From: Brent Allsop (allsop@swttools.fc.hp.com)
Date: Tue Nov 24 1998 - 12:52:07 MST
"Billy Brown" <bbrown@conemsco.com> asked:
> Is this re-wiring a criminal's brain against his will really better
> than executing him?
I think It is a little better, but anything "forced" is still
hideous. Occasionally, I find or feel some deep primal urge to kill
or hurt someone down inside. This is not something I really want.
There is no rational reason why anyone would really want such. I will
not really become what I really want to be until I can remove this, by
my free will, not by force. At least can't we hope and try as if such
is possible?
mark@unicorn.com noted:
> Interestingly, all the fictional treatments of this I can think of
> (1984, Clockwork Orange, Babylon 5) seem to agree with that.
But this is all simply faithless theodicy-zing, attempting to
justify, rationalize and accept evil in the face of some already
powerful God. Must we faithlessly give up and, rather than hoping
such can all be overcome by good means (any force is not a good
means), and instead must we try to accept and justify evil as such
fictional stories attempt to do? (If God can't overcome it, then we
must accept and try to justify it as is done in such fiction, and how
can we ever have a hope of overcoming it if God can't?...)
As extropians, we do not believe that there is already an all
powerful God. This frees us so we can still have faith and hope that
when there is or when we are powerful Gods, and maybe even sooner...,
it will be possible, through some good means, to eliminate all such
evil.
An extropian doesn't faithlessly give up and try to accept and
justify evil, he tries to find a good way to over come it always
having faith that all such is possible one good way or another.
Brent Allsop
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