tried to answer @Anna Livia's questions, but s/he does not seem to like my answers. In this instance, she seems to believe that, by my definition, God would not be present in Black holes an the like because He does not need to actually do anything. My answer, which I understand, is that God is present in places where He does not need to do anything. S/he doesn't seem to like that answer. I'm not sure how to rephrase it, but that is the answer: "Yes, God does not need to actively do anything other than be present in the midst of black holes, but He is present there, none-the-less." Since that phrasing does not seem to convey the idea that God will be present in black holes and on the edges of space adequately to Anna Livia, I asked them to phrase an answer to an analogous situation, hoping that I can model my phrasing using their phrasing. --Bertrc (talk) 22:21, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

(That being said, at this point, I do think @Anna Livia may simply be trolling me by asking the same question again and again, while ignoring both the different ways I phrase an answer and my requests for phrasing I can model answers after. However, every now and then a new perspective comes up, so I do not mind encouraging the trolling. :-D ) --Bertrc (talk) 22:21, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

No bertrec you didn't give a straight answer to any of her questions. ShabiDOO 22:41, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, Dude, how much more direct and straight can I be than "Yes, God does not need to actively do anything other than be present in the midst of black holes, but He is present there, none-the-less" without Anna Livia (or you) showing me how they (or you) like answers phrased? I guess I could try "Not needing to do anything other than being present is not the same as not being present" . . . Oh . . . wait, I did try that (and that was not accepted as an answer, either!) ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 00:42, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Question the Fifth

@Anna Livia, How would you define cold in terms that do not include "heat" or "energy"? How would you define darkness that do not include "light" or of "photons"? Based on you phrasing to those questions, I will try to phrase an answer to "How do I define evil in terms that do not include God?" You seem to want a robust definition for "evile". I can list effects and situations (such as the landslides in Haiti that have killed so many or the Serbian rape camps in Bosnia) that are evil, but I do not feel doing so defines evil any more than saying "ice cubes, space, the arctic, absolute zero and Steve Austin are cold" defines the term "cold". --Bertrc (talk) 22:31, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

Question the Sixth

@Anna Livia, Can cold and heat be in the exact same place at the same time? Can light and darkness be in the exact same place at the exact same time? Based on you phrasing to those questions, I will try to phrase an response to "God and 'evil' must be in the same place at the same time in some contexts". --Bertrc (talk) 16:44, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

Shabidoo's answer(s) to Bertrc

Question the first

@Shabidoo, "How does the absence of energy facilitate cold?" and "How does the absence of photons facilitate darkness?" Based on the phrasings of your answers to those two questions, I will try to phrase an answer to how God's absence facilitates evil. --Bertrc (talk) 16:25, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Nothing is facilitated, they are just human labels over what we consider a low range of radiation which is entirely subjective and depends on the context. Neither of these are remotely comparable with evil as evil acts are not based on a low range of any measurable physical phenomena. In any case, I would certainly like to hear your answer whenever it will come. ShabiDOO 17:59, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, Then I would say that a dilution of God's presence in a situation does not facilitate evil. Personally, I don't feel your definition of "cold" is broad enough, since I think cold and darkness are much more than just labels; "cold" is a term for something we feel very concretely. However, I do agree that "Cold" is also a term which we use subjectively. As such, I would agree that "Evil" is a term that can be used subjectively, although I would similarly point out that the term can refer to something we feel very concretely, as well. --Bertrc (talk) 18:26, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Well no Evil cannot be subjective if it is the absence of God. ShabiDOO 01:24, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, . . . Did you mean the double negative, there? I disagree that no Evil cannot be subjective. There are certain evils that can be subjective when you define "evil" in terms of the results/effect, rather than the cause, just as cold can be subjective when you define "cold" in terms of results/effect, rather than cause. eg. At different points of the year, when viewing "cold" in terms of the effect, I can subjectively consider 55-degree weather in the summer colder than 50-degree weather in the winter; however, at both points, when viewing "cold" in terms of the cause, 55-degree weather is always objectively less cold than 50-degree weather. --Bertrc (talk) 20:27, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

So what is evil? Could you please define evil other than the absence of God? ShabiDOO 01:24, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, In order to phrase an answer to that, I would need to see your answer to: So what is cold and what is darkness? Could you please define cold other than the absence of heat and energy? Could you please define darkness other than the absence of light and photons? --Bertrc (talk) 20:27, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Question the second

@Shabidoo, What exactly is a cold situation? Saying it is the absence of warmth does not tell me what a cold situation really is. Based on the phrasing of your answer to that question, I will try to phrase an answer to what an evil act is. --Bertrc (talk) 16:25, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

In fact no. Cold and darkness are both just a low level of radiation. Only absolute zero and absolute darkness (both rare) are an absence of radiation. Cold and darkness are both measurable and what is considered cold and dark depends on the context and what humans subjectively say it is. Based on the context I can tell you that cold is a specific range of temperature we can measure and for each person that range can be different and change depending on the circumstances. The absence of God is not measurable and if I asked someone if they thought there was an "absence of God" it is extremely doubtful I would get a reliable answer unless they were referring to evil acts in which case we could substitute the question "is there an absence of God here" with "do you think that person did an evil thing". If I further question the person I am far more likely to get a coherent answer about why they considered the act evil as opposed to why God was absent or how God's absence actually works. But yes, if you can actually give even a basic explanation of what evil actually is, even a bare outline of how I can identify evil acts...it would be helpful, even if it is just a range of something. Also some explanation of the mechanism by how God's absence work and even better why. ShabiDOO 17:55, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, So, cold is a low level of radiation. There is a subjective opinion as to the point at which the level of radiation is low enough to be considered "cold". In the absence of an external, physical measuring instrument, we determine if the threshold for something being "cold" based on how it feels. Is that an accurate rephrasing of your answer to the question "What is a cold situation"? --Bertrc (talk) 18:05, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Question the third

@Shabidoo, If a child asks a parent to stop helping them clean up their room, and the parent acquiesces, is the parent choosing to not be involved or is the parent allowing the child to exclude them? Is there a difference between those two options? Based on the phrasings of your answers to those two questions, I will try to phrase an answer whether God chooses to be less present. (Yes, yes. You asked if God chooses to be absent, but I do not believe the idea titling this article implies God is ever absent, anymore than it implies energy is absent from an ice-cube. Elsewhere I use the word "absent" as short hand for "being less present" but here, I felt I should make a distinction.) --Bertrc (talk) 16:25, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

First of all I don't see what that question about a child and a parent has to do with evil. Not only that but a parent is literally incapable of being present everywhere...God is. This scenario isn't remotely comparable and is even nonsensical. God is an infinite being not governed by the restrictions we puny humans have. Parents have to make choices about where they are present. God, since he invented all the rules, could be permanently present everywhere all the time. He chooses not to (creating evil apparently in the process). So you are saying Evil is just a low level of God's presence? Is that it? ShabiDOO 17:55, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, And yet you are not answering the questions. I can try to phrase a reply to whether I think God chooses to be less present. However, I need your help with the phrasing of that answer. To figure out the phrasing I need to see how you phrase answers to:

1) Is the parent choosing to not be involved or is the parent simply allowing the child to exclude them?

2) Is there a difference between those two options?

From your phrasings there, I can try to answer whether I think God is choosing to be less present in evil situations. --Bertrc (talk) 18:15, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, I don't know if I would phrase a definition of Evil as "just a low[er] level of God's presence." I need to see your subsequent response to my rephrasing of your answer in Question the second. --Bertrc (talk) 18:15, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, As for your separate question about why God would allow His presence to be so diluted that we experience a situation as evil, well, that is a question for the Problem of evil talk page. --Bertrc (talk) 18:15, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

BertrcS's answer BertrcP

@BertrcS, why is "Where energy is not", by its nature, cold? Why is "Where light is not", by its nature dark? Based on the phrasings of your answers to those two questions, I will try to phrase an answer to why "Where God is not" is, by its nature, evil. --BertrcP (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Well, @BertrcP, I would say that heat is defined by how much energy is present. That is just the basic definition within this universe. Less energy means less heat. We call something that has less heat "cold". We feel something that has less heat and describe that thing as cold. We see the effect of there being less heat and say that that effect is due to cold. A window in winter feels cold but that is because the air behind it is cold and the air behind it is cold because the angle of the sun is granting less energy to the ground and atmosphere --BertrcS (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Okay @BertrcS, then I would phrase it this way -- A lack of God's presence is, by its nature, evil because goodness is defined by God's presence. That is just the basic definition within this universe. Less God means less goodness. We call something that is less good "evil", We encounter something that is less centered on God and describe that thing as evil. We see the effect of there being things other than God at something's center and say that that effect is due to evil. We call the tear-gassing of peaceful protesters evil but that tear-gassing was carried out because some clown measures his life more on how much attention he gets rather than on God's love for him. We call the landslides in Haiti evil, but those landslides are due to deforestation, as people put the selling of charcoal above God, thus removing God's sole position within the existence of the mountain side; however, the locals are putting charcoal gathering ahead of God because they are forced into poverty by uber capitalists who have put money above God (and because of racists who put white male power above God) --BertrcP (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcP, Aaaarrrgghh! You are so annoying! You are talking in circles! Why would "goodness" be defined by God's presence?! --BertrcS (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcS, Well, why would heat be defined by energy's presence? --BertrcP (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcP, IT JUST IS!!! DON'T PLAY SEMANTICS!!! --BertrcS (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcS, Why are my answers about goodness "playing with semantics" but your answers about heat not "playing with semantics" --BertrcP (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcP, *switches to whining needling voice* Why are my answers about goodness "playing with semantics" but your answers about heat not "playing with semantics" meh-meh-meh --BertrcS (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcS, Stop copying me --BertrcP (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcP, *switches to whining needling voice* Stop copying me. --BertrcS (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcS, *sigh* --BertrcP (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@BertrcP, I'm just playing with you! . . . sort of . . . Okay, could you at least explain what you mean by being centered on God in some way that makes sense? --BertrcS (talk) 01:27, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

Bertrc - no matter how often you say 'Evil is the absence of God' is a flawed circular argument and plays with sematics. The absence of God is merely the absence of God: ditto the absence of the Devil (whether or not involving a locality involving nettles and other bothersome plants). If the gods of 'the prehistoric and ancient worlds' are not in a particular place is that place necessarily 'evil'? What is your counter-example to 'many people see "evil" as "doing bad things deliberately and maliciously'?

Take 'a rotating black hole' - can God go down its throat and past the event horizon (ie breaking the information barrier)? Anna Livia (talk) 23:20, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia . . . um . . . you asked me to answer "Why is 'Where God is not', by its nature, evil". I responded that I cannot adequately phrase an answer for you until you phrase an answer for "Why is "Where energy is not' , by its nature, cold?" and "Why is 'where light is not', by its nature, dark?". I even gave you a section to put your answers in!

This section is where I phrased my answer to those two questions (Well, where Strawman Bertrc phrased their answers to the questions) so of course you won't like my answer in this section (well, you won't like Bertrc Prime's answer in this section)

Basically, the answer here wasn't phrased to convey an idea to you; it was phrased to convey an idea to Strawman Bertrc. Go answer the questions up in your own section! Be warned, though, if, in your section, you give flawed circular answers that play with semantics (as Strawman Bertrc did, here) you might get a flawed circular answer back. --Bertrc (talk) 15:02, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

There is nothing wrong with talking to yourself - it is when you start losing the argument that you have to worry. Anna Livia (talk) 23:20, 16 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia , Nah, I am pretty certain that this level of talking to myself indicates a severe problem, in and of itself. :-D COVID sequestration is really getting to me. --Bertrc (talk) 15:02, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

Just answer the question

Pease define 'evil' in terms other than 'the absence of God.' Repeatedly reiterating the same phrase results in the reverse of convincing. Anna Livia (talk) 17:28, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Please define 'cold' in terms other than 'the absence of energy (or heat or warmth, etc)' and define 'darkness' in terms other than 'the absence of light (or photons, etc.)' . . . Or just answer the question in your section. Then I can try to phrase an answer to your question in a way that might convey my thoughts to you more adequately. --Bertrc (talk) 16:54, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

If neither 'God' (or even any Deities) nor 'the Devil' (or any other evil entities) choose to go to the place full of nettles/the centre of a black hole/those places in the accessible universe where nothing happens that needs to be explained by other than ordinary laws of physics, are those spots good or evil? Anna Livia (talk) 17:28, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Well, according to the idea titling this article, if God were to be completely absent from places with nettles and places beyond the infosphere of any sentient race, then those places would be even more evil than the fires that are burning up California. Fortunately, as far as I know, God is fully present in the places outside of our sphere of influence. The idea titling this article implies that it is our choices that dilute God's presence in places. Remember, just because God doesn't have to actively step in and do something to keep existence ticking along properly, out where particles bubble into and out of existence, doesn't mean that God is not present. After all, when I go to an art show, I do not have to actively do anything to keep the pieces in place, but I am still present. --Bertrc (talk) 16:54, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Hitler and the Nazis, Mao Zedong, Vlad Tepes, the Baron Ungern Sternberg and 'all the other usual suspects' did things which are generally regarded as evil - how do they fit into your argument Bertrc? Anna Livia (talk) 17:28, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

I agree. It seems to be that both "evil" and "god" are religious concepts - at least in so far as they are used in the "evil is the absence of god" argument. So neither of them have any real existence outside of religious debate. So defining one non-existent religious thing in terms of some other non-existent religious thing actually does work within a religious framework. But it has no real-world implication or relevance.Bob^{"Life is short and (insert adjective)"} 13:28, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

Note my comment is neither Godwin's Law nor 'the first derivative thereof' (whoever mentions 'the usual suspects' without justification has lost the argument) as the reference is relevant to the discussion. Anna Livia (talk) 19:35, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Well, personally, I think that Hitler, slave owners, et al, founded their identities on things other than God and God's love for them. That corrupt, evil, sinful and broken basis led them to actions of almost incomprehensible cruelty and evil. --Bertrc (talk) 17:41, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Bob M, Yeah, I'm with Anna Livia on this one. I think the general societal consensus is that some things are evil; it is not purely a religious concept. Additionally (and here, I am branching away from Anna Livia) I would say that if God exists, independent of our belief in Him, then I would not say He is a religious concept. Hmmmm, I guess I would agree with you that many of the incomplete understandings of Him are religious concepts . . . What do you consider "Religion" to be? What is your definition of "Religion? Nowadays, I define religion as: "Given the acceptance that there is a divide between the natural and supernatural world; religion is the set of practices that allow us to bridge and reach that supernatural, be it salvation in heaven, nirvana, reincarnation as a higher form or what-have-you." --Bertrc (talk) 16:54, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Then you are back in a circle. The only way that "evil" can be used in the "Evil is the absence of God" argument is if "evil" is a religious concept. (I accept that it can be colloquially used in other ways) But, in this case, it is obviously being used in a religious manner. So, as I said, you are defining one religious term in reference to another, which may work in that context, but tells us nothing of the world outside of that system.

I accept that you can then back out to requests to define "evil" and "gods" but if you need to go there then I think it's clear the argument has failed.Bob^{"Life is short and (insert adjective)"} 17:52, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Bob M . . . ? Not sure how my definition of religion brings me back in the circle. I was just saying that God, in and of Himself, and evil are not necessarily religious concepts, depending how you define religion. My definition of religion is "A set of practices that are believed to bridge the divide between the natural and supernatural world." I disagree with the dictionary definition of religion as "A belief about the cause, purpose and nature of the universe" since that definition would encompass both atheism and agnosticism. What is your definition of religion? --Bertrc (talk) 22:24, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

There is 'a set of actions and attitudes' which are regarded as being good/ethical/courteous/positive' or good and another which are regarded as the opposite, or evil (with most of us being 'moderately good-to-neutral, with occasional 'naughty thoughts, queue jumping and similar') and there is #an element of conscious choice/decision making involved# (so the lion the unfortunate Rev Davidson encountered was not being evil) - so how can 'those places where there is no sentience presence' be evil (or, indeed 'facts be insolent')? Anna Livia (talk) 19:35, 20 October 2020 (UTC)

IMHO, such places cannot be evil. Specifically, I would say that God is fully present in those places where no sentient presence is attempting to dilute His presence. Therefore, such places are completely not evil. --Bertrc (talk) 16:54, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Have a nice day (and do not eat dead dove). Anna Livia (talk) 17:28, 18 October 2020 (UTC)

I afraid I actually enjoy a well-prepared dish of squab, on occasion. --Bertrc (talk) 16:54, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Bertrc - the ball is in your court (have corrected the name of the self-proclaimed reincarnation of Genghis Khan). Otherwise the verdict of Ashford v Thornton will stand. Anna Livia (talk) 19:59, 21 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, the ball is still in your court (Although I feel that the verdict of Ashford v Thornton should continue to stand, regardless) --Bertrc (talk) 16:59, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Bertrc - you have not defined what 'evil' is (and it does not actually matter whether God is or is not in the 'areas of space-time where sentience is not present'). What about the other deities (of which there are any number, going by the ones referenced on Earth). Are you saying 'God created humans - and made them inherently evil/disengages from them'? Many people would apply the term 'evil' to Hitler and others who caused much damage: but most people are 'merely naughty.' Anna Livia (talk) 18:06, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, You really need to stop asking umpteen questions and bringing up umpteen thoughts in a single section! Haven't you noticed that I make even less sense when I try to respond to multiple ideas in a single paragraph? I'll try to break out some of your thoughts, below. --Bertrc (talk) 18:45, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

And look up the term 'dead dove' (which has a specific meaning). Anna Livia (talk) 18:06, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Meh, I never liked "Arrested Development" (Yes, I know that is blasphemy) --Bertrc (talk) 18:45, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

No matter how often you repeat 'Evil is the absence of God' you will not convince people - the most you will get is 'Yes, dear, be a good boy.' Anna Livia (talk) 18:06, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Somehow, I do not think you have ever asked me to be a good boy . . . or girl, for that matter --Bertrc (talk) 18:45, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Basically - you are saying that 'God is everywhere (including being twisted in the space-time-warp of the throat of many black holes); evil is where God is not; therefore evil does not exist. And where do the other gods (including Cthulu) fit in your mythology? Anna Livia (talk) 18:58, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, you really need to break up all your ideas into separate sections!!! Think about how much gibberish I spout. It is exponentially more incomprehensible when I am spouting my gibberish for five different ideas within the same section!! I'll try to break out some of your thoughts, below. --Bertrc (talk) 19:13, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Define Evil

@Anna Livia said: "you have not defined 'evil'"

@Anna Livia, I think it is more appropriate for you to say that I have not defined what 'evil' is adequately for you in any way that is comprehensible. I do apologize for my lack of ability, there. Personally, I feel I have defined it perfectly well and understandably but that simply means it is understandable to me. My definition, of course, uses phrasing and concepts that are known to me. You could very much aid me in defining it in some way that is adequate for you if you were to phrase answers in your question section. I will break out this second question within your section (since you have not yet editted any of that section.) --Bertrc (talk) 18:45, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

The question "does evil exist?" has not, in fact, been reliably answered. The question may be picked apart in many different ways. But in the way it is being used in this argument is clearly the "supernatural" sense. Which brings me back to the fact that you are using one supernatural thing to define another.Bob^{"Life is short and (insert adjective)"} 14:30, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Bob M, Well, personally, I would say evil is "metaphysical" but . . . yeah, kinda. IMHO, we do not feel that something is evil based on our physical senses any more than we sense God's presence (or goodness) via our physical senses. There may be physical reactions, but I would still consider evil and Goodness as metaphysical. God does certainly falls into the Supernatural. --Bertrc (talk) 20:34, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Other deities

@Anna Livia asked: "What about the other deities (of which there are any number, going by the ones referenced on Earth)" and "where do the other gods (including Cthulu) fit in your mythology?"

Personally, I believe no other deities or gods exist, let alone that they define some absolute metric that we can perceive about the universe --Bertrc (talk) 19:13, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Did God make Humans evil

@Anna Livia asked: Are you saying 'God created humans - and made them inherently evil/disengages from them'?

@Anna Livia, I think I am saying that God created humans, but gave them the choice/option/allowance to escort Him out of the room; or, more accurately, though still very inaccurate and simplistic, the allowance to say "I want such and such a part of my life to depend, at least partially, on this earthly thing instead of being solely supported by You" and that has made all the difference. --Bertrc (talk) 19:13, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

God in black holes

@Anna Livia said: "Basically - you are saying that 'God is everywhere (including being twisted in the space-time-warp of the throat of many black holes)"

@Anna Livia, I would say that God is not twisted by black holes, but I would agree that He is present in black holes (His presence probably allows black holes to twist space-time. Dunno. That is even closer to pure speculations than most of my tripe) --Bertrc (talk) 19:13, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Anna Livia attempts to avoid editing her section

@Anna Livia said: "Basically - you are saying that . . . evil is where God is not; therefore evil does not exist"

@Anna Livia, Nope, not what I am saying. But feel free to phrase answers to the questions in your section so that I can try to find a phrasing which will convey what I am saying more adequately (at least, more adequately to you). :-P~ ;-) :-D --Bertrc (talk) 19:13, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Godwin

@Anna Livia asked: "how [does Hitler et al] fit into your argument Bertrc"

Bertrc said: @Anna Livia, Well, personally, I think that Hitler, slave owners, et al, founded their identities on things other than God and God's love for them. That corrupt, evil, sinful and broken basis led them to actions of almost incomprehensible cruelty and evil. --Bertrc (talk) 17:41, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia said "Many people would apply the term 'evil' to Hitler and others who caused much damage: but most people are 'merely naughty.'"

@Anna Livia, this is a bit of a tricky subject. IMHO, chattel slavery, the Holocaust, the Serbian rape camps, the ethnic cleansing of the Americas and more horrors than could be listed here are atrocious evils; they should not be raised lightly. For things that have had such an awful impact on so many people, we should not be trying to compare them to anything. Maybe you have a relative who survived a Nazi concentration camp but I doubt you were directly struck by von Ungern-Sternberg. I do believe that claiming Milosovic's actions were evil while, in the same breath, claiming that you or other people have only ever been "merely naughty" is a destructive path to embark upon. --Bertrc (talk) 20:19, 27 October 2020 (UTC)

Anna Livia attempts to avoid editing her section (again)

You are still not answering the question - Anna Livia (talk) 00:23, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

I am answering it, I'm just not phrasing the answer in a way that conveys my idea to you. You are not helping me find a way to express the answer, because you refuse to phrase an answer for the questions I posed to you. Seriously. At least I keep trying to address your points, even though you bring up umpteen points in the same breath. Please phrase an answer to the questions I posed to you! (And try to break up the points you keep bringing up) --Bertrc (talk) 20:09, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

God in black holes (again)

If God is everywhere why are there (absences of God)? Anna Livia (talk) 00:23, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Cool! That will be question the third! I believe it is analogous to how energy is everywhere, but there is not as much energy in an ice cube as there is in a fire. --Bertrc (talk) 20:09, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

The Problem of Evil

How and why does God allow there to be minds and localities where 'God as Bertrc defines him' is not. Anna Livia (talk) 00:23, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Go ask this in The problem of Evil's talk page. (at the moment, I lean towards the parallel in the Transformative section.) --Bertrc (talk) 20:09, 2 November 2020 (UTC):

@Anna Livia, P.S. I do not think "god as Bertrc defines him" exists (In black holes or elsewhere) However, I do think that God, whom I am trying to describe does exist. --Bertrc (talk) 03:36, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Other deities (again)

What about 'all the other Gods'? Anna Livia (talk) 00:23, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Personally, I think that there is only one God and that there are no other gods, let alone that there are any other gods that define some underlying aspect of the Universe . . . so . . . I guess that there is that about them. What "what" were you thinking of? --Bertrc (talk) 20:09, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Would 'the gods of war' think the peacemakers 'evil'? Anna Livia (talk) 00:23, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Personally, I don't think that there are gods of war. What are your hypothetical gods of war like? What fundamental facet of existence would they hypothetically define? What is, hypothetically, the opposite of that fundamental facet? --Bertrc (talk) 20:09, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Godwin (again)

'By their deeds shall you know them' - what 'Hitler et al' did was deliberate and destructive and so is regarded as being evil. (talk) 00:23, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Exactly! And what they did was certainly not motivated from a place centered on God, so it is regarded as being evil for many reasons. Probably more reasons than I could count. --Bertrc (talk) 20:09, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

LANCB

As I said before - I am far more patient than you, who merely reiterate the same concept repeatedly, and your sentence is identical to 'Mrifk is the absence of God.' (Look up the word yourself.) (talk) 00:23, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Personally, I think God is a much better programmer than that. Also, please don't get me wrong: I do appreciate your patience. I just wish there was a bit more dedication to trying to have a dialogue and to trying to convey understanding. If you answered your questions, we might head closer to conveying our ideas. Well, let's be honest. I am the one who is miserably failing at conveying my idea, so I would appreciate help in that area. Answering your questions might help me convey the idea. --Bertrc (talk) 20:09, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Non Sequitur

Why not create a Finnegans Wake/Voynich Manuscript bilingual dictionary (as being slightly more useful)? Anna Livia (talk) 00:23, 28 October 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia . . . Why create a Finnegans Wake/Voynich Manuscript bilingual dictionary? --Bertrc (talk) 20:09, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Bertrec

I've reached the limits of my patience with your answer avoiding. My stance on the nature of cold is entirely fucking irrelevant to you answering a simple question about evil. You keep promising you'll answer and then don't or worse you make it contingent on answering questions to which the answer is not necessary in order to answer the question yourself. You have spent virtually two weeks not answering a simple question about what evil is from two different users. I learnt long ago to not waste my time with question avoiding theists and I only regret I believed you might be capable of answering anything. I am done with this conversation. Good luck Anna. ShabiDOO 21:00, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, Aw, c'mon, Dude. Don't be like that. One of the problems in this world is broken communication. Everybody seems to speak from a place of absolute surety, rather than acknowledging deficits and brokenness on both sides of the conversation. You haven't just been asking "what evil is" for some time because answers were proposed early on . Instead, you have been asking for elaboration and a deeper explanation of those answers. The more specific we get, though, the more we disconnect. That is why I keep asking you to provide me with phrasing(s) that I might be able to use. Recently, I've even been trying to express this as my failure to convey the idea, rather than as your failure to comprehend it (although I might have slipped up a bunch of times) --Bertrc (talk) 21:44, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

Answer the Question (again)

Bertrc - answer the various questions (enough repeats of the statement to fill up RW's website's entire memory). Anna Livia (talk) 23:57, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, . . . Um . . . You do realize that you have not answered any of the questions that were posed to you, don't you? In my defense, I have, at least, tried, using different phrasings, to answer your many, many . . . many, many . . . many . . . . . . many questions; you haven't editted the questions posed to you, once. At this point, I honestly do not know if you are just trolling me and ignoring anything I write. (If so, well done! :-D -- Although I have no idea why you would want to keep encouraging me to write more of this blather. ;-) ) Still, even though you refuse to try to provide phrasings that will help me convey my answer to you, I will try once again. (FYI, although I won't consider it a victory if you stop speaking to me, I might consider it a victory if you refuse to answer those questions. :-P~ ;-) ) --Bertrc (talk) 03:15, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Define Evil (yet again)

What do you mean by evil? Your definition seems to be different from the conventional (eg as defined here. (talk) 23:57, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, . . . um . . . What do you mean by cold and darkness? If you can phrase an answer that you accept to that, I might be able to phrase an answer for what I think evil is which will convey the idea in an acceptable manner to you. Hmmmmm, my phrasing, which you might not accept, would be that I often mean multiple things by "evil". Do you only ever mean one thing by "evil"? I would place my various meanings into two general buckets: "Cause" and "Effect" --Bertrc (talk) 03:15, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

• Cause: A cold, dry clinical definition might be "If there is some omnipotent, omniscient, involved, loving Being who created existence, defines goodness and even remotely resembles Bertrc's bizarre concept of God, then evil, at its root, is (and is the results of) actions, choices and situations that are ultimately founded and/or based, at their core, on anything in addition to that Being." A more applicable definition might be "Worshipping, grounding your identity in, getting your ultimate worth from, basing your underlying security on and/or finding your base of joy in, etc. upon anything in addition to God is evil (as a cause) and will result in evil (as an effect). Such anchorings of the self lead to lying at your job, ignoring a homeless person, cheating on a spouse, stealing from a neighbor, oppressing a less powerful group, wrecking our environment, murder, rape, sexual harassment, war, harming others for your own gain, etc., etc." --Bertrc (talk) 03:15, 7 November 2020 (UTC)
• Effect: A cold, dry, clinical definition might be "The destruction of our world, the splintering of our community and the harm done to others in order to benefit yourself are evil and are the result of worshipping anything in addition to God." A more practical definition might be "Lying at your job, ignoring a homeless person, cheating on a spouse, stealing from a neighbor, oppressing a less powerful group, wrecking our environment, murder, rape, sexual harassment, war, harming others for your own gain are evil (as an effect) and are the result of evil (as a cause) Such actions come from worshipping, grounding your identity in, getting your ultimate worth from, basing your underlying security on, finding your base of joy in, etc., etc., upon anything in addition to God." --Bertrc (talk) 03:15, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Other Deities (yet again)

Which God or Deities are you referring to - the one(s) of the Bible, the FSM, those of Doggerland, the first sentient species to evolve in the universe... (talk) 23:57, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, . . . um . . . I am referring to the God of the Bible; I thought we had established that. Note: I am not referring to the partially-formed, imagined, limitted god that we try to infer from the Bible; I'm not referring to the god that, due to our sin, we fail to infer accurately. Rather, I am referring to the actual God that the Bible points towards. The eternal God in whom we live and move and have our being, whose face is hidden from us by our sin and whose mercy we forget (if you'll pardon the plagiarism). --Bertrc (talk) 03:15, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

God in black holes (yet again)

The Deity or Deities have no reason to visit places in the 'universe composed of time, space, dark matter and dark energy' where everything obeys the laws of physics applicable to those localities between the Big Bang and the heat death of the universe; they do where there are sentient entities capable of having a dialogue with them and understanding the concepts of good and evil (however defined). You seem to think that evil occurs in the latter locations rather than the former. (talk) 23:57, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, . . . um . . . I'm afraid I do not know what beings you are referring to who have to go to places and who only go to places that have sentient interaction; the beings you describe who have to go to places and who avoid other places sound very limitted. God, on the other hand, simply is everywhere (I believe) He loves being in places where nothing is broken, and He loves being here with us sentient beings, even though we keep breaking His things. --Bertrc (talk) 03:15, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

You claim that 'evil-as-you-Bertrc-defines-it' (which seems different to the usages of others) is where God-as-you-Bertrc-define-him (there being many other Deities whom people - and possibly entities elsewhere in the universe - interact with) is not. Why should your version of the Deity have to do anything much with 'a locality where nothing happens'? The sea will go in and out whether or not God (or Canute) is sitting there: but sentient minds can be persuaded to change. Anna Livia (talk) 13:31, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Maybe I am misunderstanding you. Are you proposing that if there is a place where God does not have to actively redeem things (or work beyond the physical and existential laws He laid in place) then He will not be there? --Bertrc (talk) 19:39, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

Anna Livia attempts to avoid editing her section (yet again)

Your response to any request to clarify your statements/positions is a mere reiteration and blaming of the other party's incapacity to understand you. You complain about 'broken communication' - consider where the fault is. (talk) 23:57, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, . . . um . . . I have regularly been owning up to how little sense I seem to make and how I am failing to convey the idea in a way that you can receive. However, do you think that blame for miscommunications lies only on one side of a conversation? I feel you are trying to avoid helping me find a way to phrase my answers even though I have given you a place to assist me --Bertrc (talk) 03:15, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

If you are not being understood perhaps you should reconsider your line of approach. Anna Livia (talk) 13:31, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, *HA* I am constantly reconsidering my lines of approach! :-D So far, they have been largely unsuccessful. Perhaps if you answered your questions I could derive an approach that is less unsuccessful! ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 19:50, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

People do operate 'out of malice/evil intent' - the 1908 meteoroid was indifferent whether it landed in St Petersburg or Tunguska. Anna Livia (talk) 13:31, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I'm not sure what that statement has to do with this section, but I'll bite:

1) @Anna Livia, In your opinion, why would a person operate out of malice/evil intent? --Bertrc (talk) 19:50, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

2) @Anna Livia, Let's move from Tunguska (There are a lot of unknowns there) Would a landslide in Haiti that killed numerous people fit your example? (That is a little bit closer to us than Tunguska) --Bertrc (talk) 19:50, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

LANCB (again)

Beware of the concept of LANCB Anna Livia (talk) 23:57, 2 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I do hope you won't LANCB. You may not be helping me to reach you, but you have truly helped me advance myself on my own journey. I really will consider it a loss if you leave. --Bertrc (talk) 03:15, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

You don't understand irony do you? As I said - I am more patient than you, and have a range of tools (including 'fork handles'). Anna Livia (talk) 13:31, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Well, I understand the term irony (thanks to some movie in the 90's where the soundtrack included "You Say") but, yeah, irony and sarcasm often go over my head. You may not have noticed, but I am not all that bright (See what I did there? ;-) ) Seriously, though, I don't even know what you mean by "fork handles". Are you referring to holding a reference to a spawned process? Personally, I think we need to do a better job in that area, so that we are less impacted by mutexes and can rely more on semaphores; it is all I can do to try to prevent deadlocks and memory corruption. ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 20:18, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia . . . or . . . Did you think I was being ironic when I said it would be a loss if you leave? No! Honestly, I was being sincere. --Bertrc (talk) 20:20, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

More thoughts (though not necessarily new to this page)

This started on my talk page but it swerved back to how we can consider evil, so I am moving it here. --Bertrc (talk) 22:32, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

The Evil Men Do

The quotation is 'the evil that men do' - ie there is a component of conscious intent. Anna Livia (talk) 15:18, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Personally, I think women and children do evil, too (and nature can be evil, as well) :-P~ ;-) I certainly agree that conscious intent can result in evil, in a manner poorly parallel to how putting a heat sink next to something can result in that thing being colder. However, I would also say that conscious intent of that sort also comes from evil, in a manner poorly parallel to how a heat sink has less energy in it. I guess I would ask you: "When somebody consciously and intentionally makes an evil choice, why did they make that choice?" --Bertrc (talk) 19:31, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

Note the quote marks - and saying that 'nature can be evil' implies an agency other than God is involved Anna Livia (talk) 00:08, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Yes! Exactly! The other agency involved (I believe) is us. ie. People. When we use our agency to put other things ahead of God, it corrupts the world (nature) around us; evil occurrences/situations in nature are the result of that corruption. eg. When immediate profit is our idol, mountain sides wind up getting stripped of trees; this leads to landslides killing people. Those landslides are evil! (imho) The landslides, themselves, may not have conscious agency, but their underlying cause can be traced to conscious choices by us. --Bertrc (talk) 21:14, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Additionally, you never answered my question: "When somebody consciously and intentionally makes an evil choice, why did they make that choice?" --Bertrc (talk) 21:14, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

The Evil we do

The God of the Bible does some things which we-his-creations now find unacceptable (Noah's flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Egyptian firstborn in the time of Moses 'etc etc etc': is it evil to disagree with Him? Anna Livia (talk) 15:18, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I'm not sure I agree that we find it unacceptable, but I would certainly concede that we do not understand it. There are nuances to "disagree". I would say that believing you can do better than God (let alone acting on such a belief) comes from evil (ie. comes from founding your identity on your abilities, rather than on God) and leads to evil (ie. leads to situations that are less founded on God) At least, that is where my present beliefs lie. Fortunately, God is regularly redeeming the evil that we do. --Bertrc (talk) 19:31, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

Could it be . . . Satan?!

Where does 'Satan/the Devil/Lucifer' fit into your theology - or the humanitarian atheist who improves the world? Anna Livia (talk) 15:18, 14 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I certainly believe that we have a simplistic view of whatever Satan/the Devil/Lucifer/the accuser is. That being said, my theology primarily revolves around our relationship with God, so Satan/the Devil/Lucifer/the accuser is pretty much non-existent in my theology. --Bertrc (talk) 19:31, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, A humanitarian atheist is not really a supernatural existence so I'm not sure what you mean by asking how humanitarian atheists fit in my theology . . . --Bertrc (talk) 19:31, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

You talk too much

Bertrc - you leave too many messages, but you never actually answer the questions - just reiterate the same statement without adding information. Anna Livia (talk) 00:08, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, I would say that you never read my answers. :-P~ ;-) :-D More seriously, do you truly believe that? Do you truly not see anything new in all the different ways I try to phrase my answers about evil? Do you honestly feel me saying "The devil isn't really part of my theology" was just avoiding the question and reiterating something I have said before? If so, I certainly do apologize for my failings in that area. However, to be blunt, you also have to look at yourself for this situation (imho) I at least try to respond to all your questions; I try different phrasings to convey the answer; I let you know if I don't understand what you are asking; I tell you when I don't have any answer. On the other hand, I feel you ignore all the questions I pose to you. Yes, you might be avoiding a Socratic trap, but you also are refusing to provide me with any language that you might accept. Go take a look at the talk page of "Evil is the Absence of God". There is an entire section devoted to you, and you have not placed a single reply in there. Don't get me wrong; I do understand choosing to ignore all the questions of somebody you are disagreeing with because you feel answering would give them ammunition However, in light of doing that, I honestly feel it is a little disingenuous to accuse the other person of not answering questions. That is just my opinion, of course. Also, you might be doing all this deliberately to troll me, in which case: Good on yah! You certainly are getting me good with that. :-D --Bertrc (talk) 21:14, 2 December 2020 (UTC)

I do read your answers - which boil down to a circular argument multiply phrased - 'Evil is God un-present' when most people would say 'Evil is the opposite of good or the refusal to do good'. Anna Livia (talk) 00:28, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Exactly!! That is what I am trying to point out (Well: "Evil is God less present") The term "evil" has more than one meaning. There is the evil effects and actions (which matches the definition you think "most people" would say) and there is the underlying evil cause or nature (which ultimately comes from having something other than God challenging God's position as the heart, center and sole support or foundation) --Bertrc (talk) 16:32, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

You have just admitted you are making a circular argument. Anna Livia (talk) 10:24, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia . . . um . . . no. Although I guess you can say I am making a forked argument. I am saying that your conception and focus on evil is (imho) too narrow. You seem to have a tunnel vision that sees only the effects of evil (which is one thing that the term "evil" is applied to) but you are giving short shrift to the underlying cause (or source) of those effects, which is also something that the term "evil" should be applied to. As an analogy: We call ice cold because of how it feels, but we also call it cold because there is less energy in it. --Bertrc (talk) 22:35, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

You appear to be incorporating a category error - God being an entity (or Deities are entities) and evil being a descriptive. Consider the statement 'Green is the "absence of Bertrc".' This is structurally equivalent to your statement: what is your response. Anna Livia (talk) 10:24, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Actually, no. I do not fundamentally define the concept nor cause the effect of "green". My presence does not affect how green something is . . . unless I had some bad sushi, I guess. However, I would say that acknowledging cause and effect is not a categorical error. After all, we can acknowledge how a room is no longer dark when you turn on a switch, while, at the same time, acknowledging that the impression of light comes from actual photons. The photons that were present before flipping the switch did not cause the room to be dark, nor was their presence responsible for the darkness. --Bertrc (talk) 22:35, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

Bertrec you are indeed a master question avoider. Just in this section alone you are feigning exception to the claim that you don't answer questions but reiterate the same point and then you go on to avoid actually answering questions and reiterate the same point. You did however give a new morsel of information (not really helping us understand our most important questions but an answer alone) in that God's genocide in the flood isn't unacceptable to us. Well, in fact, to anyone who isn't invested in that Biblical book of fables we are utterly horrified by it. Unacceptable is not strong enough a word. To say we simply "don't understand it" is a cop out. When God has at his disposal the ability to change people, directly intervene, explain, help understand things, change every rule there is but in stead finally loses his cool and murders nearly every human including clearly innocent children in a rageful hyper-dramatic cruelty-fest then unacceptable is an understatement. And it is not just that he did it but also the vicious way (spending days inducing horror in people who are going to die anyways and then having them all painful drown when he could just make them disappear). Add this to the fact that he has an underground eternal torture chamber I'd say God is the most evil fictional character I've ever read about, worse than Voldemort or Cthulhu for sure. God isn't the absence of evil, he is evil. But I'm sure none of this will phase you so how about answering this side question: is there a single thing God could do...no matter how outrageously vile...that you would consider unacceptable? Could you give us that scenario? What would it be? ShabiDOO 07:47, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

1) @Shabidoo Well, let me start with Snark: It is "Bertrc"; No "e". I thought it was a typo when you created that section. After all, I've only been signing every. single. one. of my posts. Given how often I go on and on (Did you notice the title of this section?!) one would think you would have had enough examples! :-P~ ;-) Also, Cthulhu and most of his beasty friends were not evil; they were simply beyond our comprehension. It was the acts of man in relation to them that Lovecraft presented as evil. That was a running theme throughout Lovecraft's works. ;-) :-D --Bertrc (talk) 00:39, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

2) *Whew*, more seriously, there is a lot to unpack in your post, but I might be able to hit it straight on. It was @Anna Livia who actually gave you that morsel, not me; I was just the messenger/pipeline. There are tons of things God does that I find unacceptable; after all, I am a very self-involved and sinful person. The most prevalent thing I find myself unable to accept is God's timing. For example, I am so sick of being stuck in an apartment, due to the pandemic; that is a very concrete example where I just don't accept God's decisions. More broadly, I regularly, at a distressingly deep level, believe that I know better than God. I judge God like a child judges their parents for not just giving the child an answer as he or she struggles to solve a homework problem. It is crazy, particularly in light of the blessings I have been given and the examples of God's better planning which I have been shown. --Bertrc (talk) 00:39, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

3) On an aside, a big theme of your post seemed to do more with the problem of evil than with the perspective of evil being an absence of God's inclusion in a situation or decision. Personally, I trend towards transformative and I know what it ain't. Go figure. ;-) :-D --Bertrc (talk) 00:39, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Out in Space

Take the place where nothing that cannot be explained by 'the ordinary laws of physics' (even those applying to black holes) ever happens throughout the course of the universe's history: why should it be evil, when God has more reason to be indifferent to it (things are working as they should). God is more likely to be concerned with 'sentient entities' (of whatever nature) who can choose to be good, ethical, etc or the reverse. Anna Livia (talk) 00:28, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, See, it is statements like that which make me think you are just trolling me! :-D I keep saying that those places out beyond the effect of our actions are not evil. I have said that repeatedly, but you keep asking if those places are evil. They are not evil! I also keep pointing out that God is more fully founding and supporting those places than anywhere near us because nothing has tried to displace Him; however, no matter how many times I point out how strongly God is present in such places, you always seem to be saying that He would not bother being there. Let me try to be as clear as I can: God is fully present out in the vastness of space, where we have not done anything; those places are not at all evil. I have even added a fourth question for you to avoid in your section of the "Evil is the absense of God" talk page. --Bertrc (talk) 16:32, 13 December 2020 (UTC)

Evil without God

@Anna Livia asked: Bertrc - please define 'evil' by some other means than 'not God' (or some people might think 'repetitiveness is the presence of Bertrc.' Anna Livia (talk) 00:06, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Your question seems self contradictory. I can provide things, actions and situations which I believe are evil without referring to God (eg. Serbian rape camps in Bosnia, Landslides in Haiti, ignoring a homeless man on the street under certain circumstances, etc.) just as I can list things I consider to be cold without using synonyms for heat or energy (eg. space, the arctic, Steve Austin) However, I do not think examples define something. For example, as much as I would be honored were it the other way around, I'm afraid I merely am repetitive; until I have eliminated all domesticated cats' need to go outside at 6am in the morning, "repetitiveness", itself, will still be greater than I (than me?) Maybe you can help me to provide you with a definition for "evil" which is acceptable to you: I've added a new entry for you to ignore in your section, above. --Bertrc (talk) 22:48, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

According to your philosophy God created the universe, and is omnipresent in 'His' universe.

There is evil in the universe.

Therefore God and 'evil' must be in the same place at the same time in some contexts; #or# God chooses to withdraw from certain places in the universe (why?) Anna Livia (talk) 20:00, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

There are more things in heaven and earth, @Anna Livia, than are dreamt of in my philosophy. --Bertrc (talk) 17:03, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

1) @Anna Livia, re: "God and evil being in the same place at the same time." That gives us a sixth question for you to avoid. :-P~ ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 17:03, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

2) @Anna Livia, I'm not sure "withdraw" quite captures the concept I believe God allows us to choose other things, in addition to Him, to worship/base our life on. When we do so, our actions and choices essentially cause those things to share His place at the heart the world. Unfortunately, only God can really sustain the world, so, when other things are used as the world's foundation, the world starts to break. This is kind of why we have things like man-made climate change -- We have allowed money and profit and ease to be our idols; in so doing, we have placed them ahead of God within our environment and global warming is one result of that. --Bertrc (talk) 17:03, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

3) @Anna Livia, As to why God allows this . . . well, that is where theodicy comes into play. I certainly am not God, so I doubt that I have a particularly accurate handle on it, but I tend towards the "transformative" and "I know what it ain't" perspectives on the problem of evil. Go figure. ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 17:03, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

Bear in mind your theory has a low priority in the wikiverse. Anna Livia (talk) 20:00, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, why in the world would I bother to keep that in mind?! :-D --Bertrc (talk) 17:03, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

Wikiverse denizens would rather devote their attention to more productive uses than going round in circles on an argument that makes slightly less sense than nailing jam/jelly to the wall. Anna Livia (talk) 19:38, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

@Anna Livia, Well, I've said a few times that I really appreciate these discussions for the insight they provide but I'm not very concerned if somebody else thinks it is a low priority. It is what it is, right? I certainly hope I have not been pressuring people to respond. Heck, look how long the gaps are between when I edit! :-D This latest exchange was started by you a year ago, and I didn't comment until months after, right? I figure we all have a life and priorities out here in meat space. --Bertrc (talk) 21:02, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

Sick of your question avoiding shit

The question that Anna and I are both waiting on is not about God in black holes (great that you answered it but it's not the question we keep asking for an answer that never comes). You keep saying you'll "try to give an answer" but it never comes. It makes me think you don't have an answer and are just waffling. I'm not answering another fucking question about something dubiously related. In other words you don't need me to answer any of your irrelevant questions to give a definition of evil, a mechanism to identify God's absence or how the claim "Evil is the absence of God" is even worth contemplating. Stop stalling, avoiding an answer and fucking give one. Define evil acts. You haven't given us any mechanism to identify God's absence. How do we know god is absent (either detecting or identifying what an evil act it). That is the most important question. Saying evil is the absence of God doesn't tell us anything about evil. The second is, still waiting for an answer, how does this explain anything? What useful information do we gain knowing that evil is an absence of God? If you cannot give us a reason to take this seriously then the claim Evil is the absence of God is about as useful as saying "bad luck is the absence of the tooth fairy". Okay, nice claim...why should we take it seriously and of what use is it to anyone. Answer these questions please or fuck off. ShabiDOO 17:09, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

@Bertrc

@Shabidoo - any comments

The question of whether God can exist both 'in the universe' (or 'is the universe') and 'going down the throat of various rotating blackholes/wormholes' (or otherwise becoming involved with astronomical phenomena) is far more interesting than the original question. Is 'betraying the world' an act of evil (borrowing from the Cao Cao quote) is also a viable question.

There is no reason for God to be anywhere in the universe/spacetime continuum/multiverse where 'nothing ever happens', or where life that is not capable of understanding 'evil deeds and actions' exists - therefore it is evil.

There is reason for God to be in those places where people are capable of comprehending ethics/good and bad deeds etc (so God and sentients can interact)

God created the universe - so why should the universe contain evil? Anna Livia (talk) 19:56, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

Anna, bertec has already answered that question about God allowing Evil and doesn't have a response but admits it is a problem. And to be honest I don't know what use comes from knowing if God could be in a black hole or not. God's existence is already absurd and since he could supposedly make up the rules, I guess he could exist in a black hole even if nothing else could. I don't know. I don't think it's that interesting. What I'd like to know, and what Bertrc is completely incapable of answering is: of what use is the phrase "Evil is the absence of God" and what Bertrc means by "evil" anyways. Bertrc will never answer that question. Knightcommander is right in that this whole discussion is stupid. Bertrc simply ducks and dodges the most essential questions and will never answer them. I vote to archive this stupid discussion. ShabiDOO 15:52, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

My point was more - 'bits of God' getting increasingly twisted up in 'all the directions black holes are orientated' - and that it is, relatively speaking more interesting than 'evil is the absence of God.'

One could argue that 'if God is omnipotent, omniscient and the other aspects, then God will "comprehend" evil by definition.' (What the situation is with multiple deities, impious acts and suchlike complications is another matter.)

Probably if RW-ians were asked to define what 'evil' is and examples of 'evil people' there would be a certain amount of common ground in each case.

I agree - we should wait until Bertrc comes up with a different argument before continuing the argument. Anna Livia (talk) 16:29, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

Bertrc has already answered the question that...if God created everything then he also created Evil. He agrees that is true and doesn't have an answer for why God allows it. He simply states that evil is generated by God not being around (or at least completely present somewhere). Okay...but how does anyone know this is the case?How do you identify God's absence? How do you identify something that is evil? What do we gain in any practical sense by knowing evil is just God being absent? Questions that never get answered. I will bet you a difficult New Years Eve resolution these questions won't be answered with any satisfaction. ShabiDOO 16:40, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

@Shabidoo, Well, before I break your points out into other sections, I would like to say I never said that if God created everything, then He created evil. In fact, I have explicitly disagreed with that statement; God no more creates evil than heat creates cold or photons create darkness (imho, of course) On an aside, I do hope you are not taking all this too seriously; I certainly am not. I came to RW years ago so that I could be light-hearted. I like exploring these ideas; doing so is fun (for me, at least) Heck, I half believe that you and Anna Livia are trolling me but that possibility makes me laugh! I really appreciate all this, except when I worry I am harshing your mellow. --Bertrc (talk) 02:29, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Question the first: How do we recognize God's absence

@Shabidoo, So, by my reckoning and definition of evil, asking "How do you identify something that is evil?" and "How do you identify God's absence?" are asking the same thing. The one time you asked it, I believe I did answer it. I will repeat my answer here, but you don't get to yell at me for being repetitious, this time, because you are telling me to answer something that I answered! :-P~ ;-) --Bertrc (talk) 02:29, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

However, my response, which I consider to be straightforward, is:

We have our conscience, our soul, our gut feelings. A metaphysical answer for a metaphysical question. Basically, you have that voice in the back of your head letting you know that what you are doing is not right. --Bertrc (talk) 02:29, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Question the second: How do we know evil is simply the comparative absence of God

@Shabidoo, The one time you asked this, you asked it in the middle of a slew of questions. I had to search through your posts to find anything like this question; I'm sorry I missed it, the first time around, but when you raise umpteen questions in a single run-on paragraph, many questions of which are asking the same thing, one or two of the questions might be missed. If you want to be sure some query is seen, break it out from the pack of other questions.

However, I can think of two responses to the question: "How do we know" in light of discussions we have had here. --Bertrc (talk) 02:29, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Response A

@Shabidoo, From a logical point of view, my response, which I consider to be straightforward, is:

Your question is not entirely applicable; we do not need to know it is true. This entire "Evil is the absence of God" analogy was created to show the fallacy in somebody's attempt to logically prove: "If God is everywhere and there is evil then God is evil." That proof rests on a false assumption that, in all cases, if something (God) is everywhere and some quality (evil) is applicable to some things then the attribute must be applicable to the specified thing. However, given that implicit assumption, all we need to refute the proof is to find something for which the assumption is false. ie. Find something that is everywhere (energy) and some quality that is applicable to some things (cold) but that is not applicable to the specified thing (energy). God might be evil, but the proof raised does not prove that He is. We don't actually need to know that God is like energy; we simply need to know that He could be like energy. --Bertrc (talk) 02:29, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Response B

@Shabidoo, from a philosophical point of view, which most of this talk page has been focusing on, my response, which I consider to be straightforward, is:

We don't know it. Perhaps we can't know it until we die. This is a philosophical discussion. We are exploring a metaphysical possibility. We are looking for weaknesses within the idea. We are looking for implications that can be derived from it. We are looking for how the idea can be applied to how we approach life. --Bertrc (talk) 02:29, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Question the third: What is the use of the perspective that evil is the absence of God

@Shabidoo, a) I don't think you have ever asked this question and b) I believe I have often answered it. However, my responses, which I consider to be straightforward, are:

1) Realizing that evil comes from letting other things take God's proper place in your heart can help guide you when you hear that little voice, your conscience, warning you. I have seen and found that trying to change your less savory inclinations by force of sheer will-power rarely works and is never lasting. However, searching, instead, to find that idol that has a grip on your soul and bringing God (and His love for you) into that space to replace it puts you in a place where you can truly have structural change. --Bertrc (talk) 02:29, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

2) recognizing that soomebody else's less savory actions comes from them letting other things take God's proper place in their heart can help guide you in interacting with them. I have found that dealing with the direct results of somebody's bad actions rarely changes their views. However, finding and fighting the idol that has a grip on their soul can have real structural change. It also helps with understanding and empathy, rather than simply saying "They are just bad." --Bertrc (talk) 02:29, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

3) lastly, realizing that an evil situation comes from us putting non-divine things ahead of God helps guide us to see the root causes behind the problems our world faces. --Bertrc (talk) 02:29, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

What is this insanity?

I looked at the fossil record, and since this page re-ignited in October this year, it's grown from respectable 101,000 to the maddening 230,000 bytes mostly as a weird dialogue between Bertrc and Anna Livia with the occasional intersects by Shabidoo and some others. People have been pinged at least 131 times in that time (I counted by hand and might have missed a few pings), which let me remind you is less than 3 months. This is quickly becoming one of the most impressively batshit talk pages on this wiki. Knight Commander^{In Service}_{To Her}^Goatness 15:44, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

I agree it's been a stupid discussion and it should be archived. Having said that, the discussion itself wasn't batshit insane, just a person promising they'd answer questions and never getting around to it (ducking and dodging). There is nothing particularly crazy about the content, just typical theological answer avoiding. The only crazy part was thinking the God believer might ever answer anything. But in terms of batshit crazy content, this wiki must have 100 pages exponentially more crazy than this. I vote to archive this in any case. ShabiDOO 15:55, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

@Knight Commander, Let me know if there is any policy against too much traffic in talk pages or if such causes a problem. --Bertrc (talk) 21:21, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

There is no such policy that I'm aware of, nor am I advocating for such a policy. I'm just saying it's ridiculous how much time and effort has been spent to this talk page in the past three months. Also, your habit of serial pinging is bordering on weird. Like I noticed that a number of your responses to Anna Livia had the same timestamp. So I'm guessing you made those edits to different sections at one go and pinged her like 10 times in single edit. Which must have been annoying for her, at least if she uses email notifications. Knight Commander^{In Service}_{To Her}^Goatness 21:42, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

I don't have email notifications for this usename - but spams my alerts. At least he/she/they/ze/it does not swear - that is all that can be said for (relevant pronoun). Most of us would now prefer watching this to continuing trying to get Bertrc to advance. Anna Livia (talk) 00:49, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Don't knock pain drying watching. It is thrilling. Though I actually prefer staring at a potato baking in the oven and then watching it cool down. ShabiDOO 01:01, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Oh goodness!! I did not realize it would have that effect. I was including the pings so that they would know what I addressed to them. I had no idea it would spam their alerts! Mea mucho culpa! I will stop putting in the pings. Of all the things you guys have complained to me about these passed months, you never bothered to mention that?! Seriously, I'm sorry. --Bertrc (talk) 02:32, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

A fresh new start

If someone is interested in discussing this topic other than pointless time wasting question avoiding and pseudo philosophical garbage, by all means post something. ShabiDOO 02:52, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

To accommodate the recently-increased traffic of this talkpage, I've adjusted the archive bot template to increase the maximum size of archives and archive threads more often. --Goatspeed. _{How's my editing}🎄CircularRasoning🎄^{See what I've been messing around with} 03:13, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

As Bertrc is unable to answer straight questions (what is evil, which God or Gods are involved, the logical places where evil is likely to be found etc), or questions-at-a-tangent (how does God deal with parts of [relevant pronoun] being endlessly twisted around a rapidly rotating neutron star/going down a black hole etc) and repeatedly pings with 'But I have answered you' (without actually doing so) most of us are likely to go elsewhere anyway. Anna Livia (talk) 11:55, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

So, Shabiidoo and Anna Livia claim (and either believe or are trolling me) that I never answer questions. I am obviously a bit inept at getting ideas across to them, but I would be curious to know how other people have felt about my replies. I really have been trying (and failing, obviously) to answer the two them, including by using different phrasings. Does everybody else agree that my ability at answering is non-existent, or are Anna Livia and Shabidoo just trolling me and the trolling is going over my head? Do other people really feel I merely respond with "I have already answered"? If I truly have been completely ignoring and avoiding questions and have been incredibly blind to the fact that I have been doing so, then I am really going to have to work on my process (which, unfortunately for all of you, means I am going to be doing a lot more practice, here. :-P~ ;-) ) --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

I would also be interested to know if other people feel Anna Livia and Shabidoo have been avoiding my questions and requests for clarifications. Doing so would fully be within their rights (and, given how boring I am, it would be understable) but, if I am not mistaken about their avoidances, I do feel it is not entirely fair for them to accuse me of avoiding questions. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

Is 'good the absence of the Devil/Satan? And if neither Bertrc's God nor the Devil are present, or both of them are, what is the situation? The gods of Doggerland are no longer present - does that mean the entire universe is evil? Anna Livia (talk) 11:55, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Well, I am going to try to answer your questions, below. Let me know if I missed any. For everybody else, I would love to know if you think I am truly not answering or if my answers are simply not being accepted/understood. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

What is evil

I honestly tried to answer the question "What [I believe] is evil".

I really thought it was straight forward to say that, imho, evil is both the result of having something more important to you than God and also the act of having something more important to you than God.

Here are some examples of what I believe are possible evil effects that come from the underlying evil cause of not truly founding your identity, worth, joy, security, etc. on God --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

1) Avoiding any interaction with a homeless person peacefully asking for change (ie. not being belligerent or threatening or such) is probably evil and might be due to you not trusting God with your time or due to having an inordinate desire to avoid discomfort and not looking to God for your ultimate source of peace or due to any number of other potential idols. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

2) Lying to your boss about the status of a project is probably evil and might be due to allowing money, or approbation you receive from your job position or any number of other possible idols to challenge God's proper place as your ultimate source of security or worth. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

3) Storming the capitol building during the certification of electors and/or lying about an election result are probably evil and might be due to having founded your identity on being successful or on having picked a winner or on your privilege or on any number of other potential idols. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

Anna Livia's Definition

I have to admit that I am not very satisfied with Anna Livia's definition of evil. That definition seems too limitted, imho.

1) It does not address why people would deliberately be nasty and malicious, and I feel that that "why" is also evil

2) That definition doesn't encompass passive indifference (such as ignoring deliberate evils or their effects because they do not affect you) which I believe can be evil

3) It does not cover physical, worldly occurances, such as global warming, that are neither deliberate nor passive, and yet I still consider "evil" to be an accurate adjective for such things.

Those are just a few reasons, among several, for my dissatisfaction with Anna Livia's definition --Bertrc (talk) 21:42, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

Which God or Gods are involved/Doggerland

I honestly tried to answer the question "which God or Gods are involved" and, by extension, whether I think "entire universe is evil [due to the gods of doggerland being absent]" (More than once, to be honest)

I really thought it was straight forward to say that, imho, we are talking about the God that the Bible attempts to reveal to us and that He is the one and only God. IMHO, there neither are nor ever were any other gods. As such, no other gods ever defined the metaphysical concept of "good" and, therefore, the absence of the gods of Doggerland does not render the entire universe evil. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

the logical places where evil is likely to be found

Well, I do not think this question has ever been asked; I do apologize if I missed this query. Regardless, I think my answer to the question "[What are] the logical places where evil is likely to be found" can be inferred from all the multitude of times I said that (I believe) it takes conscious thought to replace God with something or to allow something to challenge His proper position at the center of things.

I really think it is straight forward to say that, imho, the logical places where evil is likely to be found is anywhere we (or any sentient being) is able to have influence. Specifically, if you take the number of years we have been sentient, evil can probably be found within that many light years.

Now I don't honestly believe that the light from something our ancestors did is disrupting the beauty of a quasar 200K light years away. Evil is more likely to be found, imho, here on earth where we have much more direct physical impact. Still, since the speed of light is presently believed to be the upper bound of information transfer, a 200K light year sphere should encompass all the evil we are responsible for. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

How does God deal with black holes

I honestly tried more than once to answer the question "how does God deal with parts of [relevant pronoun] being endlessly twisted around a rapidly rotating neutron star/going down a black hole etc"

I really think it is straight forward to say that, imho, God is not twisted or affected by gravity, so He does not get twisted around by the singularity's pull at the center of a black hole. I am sure that my understanding is simplistic to the point of making God laugh, but I think He enjoys seeing the beauty of how His creation works, similar to how I enjoy looking at "The Storm" or watching "The Matrix". --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

Is good the absence of the Devil

I honestly tried to answer the question "Is 'good the absence of the Devil/Satan?".

I really think it is straight forward to say that, although I do not really have a firm handle on my beliefs about Satan, if he exists, imho, he is irrelevant to defining evil beyond being yet one more sentient entity that has chosen to allow something other than God to challenge God's proper place at the core of his heart. The devil, whatever he may be, certainly does not define the metaphysical concept of evil, imho, and, therefore, good is not a result of the devil's absence. --Bertrc (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2021 (UTC)

The main problem is

We have a lot more and better toys to play with than trying to answer your theory which does not seem to advance (even for 3/4). Anna Livia (talk) 20:22, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

*Ha* So you are playing with (trolling) me! Heh, I don't mind being a toy, but you should remember to try not to break your toys. ;-) Well, if you get bored with your new buzz light year, I've thrown a lot of attempts to answer your questions, up above (answers which you are, of course, fully allowed to continue ignoring, just as you have been ignoring all my questions for you) --Bertrc (talk) 20:50, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Seriously, although I do wish you would address what I write and ask, rather than ignoring such, as addressing my points would help me even more with my journey, when you pretend I have not written anything, it pushes me to seek more answers from myself, the world and God, and to seek more ways of refining how I express my thoughts. --Bertrc (talk) 20:50, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

(I'm pretty sure that that last sentence is grammatically correct; I had fun putting it together. :-) ) --Bertrc (talk) 20:51, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

You are not a toy - but you do not appear to be answering the questions, only reiterating the same comments in different words (and eg conflating different meanings of 'evil' - 'doing evil' and 'an evil situation' are not quite the same).

The 3/4 is a reference to eg this.

Perhaps find 'a better hole (than RW) and go to it? Anna Livia (talk) 13:48, 22 January 2021 (UTC)

Nah. Holes are too dark. Heh, now I know you are trolling me! Okay, okay, you win! You got me! (Heck, you have gotten me numerous times!) But come on, put some more skin in the game. How about responding directly to any of the various different answers I have given up above, or react to my reaction to the time you added an explicit insight, way back when. Drum up some courage and reply to the questions I posed to you; see what I do with your responses, there. Don't just add yet another section where you pretend I am not giving answers. You can do it -- Add an actual insight, again; post something about my answers, targetting the glaring flaws and gaping holes they have; ask a new question, based on an implication from one of my answers; do a reductio ad absurdum to get us to laugh -- Seriously, I really do appreciate how you push me and get me to explore more on my own, but I gain so much more when you bring up relevant ideas and new perspectives. I mean, sure, I can grow when you ask me to give you a completely different response to a question just because you don't like or don't understand the original answer, but it is so much better if you tell me why you don't like my question, or what you don't understand about it, or if you describe the flaws you see. Really, if you try to dig into my answers, you will get a whole new set of responses with which you can make fun of me! --Bertrc (talk) 16:17, 30 January 2021 (UTC)