elb@hou5f.UUCP (Ellen Bart) (01/04/84)
John Hobson, in one of his articles about good and evil said: ..There is a lot of badness in the world that cannot be ascribed as the result of sin... He uses this (among other statements) to form some kind of conclusion about what (he thinks ) G-d seems to have created versus what G-d could have created. But I see a fundamental problem with that kind of thinking ... It assumes that you (we, he) know what 'sin' is. Evil might be happening to people because of sins that you or I don't - but mostly CAN'T - observe because we don't *know* what G-d is punishing for. And that last sentance is significant because John seems to ignor the whole concept of good/evil being part of Divine reward/punishment. Of course you don't have to believe in religion and its view of reward etc. but non-religious people can't argue that since i can't prove reward/punishment than G-d's good/evil scheme is bad, nasty etc. Ellen Bart ATT IS hou5e!elb