[Buddha-l] Fighting creationism

[SJZiobro at cs.com]

In a message dated 4/3/2007 7:09:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time, rhayes at unm.edu 
writes: 
> On Monday 02 April 2007 22:37, SJZiobro at cs.com wrote:
> 
> >Whatever the contact, once the virus jumped species and
> >entered the human sphere it was naturally propagated through different
> >kinds of contact.  Once the origin and result were understood its continued
> >spread became a humanly moral issue, because humans propagate it among
> >their own.  So  the moral evil is ours, not God's.  
> 
> Surely, as you first pointed out, there is no evil at all involved in the 
> spread of AIDS. If there is no evil attributable to God in this matter, then 
> 
> surely there is no evil attributable to human beings either. Illness of any 
> kind is unfortunate and sad, but surely it is not morally evil.

I did say that the spread of AIDS became a moral evil once it's origins and 
the ways in which it is spread were known.  It therefore becomes morally 
incombent upon any human being to cease engaging in the sorts of activities whereby 
he or she is exposed to AIDS, or, if s/he already has the HIV virus, exposing 
others to the illness.
It is a human being's knowledge, intention, will, and subsequent action with 
regard to matters of justice, love, mercy, etc. that translates the non-moral 
evil of the illness to a moral dimension.  In short, the sphere of the moral 
is the sphere of the human being inquiring, understanding, knowing, willing, 
and acting towards some form of the Good. You are absolutely right to draw our 
attention to there being an evil that is not moral in kind, and that I guess 
you could call a natural evil.
      Speaking from a general Christian perspective: God is the primary Cause 
of anything that exists and the cause of the efficacy of all actions of all 
forms and levels of secondary causality.  One consequence we can draw from this 
is that there is no being, act, process, change, etc. separate from God's 
power at any time.  So, when what we understand to be a natural evil (as opposed 
to a moral evil) occurs it is very reasonable to say that God is of necessity 
implicated therein.  It would not follow, however, that God is the cause or is 
involved in a moral evil inasmuch as it is moral, because that dynamic 
originates with the freely knowing and willing human being.  I mention this in part 
because it points directly to the fact that our actions have consequences, 
some of them good, some of them evil.  Surely, this concept is not unfamiliar to 
various forms of Buddhist reflection.
 
> 
> >But the virus can be
> >purposely propagated by some human beings, for whatever reason.
> 
> I suspect it is rather rare for one human being to deliberately spread the 
> AIDS virus to another. 

Considering the millions of people who have HIV/AIDS, I suspect that the 
numbers where malice is operative are higher than you might grant.  By how much I 
won't hazard a guess, and this because I don't think that most people 
habitually act out of malice.

> 
> >So it is 
> >proper to say that a human being has a purpose for propagating it.
> 
> Only if spreading the virus is one's aim. But that is quite rare, I should 
> think.

I really hope so.  Anecdotally, though, I know of instances where somebody 
knowingly, intentionally, willingly gave another HIV/AIDS.

> 
> >The real
> >question, it seems, is whether one intends and wills something evil
> >precisely because it is evil, or whether there is some good that is sought
> >to which the evil is somehow allied.
> 
> Yes, that probably is the right question to ask. It is, however, just about 
> impossible for me to imagine that anyone anywhere has ever willed something 
> evil precisely because it is evil. 
> 

I agree with you here, Richard, although I don't rule out the possibility 
(even the probability) there there are some who come close to willing evil as 
evil.

Regards,

Stan   
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