ATD re light & evil

[Paul Mackin]

On Jan 4, 2007, at 12:36 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> I think it is close enough to the Platonic notion--thru Socrates--- 
> that we humans only want to do what we see as the Good---that  
> infused the theological Platonism of medieval Catholicism.....I  
> remember learning from my Catholci youth that I might do evil  
> because I could not 'see' the Good .........see Paradise Lost,  
> Dante....

True but wasn't THIS notion of Evil, defined as the absence of Good  
(Being), something arrived at  metaphysically, not something one  
experiences through the senses as one experiences the suffering- 
disease-and-death type of Evil?

It's  the latter which the 19th Century  "New Thought" religion of  
healthy-mindedness was designed to ward off

Evil was at least to a considerable extent "all in the Mind."

All we had to  do was to let the Light in.

Doesn't the quoted passage represent this latter-day American trend-- 
even though the echo of ancient and medieval idealist metaphysics is  
plainly heard?

Naturally a  certain degree of  healthy-mindedness and optimism is a  
good thing (as William James observed}.

Pretty essential to an everyday normal existence.

Or the downside is, it can lead to  Denial.








>
> Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> On Jan 3, 2007, at 9:27 PM, Steven wrote:
>
>> I'll go out on a limb here and admit that I don't understand the  
>> intent of the quote.  No real substance?  Then nothing has any  
>> real substance.  Evil isn't a shadow...it's part of our essential  
>> nature.  To be avoided, not semantically hamstrung.
>
> It's closer to Dr. Wayne Dyer than to Plato and Aristotle's being  
> and non-being.
>
>
>>
>>
>>>  pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
>>> Subject: ATD re light & evil
>>>
>>>
>>>> "Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of
>>>> its own, it is simply a lack of light....
>>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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