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#Post#: 173--------------------------------------------------
Good and Bad and God
DIR By: Spirit neutral
Date: January 23, 2015, 2:19 am
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HTML http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/12_goodbad.html
Good and Bad
By Jeff A. Benner
Very few sermons in our Western synagogues and churches would
include the passage "I [God] form the light and create darkness,
I make peace and I create evil, I am the LORD who does all of
these" (Isaiah 45:7) as our Western mind sees these two forces
as opposing opposites while the Eastern mind sees them both as
equals and necessary for perfect balance. In the Western mind,
God is only good and therefore unable to create evil. The
Eastern mind sees God as a perfect balance of all things
including good (tov in Hebrew) and evil (ra in Hebrew).
It should be noted that the English word "evil" has no Ancient
Hebrew equivelant, while most English translations will use the
word "evil" it is usually the Hebrew word "ra" which simply
means "bad". In the Ancient Hebrew mind there is no such thing
as an "evil" person or thing. To understand the words "good" and
"bad" from a more Hebraic understanding these words should be
understood as "functional" and "dysfunctional". God is both
functional (such as seen in the Creation story of Genesis one)
as well as dysfunctional (such as the destruction of the flood).
Our western mind classifies all things in two categories, either
it is "good" or it is "bad". One is to be sought, cherished and
protected, the other is to be rejected, spurned and discarded.
Let us take light and darkness as an example. We see light as
good and darkness as bad. The idea of light brings to mind such
things as God, truth and love. Darkness on the other hand
invokes Satan, lies and hate. To the Orientals, including the
Hebrews, both are equally necessary as one cannot exist without
the other. In the Bible God is seen as a God of light as well as
darkness “And the people stood at a distance and Moses
approached the heavy darkness where God was.” (Exodus 20:21). If
you stare at the sun, which is pure light, what happens? You
become blind. If you are standing in a sealed room with no
light, what happens? You are again blind. Therefore, both light
and darkness are bad and yet, both are good. In order to see we
must block out some of the light as well as some of the
darkness.
The two poles of a magnet are north and south. These two poles
create balance, they are not morally good or bad, but necessary
ingredients of physics that compliment each other. Good and bad
are more like the north and south poles of a magnet than our
Western conception of good and bad.
Can good exist without the bad? Absolutely not, how could you
judge something to be good if you cannot compare it to something
bad? The same is true for all other concepts. Cold cannot exist
without heat, or short without tall, far without near, or large
without small. Our western mind usually ignores these extremes
and seeks to always find the "good" or the “bad”. The Eastern
mind is continually seeking both the "good" and the "bad" in
order to find the balance between the two. Even Solomon
recognized this when he said “Do not be overly righteous”
(Ecclesiastes 7:16).
Throughout the scriptures this search for balance is found, yet
ignored by Westerners who do not understand the significance of
balance.
#Post#: 594--------------------------------------------------
Re: Good and Bad and God
DIR By: guest62
Date: October 10, 2019, 8:36 pm
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we don't have a choice. The law of average will balance it out
for us automatically to the same degree on average
its like a pendulum but with an average left right swing .
20 letfs 30 rights
25 lefts 75 rights
30 lefts 20 rights
75 lefts 25 rights
into infinity.....
#Post#: 1106--------------------------------------------------
Re: Good and Bad and God
DIR By: mjh
Date: February 27, 2024, 7:46 am
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Hi Cory,
Picking up on some old posts and found yours.
I was reminded immediately of Dennis talking about the
subjectivity of Importance - and this idea of Good vs Bad being
entirely within this construct.
--- Quote ---
> Any importance is relative to, and can be evaluated against,
any other importance. There is no
> absolute importance. Thus, what the being considers important
is relative to the being and the
> games he is playing. Thus, any field of knowledge which
postulates an absolute importance is at
> variance with natural law.
>
> The search for deeper significance into life or the mind is
only the search for prior or greater
> importance. In that all importance is relative to all other
importance it is both a fruitless and
> endless search. Various past researchers in this field have
claimed to have discovered basic
> importances of a more or less absolute nature ('sex',
'survival', etc.) and then proceeded to
> develop a therapy based upon their discovery. We can now see
clearly why they failed. The
> "button" is importance. Having now found it we can stop
looking for it.
--- End Quote ---
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