> Brent said:
> << (And I'll never be able to figure out why
> anyone would choose something they don't want (the definition of evil)
> in the first place, unless they are forced or some how prevented!)>>
> If I decide that I want Brents computer, because it is better than
> mine, there is no evil in me taking it. If Brent happens to object
> to his (unwilling) act of brotherly love, because He worked long and
> hard for his computer and can't afford to replace it, the evil must
> be in Brent. I have just chosen something I want (Brents definition
> of good).
No, you apparently simply haven't yet been taught... Oh,
sorry, if you could be taught then God should come down and teach you
or else he would be evil for not doing so. Or maybe you think such
teaching would be "force"? OK, Lets try again. You apparently
haven't yet learned, from your own experience, maybe from the examples
of others, that it is much better to give than it is to receive.
You may THINK you want to steal my computer from me, simply
because it is a better computer, but once you realize that it is
better to give than to receive you will repent and change your ways.
Once you learn this, you will finally have free agency, and finally be
able to get what is better or what you really want. Anything, such as
mistaken ignorance like this, is destroying your agency because it
prevents you from getting what you really want. When you think you
want something, but are mistaken, it forces or causes you to choose
what you don't really want. There is no need for it to be some
damning "moral agency", I need not hate you for having such a desire,
I need not give up faith that it will be possible for you to overcome
this weakness, you are simply innocently mistaken and haven't yet
learned a simple truth or achieved a certain moral character.
Just like thinking one wants to hope there is an all powerful
God, when you think about things with a little more rigor and
completeness, you realize that things aren't always what they first
seem and what we think we want often isn't. We are often tempted to
think such simplistic things, but once we gain more intelligence, we
can finally become much more free and finally get what we really want.
Then and only then, can we finally be free. And, when we are free,
like God, we will always choose what is right. Only when we can be
guaranteed to reliably choose what is right, like God, can we finally
be free and get what is best or what we most want.
Brent Allsop