Obama and McCain: What do we do about evil?
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Stumble ThisHard to come up with a better contrast between the two men running for the Presidency.
For the sake of fairness, here's McCain's full answer.
For the sake of fairness, here's McCain's full answer.
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john mccain,barack obama,evil,saddleback forum,rick warren Obama and McCain: What do we do about evil?
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Evil is intangible. You could sooner defeat the color orange. The man asking the questions has a very small mind.
He learned never to pass up a chance to make a good sound bite.
Evil as a concept is pretty subjective. We'd consider space aliens who came to earth and started eating us to be evil, but we don't consider ourselve evil for eating other animals.
It's nice to see these clips from that "debate" but the thought of questioning a candidates religious or spiritual views kind of turns my stomach. It smacks of pandering. It's framing our politics in a religious way, and I find that distracting.
Objectivity is not something highly valued among religious nuts.
"How do we deal with evil? Ignore? Negotiate? Contain? Defeat?" He's directing people to the question foreign policy and talking to our enemies. Yet he's putting it into the context of "dealing with evil" so that "negotiate" doesn't sound right. In that context, "Strike it down with the sword of Jesus!" is the right Christian answer, which plays right into McCain's hands.
Actions can have relative properties, which can be evil or good, but these properties are all relative to every single individual. Evil and Good are absolutes, absolutes like these do not exist. Absolutes are for simple minds.
To which I have a nice counter: The Gates of Hell? Sure, but not into Pakistan.
Evil does not exist. Good does not exist either.
Actions can have relative properties, which can be evil or good, but these properties are all relative to every single individual. Evil and Good are absolutes, absolutes like these do not exist. Absolutes are for simple minds.
So Hitler wasn't evil? Child rape isn't evil? Bullshit. I don't see any room for relativism there. People like to say absolutes don't exist because they make them feel uncomfortable.
Evil does not exist. Good does not exist either.
Actions can have relative properties, which can be evil or good, but these properties are all relative to every single individual. Evil and Good are absolutes, absolutes like these do not exist. Absolutes are for simple minds.
>> ^Xax:
So Hitler wasn't evil? Child rape isn't evil? I don't see any room for relativism there.
Someone who truly believes in the superiority of the Aryan race likely sees Hitler as a hero. Likewise, someone who believes in the absolute authority of elders or someone who believes all people must fend for themselves regardless of circumstance may not think child rape is inherently evil. These viewpoints are not dominant right now, but they surely exist.
Besides, even taking a more mainstream view of morality doesn't guarantee absolute good or evil. It's possible that Hitler's holocaust killed someone that would have been even worse before they could come into their power. It's possible that someone who rapes a child gets prosecuted and incarcerated for it, making it impossible to develop into the mass murderer hiding within them only a few months down the road. These are long shots, but you cited a couple of pretty extreme cases.
People and societies seem to settle into a set of "correct" values, so we all have something to work from. Once we decide our values are absolute, however, we cut ourselves off from those people holding opposing viewpoints.
Fox News, 45 seconds later: "OBAMA: EVIL DOES EXIST We see it on the streets of our cities."
Talk about selective reporting. Yup, that's very fair and balanced.
Obama: "We see evil all the time. We see evil in Darfur. We see evil, sadly, on the streets of our cities. We see evil in parents who viciously abuse their children. And I think it has to be confronted."
Fox News, 45 seconds later: "OBAMA: EVIL DOES EXIST We see it on the streets of our cities."
Talk about selective reporting. Yup, that's very fair and balanced.
Thanks for pointing that out, I didnt even catch it first time around.
God I hate fox.
>> ^gwiz665:
Evil does not exist. Good does not exist either.
Actions can have relative properties, which can be evil or good, but these properties are all relative to every single individual. Evil and Good are absolutes, absolutes like these do not exist. Absolutes are for simple minds.
So Hitler wasn't evil? Child rape isn't evil? Bullshit. I don't see any room for relativism there. People like to say absolutes don't exist because they make them feel uncomfortable.
My point was that there exists not external forces outside of people: you can't say "I'm fighting Evil" or "I'm fighting for Good" because there is only people. People can do evil and good things, but whether their actions are good or bad depends on your point of view (relative). Hitler did good stuff too, even if his, to us, evil deeds certainly overshadowed them.
That's such a simple-minded question. The word evil connotes a conflation of many separate problems that require different approaches. Most of these problems are far more complicated than simply being susceptible to McCain's brute force. You can't negotiate with an abstract staw-man, but you can negotiate with most people who have done harm. Obama gave a satisfactory answer.
McCain knows how to beat him; ride his popularity and comepletely ignore the complexity of the problem America faces by giving 'highfiving' answers.
oil?
"Drill in the Atlantic! high-five!"
war?
"Go get Osama! Don't lose the war! high-five!"
economy?
"... um, Tax cuts! high-five!"