D
D.M. Procida
Guest
Pyromancer <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> >Is that really the only account you can offer of vile actions, that
> >> >their perpetrators have evil natures? Do you suppose they were born with
> >> >these natures or that they acquired them?
>
> >> A bit of both.
> >> It's a choice people make.
>
> >Please make up your mind. Is it a choice, or is it one's nature?
>
> It's not that black and white (little in life is).
I'm glad we agree on that. That is why I objected to statements such as
"they are evil, pure and simple".
> Some people are more prone to evil than others - you could say they have
> evil natures. But even allowing for that, we all have free will and what
> we do or do not do is down to our own free choice. Even someone who is
> more attracted to evil can choose not to act on that attraction.
>
> >If it's
> >a choice, like your hairstyle or pants, then it's not nature, like your
> >chromosomes or the colour of your skin.
>
> It's both. In varying degrees, in different people.
>
> >Or are you going to say now that it's *partly* how people are born, and
> >*partly* something they acquire from their lives and what's around them,
> >and *partly* the free choices they make? If you did say that I might not
> >even disagree with you, but you'd have to stop calling it "pure and
> >simple" when it most evidently would not be.
>
> Pure and simple refers to the manifestation - the carrying out of evil
> acts.
You didn't say their acts were evil pure and simple, you said *they*
were evil, pure and simple; big difference.
> Once someone has reached that stage the precise causes of it
> become academic
Unless of course you are serious about wanting to address it, in which
case it is not merely academic but a practical matter of immediate and
pressing concern.
> you hunt them down and you deal with them. Except that our "justice"
> system no longer deals with them in any kind of punitive manner.
I see, we're back to simple-minded vigilante-speak again. Never mind.
Daniele
> >> >Is that really the only account you can offer of vile actions, that
> >> >their perpetrators have evil natures? Do you suppose they were born with
> >> >these natures or that they acquired them?
>
> >> A bit of both.
> >> It's a choice people make.
>
> >Please make up your mind. Is it a choice, or is it one's nature?
>
> It's not that black and white (little in life is).
I'm glad we agree on that. That is why I objected to statements such as
"they are evil, pure and simple".
> Some people are more prone to evil than others - you could say they have
> evil natures. But even allowing for that, we all have free will and what
> we do or do not do is down to our own free choice. Even someone who is
> more attracted to evil can choose not to act on that attraction.
>
> >If it's
> >a choice, like your hairstyle or pants, then it's not nature, like your
> >chromosomes or the colour of your skin.
>
> It's both. In varying degrees, in different people.
>
> >Or are you going to say now that it's *partly* how people are born, and
> >*partly* something they acquire from their lives and what's around them,
> >and *partly* the free choices they make? If you did say that I might not
> >even disagree with you, but you'd have to stop calling it "pure and
> >simple" when it most evidently would not be.
>
> Pure and simple refers to the manifestation - the carrying out of evil
> acts.
You didn't say their acts were evil pure and simple, you said *they*
were evil, pure and simple; big difference.
> Once someone has reached that stage the precise causes of it
> become academic
Unless of course you are serious about wanting to address it, in which
case it is not merely academic but a practical matter of immediate and
pressing concern.
> you hunt them down and you deal with them. Except that our "justice"
> system no longer deals with them in any kind of punitive manner.
I see, we're back to simple-minded vigilante-speak again. Never mind.
Daniele
