"Billy Brown" <bbrown@conemsco.com> asked:
> Is this re-wiring a criminal's brain against his will really better
> than executing him?
I think It is a little better, but anything "forced" is still hideous. Occasionally, I find or feel some deep primal urge to kill or hurt someone down inside. This is not something I really want. There is no rational reason why anyone would really want such. I will not really become what I really want to be until I can remove this, by my free will, not by force. At least can't we hope and try as if such is possible?
mark@unicorn.com noted:
> Interestingly, all the fictional treatments of this I can think of
> (1984, Clockwork Orange, Babylon 5) seem to agree with that.
But this is all simply faithless theodicy-zing, attempting to justify, rationalize and accept evil in the face of some already powerful God. Must we faithlessly give up and, rather than hoping such can all be overcome by good means (any force is not a good means), and instead must we try to accept and justify evil as such fictional stories attempt to do? (If God can't overcome it, then we must accept and try to justify it as is done in such fiction, and how can we ever have a hope of overcoming it if God can't?...)
As extropians, we do not believe that there is already an all powerful God. This frees us so we can still have faith and hope that when there is or when we are powerful Gods, and maybe even sooner..., it will be possible, through some good means, to eliminate all such evil.
An extropian doesn't faithlessly give up and try to accept and justify evil, he tries to find a good way to over come it always having faith that all such is possible one good way or another.
Brent Allsop