My views are derived from my current work-in-progress Unifying Theory-Creation By Collision, which attempts to explain perceived "energy" by means of the motion dynamics of matter.
At the risk of repeating someone elses answer, I would like to give this a shot.
From my view, the world is an eternal system. In other words, it doesn't contain anything whose function doesn't effect the function of another, until a complete cycle is formed, with all things innertwinned. For something to exist without purpose, within an eternal system, would mean that the system isn't eternal and it is fallible. Thus, it will eventually collapse or cease to exist.
This would also encompass our actions. Therefore, there is no such thing as evil. There is only necessity to maintain eternity. Our perception of sin is merely our interpretation of our actions compared to the way we think we should act, due to our instilled beliefs. Our perception of evil is merely our interpretation of the actions of another person compared to our beliefs on how that person should act. Therefore, spiritual freedom doesn't come by setting standards of wrong and right or living how you think you should, it comes by opening your eyes to the realization that you are living the only way you can.
By common standards, nature is the most evil thing of all. The first thing a male lion does, when taking over a pride, is to kill all of the cubs fathered by his rival. This puts all of the females back in heat. This would seem evil if someone's stepfather did this, but it is the most effecient way for nature to maintain the lions existence, survival of the fittest. It's a good thing our survival as a species isn't governed like that.
In my opinion, we are no different from the animals. Our intelligence and consciousness are necessary for the job that we have to do. Everything in this world has a function, and ours requires us to manipulate the world more than any other being here. Basically, we are here because a monkey can't build machines to dig in the ground and remove oil and such things. This takes what we know as intelligence and as a result of intelligence comes the need for motivators such as religion, love, good, and evil. Any otherwise we wouldn't do our job. We basically have to be tricked.
If you gave everyone a million dollars tommorrow, the economy would collapse because who would go to work? So, the economy is a balance of how much money to put into the system to keep the division of class, whereby the rich stay rich, the poor stay poor, but more importantly, the working stay working. Too little, and it collapses just the same. Intelligence and all of the concepts of morallity are similar. Any imbalance and we either won't do our job, or we can't do our job.
We get caught up in day to day life and don't realise that we aren't here as a morality experiment to see who does what. We are here because form follows function, and our function obviously requires a being of our abilities and intelligence, which must be balanced by motivations. Therefore, what we percieve as evil is just as important as what we percieve as good. Evil is a necessity. But, that's just my opinion and I think many others just as good and well thought out have been presented here.
I think everything is the only way it can be. When our needed impact on the world is acheived, we will be done here. That's saying, when our function is over, there is no more need for our form.
Where do we go from here? I don't know. Perhaps, there's another planet that needs it's oils pumped out. I refer to this, because this is the major work that I see us doing in the world.
If form follows function, then we are here for a function. This makes understanding our purpose here relatively easy. We simply must ask ourself. What is the one thing we are doing that effects our world the most? I think the answer is oil.
Everyday we get in our cars driving around going to work or wherever our desires take us. All the while, we are changing what was once within the Earth and redistributing it without on a massive scale. This was obviously a needed function to further the planet in a needed direction. The pollution we fear is the reason we're here.
Perhaps, this is how the other planets achieved their current states of being. They do seem to progress into gas giants. Maybe Mars is what Earth will look like when our job here is done. For some reason, we try to imagine ourselves out of the system, but in actuality we are an important part. Life springs forth when a planet cannot achieve what is need by means of the actions that formed and govern it. Therefore, a progression of life begins that is constantly headed in the direction to sustain the form of life that will do the most important job. Technology and invention are the same way. It all leads up to the function.
I assure you, we won't blow ourselves up until our job here is done. Perhaps, at the end of this cycle, the technology to plant our seed on the next planet will magically get here just in time. We think of things as coencidence, but there is no such thing.
I can't speak for everyone, but I hate my job and I would much rather sit around the house and be lazy, but I can't. I must keep doing what it is I do. I am persuaded to keep going by my love for my family and our unfortunate need to eat.
Intelligence only gives us the ability to do our work effeciently. Unfortunately, it doesn't neccessarily give us the desire. Our conflict is that our survival instinct would be to conserve energy, but our work requires us to expend it.
I understand what you are saying, and I see that you place consciousness as an important part of our world. Which would seem to say, if we aren't here to consciously observe and interact in our world then it can't exist outside of God's mind.
I do not view the world in this way. I see everything as equally important. I'm not really a creationist. I think that everything that's here, will always be here, and has always been here, no matter if we percieve every little peice of it or not. It allows for us to exist and we allow for it to exist, not because of consciousness, but because of necessity. The world we know is the only way to build an eternal system. Religion and things are a byproduct of our intellect. However, there is an underlying beauty to the framework of this eternal system, which gives rise to the interpretation of a god or being of pure logic.
An example of my view is the pyramids of Egypt. They've been their since the earliest recorded history and they still stand today as a message to why we are here. They weren't built because the people were bored and decided to pile up stones. I'm sure they had many other things they would have rather been doing, due to the amount of effort it took. They were built because of the motivation of religion. The pharaoh saw it as a way to get to heaven.
So, they set an example for all the world to see for centuries to come, when they dug up stones from miles away, and moved them across the face of our planet, to be piled in the most effecient geometric shape that would stand the test of time, as an everpresent reminder of why we are here. Religion was their motivation, but in reallity, they were just doing what we were put here to do and have been doing ever since.
In my opinion, you have chosen no less complicated of a task to pinpoint the origin or root of evil as is the task presented by this entire site, which is the task of finding a Toe itself, because evil will inevitably be a component of the true way the world operates.
To a creationist, evil could represent anything set against creation, which would be destruction. But, to an eternalist like myself, perceived evil is merely as necessary as anything else. I feel that has probably been represented very well by the number of excellent opinions presented here, each deeply rooted in that persons belief in the mechanics of the world itself.
I feel that the only way you will ever truly have your answer to the root of evil, is when we all truly have our answer to the real Toe, because just as it will define all other things, it will also define that which you seek, and any defintion we apply to it now would merely be speculation on our view of how this all works.
I don't see it as contradicting at all. Admitting to eternal isn't an admittance to static, meaning unchanging, which is how I perceive your definition of "physical". Eternal systems do contain change, but their change is always in the direction to maintain it's eternal nature. Thus, all change is also neccessary. This inevitably gives rise to our recognition of the beauty of how these changes work to maintain the system, which is what I would call "logic".
Yes, any variation in that logical change would indeed foul the system, but I don't think we have that power. If there was an element within the system that had the ability, by free will, to destroy it, then it isn't eternal. Eternal systems can't manifest something that will stand against them.
As for your cat, I can't answer that question because I am unsure of the true mechanics of the world or Toe, but his existence has definately effected the existence of another, such as yourself, which effects another, etc, etc. Everthing here effects someone, or something, which inevitably effects everyone, or all things, or it wouldn't be here.
I hope this helps to explain myself, but these are only my opinions and I don't hold a monopoly on the mechanics of the world. I could very easily be wrong.
All and all, I don't really know how all this works.
I am starting to confuse myself, I don't think on all of this that much, but I think I might see what your were saying. By me admitting to an eternal world it would seem infallible, and infallible things shouldn't need logic to operate, because logic could give rise to unecessary fallible events, but I am admitting to logic.
Who's to say that infallible eternal things can't be made up of some type of infallible logic? Perhaps, that's what makes them eternal. I don't know.
I also see where I probably seemed to have contradicted myself, when I said, everything here, has been and always will be here. I believe in the law of conservation of everything, is all I meant. Death is just changing to something else. What? I don't know. To me, you can't take nothing out of the system and you can't add nothing to it, but things do take on different forms depending on current needed functions.
It's been many years since I studied the Bible and in all honesty I'm not a religious person, but I read the whole thing when I was younger and I studied similar to how a biblical scholar views the bible. Most of what I learned taught me a totally different picture than that which I learned as a kid in church......
......I don’t take the Bible literally, but it is an interesting book which holds a lot of knowledge useful to life. Even though I’m not religious I still respect some of the lessons within.
To answer your comment, until all of the mishap at the beginning, no one could do any wrong, they were merely living to their true reason for being. The hunters were hunting and multiplying, and the farmers were farming. Only when they were given direction were they inevitably doomed to failure.
So, a lesson of the Bible, in my mind is, you’ll never reach salvation by setting standards of right and wrong, telling yourself that, when you stop or start doing something, you’ll be worthy. Self salvation can only be reached when we realize we are merely doing as we should. Ignorance is bliss, thus we can only maintain as much knowledge as we can keep from condemning ourselves with. The path to wisdom is paved with the bricks of a balanced conscience. What good would a wise man be that new nothing but guilt?
Contrary to your belief of my views, I don't see things as grim as you think. I just see us as an equally important part of the whole. The extinction of our species here doesn't mean that our purpose isn't needed elsewhere. Who says we must go on continually to just go on?
Anywhere our function is required, our form will be. That doesn't mean that we necessarily will have to reach that destination by spacecraft from this planet. Perhaps, there are more effecient ways to get us there. Perhaps, the system will just manifest us. Is that not how we supposedly got here? Who knows? I certainly don't.
From the moment our eyes are opened for the first time within this world, nature commisions us with the one true law, and that is to live, at any cost. Is this not what all of our instincts and knowledge work towards?
Perhaps there are many manifestations of beliefs when we are commisioned to maintain our individual selves rather than the whole of mankind. Thus, all actions are defined as we each choose the path that we think will bring about the best chance for our individual survival. Maybe even those who work towards the survival of the group are still doing it to ensure their own existence.
Perhaps the many individual strategies of maintaining one's life are the essence of all individual perceptions and beliefs.
05-02-2008 04:20 AM 
