ccc@bu-cs.UUCP (Cameron Carson) (11/08/85)
For a presentation I am making in the near future, I would like to solicit some ideas from the net.religion.* community. Assumptions: 1) with respect to some supreme entity/concept, there is a set of actions considered good, virtuous, etc. 2) there is an opposing set of bad,evil,rotten actions. Query: What is the direct mechanism by which people are induced to knowingly commit actions from group 2)? Rephrasing this in christian terms: what is 'temptation'? Comments and Possible Ideas: Does the devil/Satan/etc place thoughts or desires in our minds? Does the damager-god place us in a combined set of cirumstances that is conducive to group-2) behavior? Is human nature so corrupt that there is no need for active external influence? No doubt other religious traditions deal with additional factors, which is why I am posting this to multiple newsgroups. Please send me your ideas BY MAIL - no need to spread this all over the net - and I will summarize responses if there is interest. Christians, Moslems/Muslims(?), Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Taoists, Humanists, Malthiests, Thelemites, Wiccans, Toddists, and above all, members of the Church of St. Clint are invited to respond. By Mail. -- Cameron C. Carson Distributed Systems Group Boston University ACC UUCP: ...!harvard!bu-cs!ccc ARPA: ccc%bu-cs@csnet-relay.arpa