From: Greg Jordan (jordan@chuma.cas.usf.edu)
Date: Mon May 05 2003 - 14:31:17 MDT
On Mon, 5 May 2003, gts wrote:
> Greg Jordan wrote:
>
> > Nature has no design, but I do. Nature isn't, to itself,
> > evil, but it is, in some respects, evil to me (and you, and animals).
>
> Hmm. But isn't it true that you are a part of nature? If you are a part of
> nature then how is it that nature can be evil to you but not to itself?
When I referred to myself and Nature in the same breath, by Nature I meant
Nature-Minus-Myself. When I said "to itself" I mean in a subjective sense
- Nature-Minus-Myself, as a whole, has no intelligence, no mind by which
it could evaluate something as evil (or good).
I, and people with similar minds, can evaluate things as good or evil,
including the totality of the rest of the universe, and individual
phenomena within it.
A tornado bearing down on me seems evil. To itself, it is not (it has
no mind). A bear attacking me might think of itself as good, and me as
evil. But the Nature (big N) that we, metaphorically, say sends bears and
tornadoes, has no opinion whatsoever.
gej
resourcesoftheworld.org
jordan@chuma.cas.usf.edu
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