Do you believe in

[THEU]

From a Christian worldview, I believe in evil. I believe I am evil. I believe that I am what is wrong with the world.

 

[I_Live_In_OK]

Well, you are not going to be invited to my next tea party with that attitude.

 

[accuratehorn]

That's where I have trouble getting a grip on the concept-are we all inately evil? And what is "evil?"
I think we can all agree certain acts are what we would call evil acts without much fear of contradiction. But are the people who do them evil, or sick, or misguided, or (?).
I know Christians believe the apple in the Garden of Eden analogy, either figureatively or literally, explains why all of us are "evil."

 

[Dionysus]

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[Coelacanth]

That's an interesting take, Dionysus.

And how can we distinguish between an act of faith and an act of terror? You seem to have a clear understanding, so I hope you will teach me to understand it as clearly as you do.

 

[mop]

If i may say "amen" to Theu....i agree wholeheartedly. i believe in evil because i know i am evil, i know that there is evil all around me. i also see much good, but to talk about "evil" people as if it only describes a Hitler, or Jeffrey Dahmer is wrong-headed in my estimation. every day i have values and moral goals for my day that i fail to live up to. i suppose i could drop the bar down to the floor and "succeed" in not being evil, but this seems quite artificial and not at all in keeping with reality.

Nicky Gumble, an Anglican Priest from Holy Trinity Brompton says it something like this (warning Paraphrase beginning now):

"we often imagine the world to be made up of a few evil people, a few good people and a bunch in between. We think of Mother Theresa, Mohotma Ghandi and Martin Luther King near the top of a 20 foot tall standard, while Hitler, Mao Tse Tung and Serial killers belong at the bottom. We like to fancy ourselves as being somewhere north of the middle.......the trouble is that the standard is the sky and that only Jesus meets it. In fact, all of us are far more like Hitler than we are like Jesus."

i agree with this rather shocking statement. Jesus is FAR better than me than Hitler is worse than me and in fact, it isn't even close.....

 

[buckhorn]

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[Coelacanth]

Buckhorn, can you teach me to distinguish between an act of terror and an act of faith? I don't seem to be catching on.

 

[buckhorn]

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