Subj : Knowledge.... To : Lee Lofaso From : Kevin Gibson Date : Sun Jul 22 2001 10:30 pm - Hello Lee, KG> If we define "evil" as inferior, we might look at mortality as KG> inferior to immortality. Mortality resulted from the choice. LL> That may be one way to look at things. It is. That's how I look at it. LL> But if so, one would be stating an impossible happening. I followed your logic but... I don't see it. LL> All men are mortal. LL> Socrates is a man. LL> Socrates is mortal. LL> this argument can be extended to include all living things. Insofar as we know things to be, yes. LL> It can also be extended to include all things animate and inanimate. How would you apply this to an inanimate object? LL> Therefore, can anything truly be *immortal*? Yes. That which is not mortal. LL> If that were so, then God Himself would be "evil", creating "evil" LL> creatures for His own "evil" purposes. KG> That depends on who defines God, evil, and does the assessing. KG> Can we define God? LL> We do it all the time. But that doesn't mean that God is so defined. LL> But just because man defines God in his own image, does it make LL> it necessarily so that that is what God *is*? Yeah... that's similar to what I just typed. And I could delete my response and make it look like I read your entire argument before I replied, but I won't. :-p LL> And what is absolute truth, if such truth cannot be ascertained LL> by man as absolutely true? KG> All evidence is subjective in part because of the way we perceive. LL> However, given that a man's reason is developed, he can recognize LL> the existence of a natural moral law. In that light, man can LL> discern what is absolute truth, at least in certain cases. Only to the extent that we trust our perceptions of the situations or certain cases. LL> How then, can we come up with a definition of "good" and "evil", LL> and how such good and evil can be measured by man? KG> This is much more of a response than I expected. KG> Where are you going? LL> It could be anywhere, depending on the nature of this thread. :) I think I'm going to watch you and Richard fiddle with it. It would be good if you could interest Frank and John. They seem to like the deep stuff. - Continued in next post - - -+- QuikEdit 2.41R+ --- Maximus 3.01 * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS-New Orleans 1-504-897-6006 USR33k6 (1:396/45) .