Does the Goddess mean Good?

[harmonygirl]

Is there evil? Does the notion of the Goddess contain the idea of Good? What is Good? I don't believe that moral judgements apply in nature. Prey is killed and eaten to survive. There is play but not malice. There are egos but not wars. Are Good and Bad false concepts we have come up with to control and order society? I used to believe in conscious evil. I am not sure I do anymore. Those people that leap to mind as evil, are they not a product of their time, their life lessons, their personalities adapting to these? Is evil natural? I would love to hear ideas...

[michellemfry]

It remains an alternative choice to that which is Good and one has no part in the other and thus, must be parallel in it's nature. If one accepts this parallel, then one understands that without one there is no other.

[Guille]

It's a question without defined answer, too philosophical. It depends, first, on what you mean by consciouss in it. We might believe that if an evil action is free, then it is consciouss. But, what conditions does 'free action' require? ANd what is consciousness anyway? Was hitler consciouss when he decided to execute the 'final solution'? People my age have a new hobby: watching real scenes with violence, sometimes up to violation or murder. Many of them in fact make them, for example comming along an outcast in school and start crapping his head off. Isn't that consciouss evil¿?¿?

[mkirkpatrick]

You have made some interesting points Harmony,the Goddess aspect being
feminine would no doubt be assigned to the Yang by many,but this would be
most misleading,for it would suggest,or somewhat imply,that the opposite,the
masculine aspect,would be bad!!! What we are really talking about is positive
and negitive,which areboth universal constants.The confusion begins when these two universal constants,enter into the realm of a self-conscious individual
where they are then seen as good=positive,or bad=negitive.When these two
universal constants outwork in the theatre of human behavior,they are then
assigned merit by the society there present,that which is acceptable by the
majority becomes positive=the Goddess=law of the land="goodness".
That which is unacceptable becomes negitive=badness=evil etc,and becomes
a crime,and merits punishment,for breaking the law??
Outside of the mind of mankind,Ying and yang are neither good nor bad,they
are just balancing forces of the universe.

kindest regards michael.

[harmonygirl]

Are we all saying that if we define "good", we must by definition define something as "not good"? I guess I meant (by "conscious evil") actions that are evil which are done with full awareness of their evil nature. I don't see this in nature. Everything seems to have a purpose in nature, even the swaying in the breeze of sunflowers seems to be a willingness to 'go with the flow'. Can we conclude from this that there is no purpose to definitions like "good" and "evil"? Or is it that we are not as advanced to exist socially as our animal sisters? And how does the conception of spirituality relate to this? Do we get conceptions of "good" and "bad" from spirituality? I think we get them from dogma, but I wonder if spirituality contains them as well? I know that early belief systems included anthropomorphic deities, which mirrored human follies and acted in ways that could be terms "good" and "bad" (but the goddesses and gods didn't carry those labels).

[mkirkpatrick]

Are we all saying that if we define "good", we must by definition define something as "not good"? I guess I meant (by "conscious evil") actions that are evil which are done with full awareness of their evil nature. I don't see this in nature. Everything seems to have a purpose in nature, even the swaying in the breeze of sunflowers seems to be a willingness to 'go with the flow'. Can we conclude from this that there is no purpose to definitions like "good" and "evil"? Or is it that we are not as advanced to exist socially as our animal sisters? And how does the conception of spirituality relate to this? Do we get conceptions of "good" and "bad" from spirituality? I think we get them from dogma, but I wonder if spirituality contains them as well? I know that early belief systems included anthropomorphic deities, which mirrored human follies and acted in ways that could be terms "good" and "bad" (but the goddesses and gods didn't carry those labels).

Spirituality,can be noble,beautiful,
and shine like a beacon,alas,though,when "it" is within,many of mankind it is
distorted by their ignorance,and ego-centered behavior.
kind regards michael.

[baudrunner]

Poor HG, you are either so influenced by bad company or web-wise playfull that your subconscious veritably screams for attention, or maybe you are just kidding around. Either way, Look into yourself for what you truly know to be right. The golden rule applies.. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". If you are of sound mind then you understand what that means.

Don't ask me what constitutes a sound mind, for we are not seven years old on this site.

[harmonygirl]

Baud, I know we are all one, but what about, good and evil conceptions and the way they relate to the Goddess? Of course, I get the golden rule, but what about people, can they be consciously evil? When we feel the Goddess are we creating a devil by definition?

[subversion]

I believe that evil is not germane to nature. Nature represents a balance of yin and yang and both of them can be viewed as opposite to eachother, such that one is good (yang?) and one is bad. But the sum of the two, the system as a whole, is always considered good, generally, if not absolutely. So evil must not be germane to actuality in an absolute sense.

Men are definitely more evil than women, but again this should not be really seen as evil. The god himself, or at least the one instilled with the power of describing everything, will be in a sense both absolutey good and absolutely bad, but he will always be slightly more good than bad. That may be because he is not entirely a man, but whether this is true or not, or if it relates, is not certain.

As for the goddess, she is definitely a good thing, as women are always the nurturing and loving makers of life. Men on the other hand kill one another, but they do it only as part of the natural evolution which brings about the TOE inevitably. So yeah, in the end some things seem bad, but everything is always good no matter what. Positive existance is guaranteed or else time would run backwards. Time running forwards means the TOE is being thought of as we speak.

[harmonygirl]

I don't know that we can generalize that men are more evil that women. Women kill as well (there is a disturbing trend of rising girl violence in North America). I guess what I was trying to determine is if the recognition of deities (Gods or Goddesses) inevitably involves invoking a moralistic (or judgemental) framework, resulting in the creation of right and wrong. Is the conception of Goddess inextricably linked to concepts of right and wrong?