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Legitimate Government


Q the Ninja

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voiciblanche

[quote name='Don John of Austria' date='Jan 4 2005, 09:30 AM'] I think the move torwards chaos is bettert han a orderly evil, so better to revolt than to allow evil to riegn. [/quote]
Question -- Would you consider orderly evil to require intelligence?

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voiciblanche

[quote name='Don John of Austria' date='Jan 4 2005, 11:01 AM'] I concider order itself to require intelligence at least in it's formation. [/quote]
I figured as much.

That's why I doubt the government having the potential of being evil. There's too many people running it that lack intelligence. And the American people as a whole are generally not all that smart, either.

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Don John of Austria

while agree with you about the american people, I think the people running our country are brilliant, as where the founders, but genius and goodness do not need to reside in the same person, and I think in the case of our government they usually do not.

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voiciblanche - I don't think the argument about politicians being too stupid to be evil holds water. Everyone who has reached the age of reason (e.g. has the intelligence of an average 7 year old) has moral culpibility. (And I think this would apply to the vast majority of politicians, no matter how much we may joke otherwise! ;) )

Don John - I am not so certain violence leading to chaos is a desirable thing. Killing is a very serious thing, and should only be done if it is clearly necessary to bring about a greater good (such as save innocent lives). A state of chaos can easily lead to greater evil.

Edited by Socrates
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voiciblanche

[quote name='Socrates' date='Jan 7 2005, 12:57 PM'] voiciblanche - I don't think the argument about politicians being too stupid to be evil holds water. Everyone who has reached the age of reason (e.g. has the intelligence of an average 7 year old) has moral culpibility. (And I think this would apply to the vast majority of politicians, no matter how much we may joke otherwise! ;) ) [/quote]
Being evil and doing evil deeds are different. Even being a bad person doesn't mean you're evil. I doubt there's many in the [i]world[/i] who are [i]evil[/i], and it's been argued that it isn't possible.

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Evil is simply the absense of good. Anything morally bad is morally evil. All sin is evil. Thus most of us are guilty of at least some evil.

Obviously there are varying degrees of evil. I think that it is obvious by looking at the world around us and at history that there are and have been many very evil people. (Take Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, to name some rather obvious examples.)

You need to define what you mean by "evil."

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Don John of Austria

[quote]Being evil and doing evil deeds are different. Even being a bad person doesn't mean you're evil. I doubt there's many in the world who are evil, and it's been argued that it isn't possible. [/quote]

Yes it does, why are we so afraid to call a duck a duck, if you lie you are a lier, if you steal your a thief, if you commit adultery you are an adulterer. If you do evil things you are evil at least to the extent that you do evil. If you do greater Evil than you do Good then you are simply evil, that doesn't mean you can't repent, it just means that wghile you are sucha person you are an evil person.

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Kilroy the Ninja

wait, wait. Let me get this straight... you're saying that there are no evil people?

Explaination please.

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Well, the first principle of Natural Law is "do good, avoid evil." The first precept is "good is what all men seek."

Even looking at that, it's hard to see how there can be evil people. I'll respond more later.

Also, read the definition I posited for evil. In every evil act there is a good sought after.

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