I would like to applaud your explanation of the religious and Jungian insights you mention in the human perception of evil. However I believe that you have fallen into and perpetuate the mistaken notion of "human exceptionalism".
Each of the examples of "evil" and "the demons" that humanity wrestles with are humanities own constructs. With time encompassing varying perspectives and interpretations, there is no difference between good (for whom) and evil (to whom), except perspective. Human perspective specifically.
As integral and natural expressions of Earth's evolutionary history, humans and human reactions are as natural and benign as any other phenomenon that happens in or on our world. That immediately questions whether humanity, exclusively according to some religions has an otherworldly "spiritual" component. Many wish we do, I think not.
Does one Ant colony attacking another an evil act? Does one Deer eating better browse, denying another an evil act? Does one human tribe pursuing resources more than their immediate need create a dichotomy of good and evil?
Our perspective needs adjusting. Good-evil is a spectrum disorder like intelligence (first clarify the definition of intelligent) not, except through a very narrow perspective, opposing attributes. I'd assert that the missing and necessary quality is equilibrium as demonstrated in virtually any natural process. Given time, equilibrium or harmony as professed by the Budda accounts for deficient human perspective.
We make this stuff up. Define ourselves by our limited insight and ascribe similar attributes to what we actually do and don't understand. Again, we understand little which is why we create fantastical story lines to explain our selves to ourselves.
Good and evil are not a battleground they are precepts of our own behaviors intermingled by perspective. Ethically everything has the same fundamental "right" to exist, until doesn't. Humanity creates the comparison and creates concepts of good or evil. It recognizes equilibrium/harmony as the sea-saw of existence.
Thank you for your thoughtful response. Your perspective on human exceptionalism and the constructs of good and evil is compelling and highlights an important aspect of our understanding of morality. However, I believe in the existence of a spiritual realm based on my experiences, and I know that it offers a complementary perspective that can enrich this discussion.
Firstly, while it's true that good and evil can be seen as human constructs influenced by our cultural and societal contexts, many spiritual traditions, initiated by mystics, suggest that these concepts are reflections of deeper, universal principles. These principles are often considered to exist within a spiritual realm, providing a broader, more inclusive framework for understanding morality.
For instance, the spiritual realm is not necessarily otherworldly but can also be understood as an integral part of our reality, influencing and being influenced by our actions. This perspective allows us to see good and evil not just as human constructs but as elements of a larger cosmic order. This order, reflected in many spiritual teachings, emphasizes balance, harmony, and the interconnectedness of all life.
Your analogy with animal behaviour is apt; indeed, an ant colony attacking another or a deer competing for resources are natural behaviours driven by survival. However, humans possess the unique capacity for self-reflection, empathy, and moral reasoning. This capacity may be seen as a reflection of our spiritual dimension. It's this spiritual aspect that enables us to transcend mere survival instincts and evaluate our actions through the lenses of good and evil.
Moreover, many spiritual traditions emphasize the importance of equilibrium and harmony, akin to the Buddhist principle you mentioned. These teachings suggest that true understanding and moral behaviour come from aligning ourselves with these universal principles, which are part of the spiritual realm. In this view, the spiritual dimension provides a foundation for morality that transcends individual and cultural differences, guiding us toward actions that promote balance and harmony.
In conclusion, while good and evil can be seen as constructs of human perspective, the existence of a spiritual realm offers a much better framework for understanding these concepts in a way that transcends individual and cultural differences. By integrating this spiritual dimension, we can enrich our understanding of morality and our place in the natural world.
Remember that Carl Jung, towards the end of his life, became a mystic, which led to criticism. He recognized a spiritual dimension beyond human subjectivity. If you remove the spiritual dimension and only accept the limited material world, no explanation will ever reach the truth.
In the end, we do need to transcend beyond good and evil to find the white in the black and the black in the white. However, such an achievement has been the privilege of very few beings in human history. This transcends our understanding and is difficult to even discuss.
I am honored by the depth and sincerity of your response. I am not convinced that a separate, special, spiritual world that justifies human exceptionalism is either helpful or necessary.
Paraphrasing the Bible in mathematical "logistical" terms, If, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth" were true, than everything that follows spiritually would be a tautological result. But, when the premise is not true, the results are correlated at best (because stuff actually has happened) and are not causal (the devil made me do it). Spiritual arguments break down at fundamental if-then equations. "If-God, then-good/evil" would be a divine construct. But "if-not God" then whatever we've got becomes equally, unexceptionally plausible. I find myself, often unsatisfactorily in that camp.
Is life an accident? An inevitable result of entropic processes Or do we, people think and need to think way too much of ourselves? Of the alternatives I've examined, people are only important to people, which is neither good nor evil.
It'll take a while but inevitable our sun will become a Red Giant and swallow the entire inner solar system. Our sun which I propose everyone considers good suddenly become evil in four billion years? Likely long before solar expansion, another asteroid extinction event will occur. Is this rock suddenly evil for wiping out the majority of Earth's life, like the KT asteroid did? My point, only from our perspective.
The comic Lenny Bruce told a comic truth about the need for Jewish men to wear the Yarmulke. (personally I respect all religious traditions as expressions of a human need to explain itself and it's relationship to existence).
To the joke:
Lenny (a Jew himself) walks into a bathroom, sees a guy at the urinal wearing a Yarmulke on a blistering hot day. He asks the man why are you wearing a hat when it's so damn hot? The man politely responds, he wears it because God commanded that he does.
Lenny responds, "Do you really think that with wars raging in Europe, whales mating in the oceans and stars exploding across the universe God is gonna say "STOP EVERYTHING, put that hat back on?".
Only humanity could hold such hubris.
Thank you sincerely for opportunity to express. As with your other topics this ones needs and deserves a fuller, deeper and more thoughtful exploration.
Dr Syrigos,
I would like to applaud your explanation of the religious and Jungian insights you mention in the human perception of evil. However I believe that you have fallen into and perpetuate the mistaken notion of "human exceptionalism".
Each of the examples of "evil" and "the demons" that humanity wrestles with are humanities own constructs. With time encompassing varying perspectives and interpretations, there is no difference between good (for whom) and evil (to whom), except perspective. Human perspective specifically.
As integral and natural expressions of Earth's evolutionary history, humans and human reactions are as natural and benign as any other phenomenon that happens in or on our world. That immediately questions whether humanity, exclusively according to some religions has an otherworldly "spiritual" component. Many wish we do, I think not.
Does one Ant colony attacking another an evil act? Does one Deer eating better browse, denying another an evil act? Does one human tribe pursuing resources more than their immediate need create a dichotomy of good and evil?
Our perspective needs adjusting. Good-evil is a spectrum disorder like intelligence (first clarify the definition of intelligent) not, except through a very narrow perspective, opposing attributes. I'd assert that the missing and necessary quality is equilibrium as demonstrated in virtually any natural process. Given time, equilibrium or harmony as professed by the Budda accounts for deficient human perspective.
We make this stuff up. Define ourselves by our limited insight and ascribe similar attributes to what we actually do and don't understand. Again, we understand little which is why we create fantastical story lines to explain our selves to ourselves.
Good and evil are not a battleground they are precepts of our own behaviors intermingled by perspective. Ethically everything has the same fundamental "right" to exist, until doesn't. Humanity creates the comparison and creates concepts of good or evil. It recognizes equilibrium/harmony as the sea-saw of existence.
Thank you for your thoughtful response. Your perspective on human exceptionalism and the constructs of good and evil is compelling and highlights an important aspect of our understanding of morality. However, I believe in the existence of a spiritual realm based on my experiences, and I know that it offers a complementary perspective that can enrich this discussion.
Firstly, while it's true that good and evil can be seen as human constructs influenced by our cultural and societal contexts, many spiritual traditions, initiated by mystics, suggest that these concepts are reflections of deeper, universal principles. These principles are often considered to exist within a spiritual realm, providing a broader, more inclusive framework for understanding morality.
For instance, the spiritual realm is not necessarily otherworldly but can also be understood as an integral part of our reality, influencing and being influenced by our actions. This perspective allows us to see good and evil not just as human constructs but as elements of a larger cosmic order. This order, reflected in many spiritual teachings, emphasizes balance, harmony, and the interconnectedness of all life.
Your analogy with animal behaviour is apt; indeed, an ant colony attacking another or a deer competing for resources are natural behaviours driven by survival. However, humans possess the unique capacity for self-reflection, empathy, and moral reasoning. This capacity may be seen as a reflection of our spiritual dimension. It's this spiritual aspect that enables us to transcend mere survival instincts and evaluate our actions through the lenses of good and evil.
Moreover, many spiritual traditions emphasize the importance of equilibrium and harmony, akin to the Buddhist principle you mentioned. These teachings suggest that true understanding and moral behaviour come from aligning ourselves with these universal principles, which are part of the spiritual realm. In this view, the spiritual dimension provides a foundation for morality that transcends individual and cultural differences, guiding us toward actions that promote balance and harmony.
In conclusion, while good and evil can be seen as constructs of human perspective, the existence of a spiritual realm offers a much better framework for understanding these concepts in a way that transcends individual and cultural differences. By integrating this spiritual dimension, we can enrich our understanding of morality and our place in the natural world.
Remember that Carl Jung, towards the end of his life, became a mystic, which led to criticism. He recognized a spiritual dimension beyond human subjectivity. If you remove the spiritual dimension and only accept the limited material world, no explanation will ever reach the truth.
In the end, we do need to transcend beyond good and evil to find the white in the black and the black in the white. However, such an achievement has been the privilege of very few beings in human history. This transcends our understanding and is difficult to even discuss.
I am honored by the depth and sincerity of your response. I am not convinced that a separate, special, spiritual world that justifies human exceptionalism is either helpful or necessary.
Paraphrasing the Bible in mathematical "logistical" terms, If, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth" were true, than everything that follows spiritually would be a tautological result. But, when the premise is not true, the results are correlated at best (because stuff actually has happened) and are not causal (the devil made me do it). Spiritual arguments break down at fundamental if-then equations. "If-God, then-good/evil" would be a divine construct. But "if-not God" then whatever we've got becomes equally, unexceptionally plausible. I find myself, often unsatisfactorily in that camp.
Is life an accident? An inevitable result of entropic processes Or do we, people think and need to think way too much of ourselves? Of the alternatives I've examined, people are only important to people, which is neither good nor evil.
It'll take a while but inevitable our sun will become a Red Giant and swallow the entire inner solar system. Our sun which I propose everyone considers good suddenly become evil in four billion years? Likely long before solar expansion, another asteroid extinction event will occur. Is this rock suddenly evil for wiping out the majority of Earth's life, like the KT asteroid did? My point, only from our perspective.
The comic Lenny Bruce told a comic truth about the need for Jewish men to wear the Yarmulke. (personally I respect all religious traditions as expressions of a human need to explain itself and it's relationship to existence).
To the joke:
Lenny (a Jew himself) walks into a bathroom, sees a guy at the urinal wearing a Yarmulke on a blistering hot day. He asks the man why are you wearing a hat when it's so damn hot? The man politely responds, he wears it because God commanded that he does.
Lenny responds, "Do you really think that with wars raging in Europe, whales mating in the oceans and stars exploding across the universe God is gonna say "STOP EVERYTHING, put that hat back on?".
Only humanity could hold such hubris.
Thank you sincerely for opportunity to express. As with your other topics this ones needs and deserves a fuller, deeper and more thoughtful exploration.