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The world is so imperfect...
- Thread starter arcanum
- Start date
Absolute Zero
fon memories
I dont claim he does. I have said it time and again omnibenvolince is bull,thats why I belive in the ot Abrahamic God plus I take a more agnostic approach to it anyway
What does "perfect" mean?
I can see that the world we have would suit a supreme being perfectly.
Dr Pangloss explained it well in Candide.
I can see that the world we have would suit a supreme being perfectly.
Dr Pangloss explained it well in Candide.
The world is as perfect as it needs to be for us to exist as individuals. So this means that if the world were any other sort of perfect we probably wouldn't be here.
What would a perfect world be like and would such a world be fair? Does perfect mean always getting what we want?
What would a perfect world be like and would such a world be fair? Does perfect mean always getting what we want?
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"The Best of All Possible Worlds" excerpt from CANDIDE - YouTube
"The Best of All Possible Worlds" excerpt from CANDIDE - YouTube
Absolute Zero
fon memories
Could youthen explan it to me then ?
I can't give you an answer that will satisfy you; I just believe it..... That's enough for me.
The world is full of imperfection, because if there was no imperfection, any degree of perfection would not be appreciated. Nothing is good, and nothing is bad; what makes something either good or bad is the way we humans use them.
How can one actually claim that there are people who actually care about other people?
Same question, IMHO. There are many gods as there are many people. It stands to statistical probability that at least some of them are going to care about you if they happen to be acquainted with you. Some of the people and gods I know care about me. Some of them couldn't care less. And none of this has anything to do with perfection or the lack of it.
funnerizer
Member
You owe it to yourself to give it more thought than that.
We're not talking about a birth mark or an interesting nose that gives a person a unique kind of beauty. There are children in North Korean labor camps because their father/mother said something politically incorrect to an informant. Millions of children die in terror and agony every year, and many more will go to bed tonight not hungry, but starving. Those are pretty big imperfections to appreciate.
All of this is what one would expect in a materialistic universe, but a God as loving and powerful as yours should be ashamed.
How can anyone claim to know that the world is imperfect? It exists and functions as it is.
funnerizer
Member
How can one actually claim that there are people who actually care about other people?
Same question, IMHO. There are many gods as there are many people. It stands to statistical probability that at least some of them are going to care about you if they happen to be acquainted with you. Some of the people and gods I know care about me. Some of them couldn't care less. And none of this has anything to do with perfection or the lack of it.
I'll give this to paganism/polytheism--it's the only theistic answer to the problem of evil.
Q: "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
A: "Because some gods are evil psychopaths who occasionally win."
Koldo
Outstanding Member
Essentially you are going to read several explanations. But as a matter of fact, they are always as good as you believe they are.
funnerizer
Member
The 2004 tsunami in south Asia perfectly killed around 200,000 men, women, and children.
Was a natural disaster that killed all the dinosaurs nature working in perfect harmony? The Haiti earthquake, the Japanese Tsunami? You obviously have not thought this through.
We exist on the thin, moving crust of a planet between magma and cold space, with a thin layer of atmosphere supporting us. Other planets we observe are devoid of life, although we've only been able to observe a small fraction of planets. We're a fairly recent addition to this planet, and the past has included life and death, mass extinction events and times of great biological diversification and growth.
The idea of things existing to be overcome has a degree of merit, but I think it's shortsighted. Overcoming diseases often involves experimenting on animals and eventually humans. Feeding everyone often involves polluting ways of producing large numbers of crops. I think a result of being so good at overcoming things will be running out of room and draining resources on a limited planet due to population increases. The gift of success looks like it'll be overcrowding and resource depletion. If hawks become too good at hunting mice and deplete their population, they'll eventually reduce in numbers themselves, leaving a chance for mice to increase in population again, starting the cycle over.
For nature to be balanced, it requires for things not to be overcome. And even if things are temporarily overcome, they probably run into a more absolute wall that rebalances things.
Considering how long the universe has existed and how small a role life seems to play in it, I don't think the universe is optimized for life, or especially human life. But I see why humans would want to believe it's optimized for us; I think that's kind of natural.
The idea of things existing to be overcome has a degree of merit, but I think it's shortsighted. Overcoming diseases often involves experimenting on animals and eventually humans. Feeding everyone often involves polluting ways of producing large numbers of crops. I think a result of being so good at overcoming things will be running out of room and draining resources on a limited planet due to population increases. The gift of success looks like it'll be overcrowding and resource depletion. If hawks become too good at hunting mice and deplete their population, they'll eventually reduce in numbers themselves, leaving a chance for mice to increase in population again, starting the cycle over.
For nature to be balanced, it requires for things not to be overcome. And even if things are temporarily overcome, they probably run into a more absolute wall that rebalances things.
Considering how long the universe has existed and how small a role life seems to play in it, I don't think the universe is optimized for life, or especially human life. But I see why humans would want to believe it's optimized for us; I think that's kind of natural.
Sleeppy
Fatalist. Christian. Pacifist.
If you care about yourself and the world.. What can you do? You can take imperfection and appreciate and use it.. maybe even try pushing it closer towards perfection. That urge and personal responsibility is apart of our inheritance from God. Use it and teach others to do the same.