Contemplating Evil

There is badness in the world.

Chris N., aka the Pondering Pig, has been commenting on the depravity of the human race.

Matthew, AKA "Mr. H" over at Its Later Than You Think has shared some thoughts about mental illness.

Then, over at Apprentice Human the following questions were asked: At what point do we think of someone as "sorta quirky" and when do they cross the line into "mental illness"? To what degree should "bad behavior" or criminal acts be excused due to a diagnosed mental illness?

I remember seeing a rabid dog when I was a kid. A neighbor brought out his hunting rifle and shot it point blank. Everyone was relieved. Was it the dog's FAULT that he was behaving in such a menacing fashion? Nope. Clearly, the poor pooch was sick. But the dog was also a serious threat. It needed to be put down.

Somehow though, when dealing with human beings, the answers do not seem so clear cut. What is the appropriate response when someone is discovered to be manufacturing, selling or even owning/viewing child pornography? Worse yet, what should be done for those who act on their twisted fantasies by physically/sexually harming little kids?

Clearly, the problem is rampant, not limited to a few isolated cases. Depravity and sickness seem to be spreading exponentially throughout our society. What can we do to stop it? How can we keep the ones we love safe?

I know scriptures council us to "love the sinner but hate the sin." Perhaps some can pull that off. Not me. I say the way the rabid dog went down was a mercy for the dog as well as for those who might have been bitten.

But knowing what I know about the inequities in the implementation of capital punishment and all the many flaws of our justice system, I'm not entirely comfortable suggesting we designate child rape as a capital crime.

How one is supposed to live a sane life in this insane world is a mystery. We are each confronted with evil in some fashion or another along the path. The degree to which we are willing to stand up against it, in my mind, is a measure of our souls.

But moving away from loose philosophical concepts over into the realm of daily living life in the midst of depravity is a complicated thing.

I certainly don't have the answers.

Degrees of Grace, Continuum of Evil

Is there such a thing as BIG sin and little sin?

(which presupposes the issue that there such a thing as SIN...)

Name it what you want - good/evil; healthy/unhealthy; righteousness/sin; functional / dysfunctional... isn't it all more or less the same thing?

Things that move me TOWARD being unified & at peace with self , unified & at peace with others, I view as "good" and things that create dissonance/disconnect within myself or conflict between me and others, I name "bad".

Putting a moral spin on it is not what I'm getting at.

What I am considering is this:

What determines the nature of, or intensity of something being bad?

Is it the CONSEQUENCE? (ie: killing is worse than lying, killing ten people is worse than killing 1 person, killing ten people and lying about it.....you get the picture)

Is it the INTENTION of the person doing it? (killing in self defense is less bad than killing out of revenge or for sport, even though the victims all wind up just as dead)

Is it the CONTEXT of the situation? (killing in war is not considered morally wrong by some, but killing in grocery stores is...)

Then the flip side of that would be....are there DEGREES of good, and if so, based on what?

If I say something nasty but no one hears me say it, does it matter?
If I say something nasty and the person I say it to is able to laugh it off, then what?
How does that compare to me saying something innocuous that inadvertently hurts a friend's feelings very deeply. In this last case - my INTENTION was not negative, but the OUTCOME clearly has a negative spin. Which is worse?

is it better to do ONE big bad thing as opposed to fifty little bad things or visa versa?

If someone is MOSTLY "good" but does something "bad", at what point does the bad cancel out the good in determining character?

One of the problems I have with organized religions is all this talk I hear about the "righteous" and the "wicked", as if they were discrete, separate teams. (Sorta like the shirts / no shirts in pick-up basketball).

From what I can tell, we are ALL good and we are ALL bad, with lives glistening in irredencent shimmer as we continually glide between the two.

If I do a bad thing for a good reason, if I do a good thing for a bad reason....it all confuses the suject.

Some days I am more conscious of the many ways I miss the mark - some would call that being "aware of my sin"....... other days I make JUST as many mistakes, but give myself more slack; Is that justifying/rationalizing or is that appropriately living in grace of the moment?