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Author Topic:   Do we talk up or down to fundies?
RAZD
Member (Idle past 1433 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


Message 65 of 73 (398203)
04-29-2007 6:35 PM
Reply to: Message 64 by Rob
04-29-2007 5:06 PM


Re: What's "evil"?
Surprise. It's Rob, and the topic once more is morality rather than what is in the OP ...
Because if you are correct, then what exactly did Cho do at Virginia Tech which was unnatural?
So how do you explain this to "fundies" ...
Of course it was "natural" - nature is neither good nor evil. What Cho did was a result of impulses. The processing of those impulses may have been faulty (chemical or neurological imbalance due to environment, genetics or some combination), but that doesn't make it unnatural.
To think that such action is "unnatural" means that there is some non-natural cause ... ie some kind of demonic possession or something similar. This absolves one of looking for cause and effect ... and doesn't lead to any new knowledge or any possible treatment for similarly afflicted people, thus meaning that such experiences will be repeated.
And consider this... if everything is natural, then from where did the idea of that which is 'unatural' (religion) originate?
From the conceit that we individuals\humans are something special.
Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
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RebelAAmericanOZen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
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This message is a reply to:
 Message 64 by Rob, posted 04-29-2007 5:06 PM Rob has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 69 by Archer Opteryx, posted 05-02-2007 1:48 AM RAZD has replied

  
RAZD
Member (Idle past 1433 days)
Posts: 20714
From: the other end of the sidewalk
Joined: 03-14-2004


Message 72 of 73 (398830)
05-02-2007 8:35 PM
Reply to: Message 69 by Archer Opteryx
05-02-2007 1:48 AM


Re: What's "evil"?
It was certainly abnormal, as your adjective 'faulty' recognizes.
I intentionally modified 'faulty' with "(chemical or neurological imbalance due to environment, genetics or some combination)" and note that it isn't necessarily {abnormal\un-normal\unusual} but perfectly natural: it happens frequently.
'Faulty' neurological processes are those that do not function as well as we would reasonably expect them to,...
Or that function at heightened levels of response that sometimes swamp the ability to process information (ADD, ADHD), OR that just do not function in the same ways every time (chemical inhibition\excitation).
The other side of "may have been faulty" is that they may have been functioning properly -- I can't say I know, can you? And if they were functioning properly then that too is natural.
This is a logical sequence of thought, but in standard usage 'unnatural' is not really a synonym for 'supernatural' as you use it here.
No webpage found at provided URL: su·per·nat·u·ral -adjective1. of, pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.
versus
No webpage found at provided URL: un·nat·u·ral -adjective1. contrary to the laws or course of nature.
Synonyms: ... abnormal, ... supernatural, ... unaccountable, ... (of ~50 given)
Antonyms: natural, real
OF course this gets us back to perceptions of reality ... including Cho's ... and the question of what is "normal" ...
Enjoy.

Join the effort to unravel AIDS/HIV, unfold Proteomes, fight Cancer,
compare Fiocruz Genome and fight Muscular Dystrophy with Team EvC! (click)


we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand
RebelAAmericanOZen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 69 by Archer Opteryx, posted 05-02-2007 1:48 AM Archer Opteryx has not replied

  
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