Evil Within Paganism

[Fiddlers Green]

TeaDidikai

Fiddlers Green

Tea, wanna go into just a bit more detail there?
Do you mean they aren't diametricly opposed, or that they are not, between the two of them, all encompassing? sweatdrop

Yes.
That is to say- both of the options you mention are correct within my world view.

I risk sidetracking the conversation too far with my own (very personal) theology.

As for them not being all encompassing, this is a very deep foundation for me as well. A theme of both apathetic neutrality and the "Advocate of your Uncertainty" speak to my cultural awareness and myself as an individual very very deeply.

Would you be so kind as to PM me the long version of this?
So as not to sidetrack the Topic, but I, personally, am somehow not getting it. sweatdrop  

[TeaDidikai]

Fiddlers Green

Would you be so kind as to PM me the long version of this?
So as not to sidetrack the Topic, but I, personally, am somehow not getting it. sweatdrop

I'll put it in my Pathways thread.  

[Aesi]

To me, Good serves life while Evil destroys. But that's not easily defined. As trees can survive awesome fires and become tougher to burn so can we earn greater strength from "evil" things.

A friend of mine was taught about the dangers of guns as a child. His father bought him a rabbit for a pet and when my friend became attached to it, his father took him out to a field and made him shoot his rabbit. This is monstrously evil to me. The father may have gotten his point across about guns. That would be a good result. However, in this case, it was one piece in a horrifying pattern. This father instilled a twisted morality in his son, and poor judgment. Not that my friend was really a bad person. He just.... was not prepared for life. His father became a kind of hollow king, asserting authority through tyranny while his son laughed at him behind his back. Was he evil? When I knew him, he became the strongest influence on my measure of evil. Petty, lazy, selfish, weak-willed, constantly defensive, a tyrant, a man filled with irrational hatred. I know he wasn't always as I knew him, though. But I do think he lacked real love in his life. He just didn't have the marks that it leaves, not even the least grace when I knew him. That is basic, human evil to me.

But as I said, evil and all the human forces which destroy and debase, they can serve life by opposing it and making it stronger. So what's -really- evil? Stagnation, non-adaption. Good and evil, creation and destruction, these keep life in motion. Life is maintained by the forces in flux. When they cease, life experiences the ultimate destruction, the effective cancellation of its existence. Even a pause can wipe out all life, all signs that it existed and all possibility of it returning. When a species fails to adapt, it dies. When a pond lies still for too long, it turns rancid and endangers any living thing which uses its water. Well, these examples are still part of the web of life. They do still contribute one way or the other. But in them, we get a glimpse of the only truly destructive power, that which is eternally unchanging.  

[Aesi]

spaceprincess18

You say in the context of your religion, which solidifies my statement that it is subjective. I don't think something can exist in a concrete manner when there is no concrete definition or view of it.

Darkness, to me, is just like I said it was. A neceesary balance in ourselves that allows the light within us to exist. I think that anyone who denies their own dark corners is in the same hand denying the purity of their light places.
How can you be sure you are really acting in light when you don't have a contrast to compare it to? If you have no inner guideline to your darker desires (and why one usually shouldn't act on them) then you can't be sure that your desires stemming from light aren't laced with the darker desires.
Having darker desires is not bad, it's acting on them in ways that infringe upon others is bad. Acknowledging and recognising your darker desires is a good thing.

Hmm, I wonder. Light and dark are subjective. A man who lives in the Arctic Circle rarely sees the sun and when he does, its light is brief and weak compared to the sun as it is seen by a Hawaiian. He lights a candle. It's bright to him. The lights on his snowmobile, even brighter. They are, in fact, the brightest lights he ever sees so long as he continues to live in the Arctic Circle. He understands those lights, but he is aware that a greater light does exist. He just isn't in a position to see it clearly.

We may be in his position regarding the universal forces of light and dark. We cannot see everything from our position. A greater source of light may exist, but we haven't seen it yet. If our evolution tends toward said light source, then what will we think is dark? And vice versa, if our evolution tends toward deeper darkness, what will we think is a truly bright light? Maybe there is always a greater light or darkness. In my opinion, this is likely. Human imagination always manages to wend its way toward one or the other and people will ultimately choose what they will. However, since we cannot see a finite source of either light or dark, we can't really understand our position, either. It's possible that our ideas of the Paradise of Light are, in fact, closer to the ultimate darkness on the universal scale. Makes you feel good, huh? We each can only choose what we think is best. Some of us believe that other beings (gods, spirits, etc.) are in a better position to educate us on what's what in the spectrum of Light/Dark, Good/Evil. Some of us believe our own opinions are the best we're gonna get. Some of us believe other humans are better suited to guide us. And so forth, and so forth. Realistically, every single possibility as far as choosing from the great spectrum comes down to belief. We cannot truly define what is right, what is good, what is evil, etc. We choose what we choose to believe, period.  

[Kuroiban]

I can't help but think of how Plato saw object as how I see Good and Evil.

We all tend to have an idea of good and evil. I don't think this idea is universal; it's very objective. No matter how each person sees their good and evil however, it will never probably a match to their idea of those concepts.

I don't believe Good and Evil to be universal inclusive either. If I plant a flower, I haven't done anything evil by my definition, nor have I done anything truly good either; sticking a flower in some dirt might spruce up the place, but if that was my only reason for doing it...what good have I really done?

This is more philosophic; my religious idea of things is somewhat vauge at the moment, so coming from a theological angle is a bit difficult at the present moment.