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From: marty@ism780c.UUCP (Marty Smith)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian,talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Reply to Marty Smith
Message-ID: <3667@ism780c.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 25-Sep-86 16:33:23 EDT
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Posted: Thu Sep 25 16:33:23 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Sep-86 00:37:26 EDT
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Reply-To: marty@ism780c.UUCP (Marty Smith)
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Xref: linus net.religion.christian:4770 talk.religion.misc:296

A point I indended to discuss in my last posting but forgot concerns Ken's
use below of the term evil.

>You try to say presuming the perogitives is 'getting closer to God'.  Worship!
>Rather it's foolishness.  Dangerous and evil. Like jumping off the theological
>garage roof with a hanky held by the ends.

I've already said I do not presume the prerogatives of God when I curse,
because it is impossible to presume the prerogatives of God.  It is indeed
foolishness to believe that I could.  But it is not evil.  Evil is that
which causes suffering and which intends to cause that suffering.  When I
curse with "God damn it," I am at that moment in a state of suffering.  I
utter the curse to help relieve the suffering.  Therefore it is not evil.

It would be evil, if I did it to offend a fundamentalist for example, because
the offense would cause the fundamentalist to suffer, and I would utter the
curse for the purpose of causing that suffering.

But fundamentalism itself causes suffering, in the form of the needless guilt
some poor believers feel over the non-sins they have committed.  The question
is, is fundamentalism motivated to cause this guilt?  If so, then it is evil.

					Marty Smith