Posted by Mickey on September 28, 2001, at 13:03:07
In reply to Re: Evil?, posted by Mitchell on September 27, 2001, at 22:27:03
>"And the Lord God said, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat it, you shall surely die.' And the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil.'" <
I have wondered about the meaning of this for many years and one day it occurred to me that perhaps what it meant was the beginnings of consciousness of the self. Since animals do not have the capacity to be cruel, though it may seem so in their struggles to survive and pass on their genes, they are not conscious of the self.
When humans became conscious (of good and evil) they where able to project their thoughts onto others - thoughts of fear, anger, grief, happiness etc.This may have resulted in an empathetic concern for other humans or it could also play into their more devious plots. For instance, greed, one of the seven deadly sins, has nothing to do with survival or passing on genes, but creates a good deal of cruel (evil) behavior.
poster:Mickey
thread:11828
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010927/msgs/11867.html