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JamesR
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« on: May 01, 2012, 06:03:26 PM » |
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I have a bit of another question that I have been having trouble wrapping my head around, it has to do with good and evil in Orthodoxy. I know that in Orthodoxy we are always proclaiming how Christ has beat death and evil, and how goodness is more powerful than badness. But, how? I'm having trouble seeing that in real terms. I know that Christ beat death and that Theosis is now possible because of Him, but that still does not change the fact that it is harder to do good and allow the Holy synergy to work upon you than it is to evil and engage in wickedness. Why does it seem like goodness always has its back against the wall? We are always told that goodness is more powerful than evil and that love beats hate and everything, then does it seem like goodness and love are losing? Evilness still holds a monopoly over most people; it is still so much easier to do evil than it is to do good, but, shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't goodness be the obvious winner and shouldn't it be easier to do good than to do evil? Likewise, were we not created for goodness and goodness was originally a part of our nature? And Christ redeemed the human nature? Well why is it that the human nature is still so sickened to the point where doing evil, which is entirely foreign to what our nature should be like now that Christ redeemed it, comes easier to us naturally than goodness does? Why isn't doing good easier and why does evilness still dominate our nature? Evil is entirely unnatural and foreign to the human nature; we were made for Good--evilness is a disease. We believe that Christ has redeemed our nature, but why is it that the disease is still there? Why does a foreign infection still hold a monopoly over our nature? I'm tired of siding with the side that seems to be losing.
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« Last Edit: May 01, 2012, 06:06:39 PM by JamesR »
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"'Blessed are the peacemakers' For those are peacemakers in themselves who, in conquering and subjecting to reason all the motions of their souls and having their carnal desires tamed, have become in themselves a Kingdom of God."-St. Augustine of Hippo
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Shanghaiski
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« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2012, 06:42:39 PM » |
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It is only an illusion that goodness is weaker. Consider the stories, the ones that really matter. What do you see? Sure, there's a lot of chaos and death and evil, but is the small action of the unlikely hero that upends everything. Consider the martyrs. They faced impious kings, endured horrible torments, and yet no amount of evil could affect them--and in this they were aided by the grace of God, for the energies of God assist those who fear Him. Sometimes, in the enormity of evil, we can miss the workings of God and His goodness. Have you read "Father Arseny?" In that book are many, many examples.
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O Master Lord our God...who are wondrous in glory; who keeps his covenant and his mercy to them who love him with all their heart; who has given us redemption...through his only-begotten son, Jesus Christ...the life of everyone, the help of those who flee to him, the hope of those who cry to him.
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orthonorm
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« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2012, 07:01:20 PM » |
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Only the rarified and sanctified egos of those under near pathological self-delusion find "evil" to be easier than good and care about it, especially care that you know about it. They revel in their imagined depravity to the degree of their spiritual grandiosity.
Or they just say such things in some ritualized manner as to keep among the herd without really believing it.
The former are much more of a drag than the latter.
Enjoy!
Really it is a sincere plight of many I believe. All of Kant's Critiques need to be read in light of this problem. For he lays out exactly the problems underlying such anxiety within modernity, which contrary to what most people here believe, is where most humans still live.
They are neither ancient, an impossibility, nor "post-modern", that they were . . .
Given the thread title, I have to quote my old friend just for fun:
Going beyond good and evil, Hitler stopped halfway.
Enjoy the "real answers" to come.
Just remember, it takes an infinite amount of good things happening for one to even have the luxury of thinking about such problems.
As much as my disposition might not suggest it, the world and nearly everyone in it are good. If it were otherwise, we wouldn't be here.
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We cannot legislate morality by passing laws controlling firearms. The only evil we can combat lies within our hearts. We need stronger laws to protect the moral foundation of society against the evil of gay marriage. |
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JamesRottnek
Taxiarches
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Faith: Anglican
Jurisdiction: Episcopal Diocese of Arizona
Posts: 4,552
I am Bibleman
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« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2012, 05:46:04 AM » |
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As Orthonorm alluded to, the only reason people like Hitler, Ted Bundy, and Manson - and their actions - strike us as horrible and make us question humanity is because these things are extremely uncommon. The fact that schools rally together when a student commits suicide, or a nation rallies together when terrorists fly planes into buildings, or that a state can spend a great deal of time watching news about one little girl having gone missing (as Arizona's been doing lately), proves that goodness is winning, because if it wasn't, then no one would be appalled, or grieved, when things like this do happen.
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I know a secret about a former Supreme Court Justice. Can you guess what it is?
The greatest tragedy in the world is when a cigarette ends.
American Spirits - the eco-friendly cigarette.
Preston Robert Kinney (September 8th, 1997-August 14, 2011
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yeshuaisiam
Archon
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Faith: Orthodox, Anabaptist, Other Early Christianity kind of jumbled together
Posts: 2,623
The best things in life are not things.
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« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2012, 09:44:28 PM » |
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I think if you really put things into perspective, you'd see that good is way more powerful than evil. We can see this by example of our God rising from the dead.
The Jewish leaders hated him, and the Romans carried out his execution.
After the mocking, flogging, abuse, thorns, blood loss, and piercing with a spear, came his burial.
What more could they do? They killed him. They took his life. He DIED!
The next thing they knew, he walked amongst them again! I could not imagine how creepy and scared they'd be running away. Thus the hymn is sung "Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered! Let those who hate him flee from before his face!" Can you imagine!
After all their horrors, their evil, his goodness was more powerful.
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