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Allow Me to Cheer You Up
Well, not me personally, of course. I’ve been having some problems seeing the bright side of things here recently. But JP Sears posted a video yesterday which I found fascinating. I know that many Ricochetti don’t often watch linked videos (Ricochetti such as your humble scribe, for example), but I assure you that this is worth 13 minutes of your time. Mr. Sears is known for his oddball video spoofs which usually contain a few brilliant insights hidden beneath the goofy presentation. But this is a serious video, in which he explains how he came to believe that evil actually exists.
That doesn’t sound all that cheerful, but he also explains why he thinks that good is very likely to win over evil, and what each of us can do personally to help achieve this victory. He acknowledges that he is not a philosopher or a Biblical scholar, but just briefly explains how he arrived at these conclusions. I find it interesting not because he’s shed new light on human nature (and he doesn’t claim to do so), but I find it interesting because I strongly suspect that he is not the only one thinking along these lines today. And I suspect that his message resonates with a growing proportion of the population. Check it out:
His explanations might be a bit over-simplified. But they might also be correct.
I look forward to hearing your perspective on Mr. Sears’ view of the world today, and why he is so optimistic.
Published in General
So what’s wrong with fusionism? Why not have liberty and then have people choose virtue?
I’d go with evolutionary psychology. Also, why did we fall if we were made to be perfect? I never got that.
O Felix Culpa! O Happy Fault!
Yeah, it’s almost paradoxical. I’m guessing it is paradoxical.
If humans were originally made perfect, they would be like God. Yet there was one thing lacking: the knowledge of Good and Evil, which the serpent told them would make them like God. Once they gained that knowledge however, God immediately cast them from the Garden so that they would not also eat of the tree of life and therefore become eternal.
And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
It’s pretty fascinating and worth pondering. Perelandra is very much a “what if” . . . which if I recall (and I should read it again) Lewis explores the “what if” of humans gaining that knowledge yet not falling.
Because we weren’t perfect yet. Perfection was to come later, after growth and work and creativity. Those things required some free will, which came with the option of us going wrong.
Some of these ideas are explored in my “mostly still in my head” novel, some portions of which have actually been written.
It also involves robots and Indians.
I think Christians often oversimplify when we talk about the perfect Garden of Eden.
The Garden is a place untouched by human sin, yes, but it’s not complete. We had a responsibility to cultivate and develop creation creatively, and that had not been done yet. Perfection in the sense of completeness would require this work, and some use of free will. If we botched our use of free will at the very beginning, then we’ve never actually seen a perfect world even if we have seen a sinless one.
I approve.
It reminds me of the Wall-E movie.
I think the man in the video is either mistaken or doesn’t state clearly enough the difference between the two kinds of people.
There are people who don’t recognize their own vulnerability to, and/ or capacity for, evil. There are people who do.
I’m starting to think the big difference isn’t between the people who do and don’t believe in God. The big difference is between the people who don’t want there to be a God, because we can be good without Him, and the people who want God because they know for a certainty that we can’t.
Could you please write an essay long post about this observation?
Seconded.
Thank you so much.