Good Versus Evil

[Connie Clay]

Good Versus Evil

A-M-E-N!!!!!

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Good Versus Evil

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[Guest.Visitor]

Good Versus Evil

** This thread discusses the article: Good Versus Evil **
Think of the bright side. Things are not as bad as they were a few centuries ago. It is uncommon to burn people at the stake or drown them to prove their innocence. There are no more mongols swooping from the east killing all they see just for the sake of conquest. There are no more gladiators or feeding the unpopular to wild animals for public amusement. Today we just have slackers and goofs who start a war in Iraq just to get some political monkey off their backs. Bad ... yes but not like giving smallpox infected blankets to the native Americans or moving them across country just to take their land. Yes, it is bad to take advantage of people at their weakest and it is good to go after those who do. What find disturbing is that people will rise in outrage over the small but tragic things, but sit passively by the side when the big things that are less sudden and less random take place. Some of these people are lazy, some are holier-than-thou and some are one issue voters who don't give are too stupid to see how easy they are to hustle. Incompetence and stupidity and their consequential results are often ignored and sometimes embraced if marketed effectively and friends in high places lend support.

[Guest.Visitor]

Good Versus Evil

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I beg to differ....its never the technology....it can't lean any kind of way... People are good or evil....and people do good or evil things. Things just sit there until they are used. Guns make good paperweights too. Until evil people use them to do evil things.

[J.Klebanoff]

Good Versus Evil

** This thread discusses the article: Good Versus Evil **
ctibodoe said:

I beg to differ....its never the technology....it can't lean any kind of way...

People are good or evil....and people do good or evil things.

Things just sit there until they are used. ...

I don't think that we differ. I made that point in my opening paragraph. In and of itself, technology is neutral. It is how we choose to use it that determines whether the outcome is good or evil. Advanced technology merely amplifies our ability to do good or evil. That having been said, despite technology being neutral, because some technologies have the potential to amplify our evil much more than they can amplify our good, I do think that there are some instances where technology -- not just the people who use it -- should be regulated. (OK, this should get me flamed, but yes, I do think that guns fit in that category.) I think that those instances should be very limited in order to prevent punishing the innocent for the acts of the very few who are evil, but I do think that as a society we should at least be asking the question whether this technology or that technology should be freely available without any regulation. Usually the answer will be yes, it should be freely available, but sometimes the answer will be no. To take an example that seems silly only because it is so extreme, I don't, for instance, want every backyard bully to have unfettered access to nuclear weapons.

[christena@bottle-soft.com]

Good Versus Evil

** This thread discusses the article: Good Versus Evil **
Today we just have slackers and goofs who start a war in Iraq just to get some political monkey off their backs. Bad ... yes but not like giving smallpox infected blankets to the native Americans or moving them across country just to take their land."" I believe there is as much evil today, as ever was in the past. And it is not all the fault of the U.S. government (though some of it is), despite what a lot of uber-liberals would have us believe. There are the rebels in Uganda that sneak into villages and night and steal children from their beds in order to force them to join the rebellion. These rebels rape the girls and force both the boys and girls to commit murder under threat of being murdered themselves. There is the Communist government of China, where people are tortured to death or forced into slave labor camps or psychiatric hospitals because of their spiritual beliefs. There was the Taliban in Afghanistan, which would shoot girls on the street if they tried to go to school, and would kill women for wearing makeup in their homes, or for going out alone without a man beside them. There are dozens of other nations around the world where unspeakable horrors are carried out by either the dictators in charge or those who would seek to become dictators themselves.

[Guest.Visitor]

Good Versus Evil

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First off, no flames here, I enjoy a well thought out discussion just for its own sake. I think your first sentence tells me that you are going to say one thing while you really believe something else. Do you believe guns to be evil? Are you able to answer with Y/N? That having been said, I will take an example that seems silly only because it is so extreme: Since the technologically advanced species that have digits are able to strangle each other, and some have, would you like to regulate the free use of such advanced technology? Keep it fun, now.

[J.Klebanoff]

Good Versus Evil

** This thread discusses the article: Good Versus Evil **
ctibodoe said:

Do you believe guns to be evil? Are you able to answer with Y/N?

No I don't think that guns themselves are evil. They are inanimate objects incapable of differentiating between right and wrong. But, no, I can't answer with Y/N, because if I leave it at that you would miss my point. Guns make certain evil deeds much, much easier to do. In my opinion, the number of good things that they make possible do not sufficiently compensate for that. To say that guns are not evil and therefore we shouldn't regulate them is short-sighted. Just or not, there ARE evil and deranged people out there. That cannot be denied. Allowing those people to have easy and free access to guns just because guns themselves are morally neutral jeopardizes the well-being and even the lives of a lot of innocent and good people.

Since the technologically advanced species that have digits are able to strangle each other, and some have, would you like to regulate the free use of such advanced technology?

Of course not, it comes down to a question of whether the good outweighs the bad. Digits are a rather inefficient tools for killing people and doing other evil deeds (particularly compared to guns and nuclear weapons), but they are exceptionally useful for opening bottles, tying shoelaces and a whole host of pleasurable uses that I'll leave to your imagination. I just see handguns, assault weapons and most other guns as coming out on the other side of the balance -- the negatives outweigh the positives.

[J.Klebanoff]

Good Versus Evil

** This thread discusses the article: Good Versus Evil **
ctibodoe, about the subject of your message,

'Everyday technology is usually morally neutral.' = I differ.

Your message immediately starts talking about guns. Are you trying to say that guns are everyday technology? Not in my life.

[Guest.Visitor]

Good Versus Evil

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Actually guns are an everyday technology in my life. And I think I can believe that we are on opposite sides of some issues. And if I am going to talk issues, why not pick one that alot of people are interested in. Guns are the reason (personal ownership)that you are Canadien and I am US American. This country (USA) was founded with and with the knowledge that if the individuals that own this country ever give up the technology to defend themselves from their government they would give up the government to bad (Evil) people that don't mind using same to inflict their evil. I have a problem when handguns are lumped in with Nukes. And its ok if you don't get it. You don't live here, so I can't expect you to understand it the same way that I do. And it would be ok if you were from here too. As long as there are more of me (or people who believe close to what I do) than there are of those who don't believe as I do or close to it, then, this country will remain governed by the people, for the people and we will remain free.

[Guest.Visitor]

Good Versus Evil

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Actually I am US American and not Canadien, because my Ancestors foolishly thought that they could sit on the sidelines (and keep things)(and not stand up for anything using technology)(they just wanted to keep their land and stay neutral) while the British and French threw technology at each other. Pre Rounde, Round Hill. Pisquit, Windsor. Ile St. Jean,Prince Edward Island.

[J.Klebanoff]

Good Versus Evil

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This country (USA) was founded with and with the knowledge that if the individuals that own this country ever give up the technology to defend themselves from their government they would give up the government to bad (Evil) people that don't mind using same to inflict their evil.

Wow, and I thought that I was paranoid. Thanks for setting me straight.

[Guest.Visitor]

Good Versus Evil

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If I was not able to defend myself, then yes I would be paranoid, so I understand how you feel.

[J.Klebanoff]

Good Versus Evil

** This thread discusses the article: Good Versus Evil **
ctibodoe said:

If I was not able to defend myself, then yes I would be paranoid, so I understand how you feel.

Based on your earlier post:

This country (USA) was founded with and with the knowledge that if the individuals that own this country ever give up the technology to defend themselves from their government they would give up the government to bad (Evil) people that don't mind using same to inflict their evil.

I assume that you mean defend yourself against the government. I don't know a lot about the law in either of our countries, but isn't armed insurrection against the government illegal?

[tdaly@sddsystems.com]

Good Versus Evil

** This thread discusses the article: Good Versus Evil **
"Guns make certain evil deeds much, much easier to do. In my opinion, the number of good things that they make possible do not sufficiently compensate for that." I'll have to disagree with the assertion that the good does not balance the bad. In short: tell it to the people of Krakow, and the people of numerous other places and times. History is replete with examples of armed groups rounding up and exterminating unarmed groups, usually under the facade of a "government" of one sort or another. An armed populace makes that a little tougher. A gun is just an object, the intention comes from the person. And only from a person. So granted, a gun makes evil easier to do. But it also makes good easier to do. It may be appealing but it's utopian naiveté to believe that all people the world over would disarm or that governments could be trusted. Absolute power corrupts... Sam Colt helps check that. Good and evil are actions stemming from the spiritual well being of a person and the society/culture they live in. A gun is just an object. The Swiss are very well armed, but have a very low rate of gun violence. Meanwhile many cities here in the US have a fair amount of gun violence. But I think that's due, at least in part, to the disfunctional (sub)cultures of the big cities. But that sort of talk is not P.C. and therefore the problem goes unresolved. But I think we should focus on what this forum is for: AS/400 COMPUTERS!!!