15. 8 September 2019
Early afternoon. You are at the same spot as yesterday at Heritage Park, facing the woods. Carol is reading her book, The House of Secrets. There was nothing on the news or in the paper about yesterday's accident so you assume the woman wasn't badly hurt. A squirrel just knocked down a Buckeye with a ka-thunk as it hit. Lots of insect buzzing’s and clicks. Cloudy skies with a feeling of rain somewhere nearby. Carol is beginning Chapter Fifty-Five. - Amorella
Your soul is stirring, old man. - mh
1354 hours. I don't know that, but I am pensive for one unknown reason or another. It feels a deliberately sad afternoon. Perhaps it is but the 'tone' of the buzzing's and now chirping woods. The sun is trying to come out but the thick clouds, now less gray, are ruthlessly driving the sun back. A continual earthly battle between light and darkness.
Without which there would be very little living. - Amorella
1402 hours. Can the same be said for good and evil?
Can what be, said? - Amorella
1404 hours. That there can be very little living without good and evil. I need definitions here.
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good - noun - 1 that which is morally right; righteousness: a mysterious balance of good and evil.
evil - noun - profound immorality, wickedness, and depravity, especially when regarded as a supernatural force:
Selected and edited from Oxford/American software
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Your mental studying flows right to one of your favorite pieces of literature, Paradise Lost by John Milton.
1416 hours. I used to teach aspects of Paradise Lost and the theme of good and evil using a variety of other pieces of literature: The Bible,Dante's The Inferno,and The Aeneid by Virgil. I did bring up the problem of evil in discussion but never as an essay assignment. I just wanted my students to be aware of the question.
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The Problem of Evil
The problem of evil is the question of how to reconcile the existence of evil with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient God. An argument from evil claims that because evil exists, either God does not exist or does not have all three of those properties.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia
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You are concerned that this track of thinking with public school students was illegal in terms of separation of religion and government. You focused on learning through cultural literature and humanity about, and thinking existentially and philosophically, about what it is to be a human being, not religious spiritually, per se. - mh
1437 hours. Thank you, Ms Havisham, it is a head-mess to find the right words. These above will do fine. Over the years I only had one parent formally complain. This was because our Brit lit text had a short section with a few biblical passages to show comparisons of different Bibles over the centuries. Anyway, that student was allowed to go to study hall the time the Biblical literature came up from the text book. A few parents were even satisfied the Bible verses were in the public-school text. Others did question using excerpts from Paradise Lost(from the text), however, I explained that Milton was not a religious text as such. That seemed to satisfy the parental concern.
Evening, old man, you always feel a need to watch your back when it comes to good and evil and public and private education of mostly seventeen and eighteen-year-old students. - mh
2124 hours. I always taught my high school senior aged, college prep and AP groups as if they were college sophomores. I don't remember any administrator objecting and the students didn't know that until I felt it was time to tell them. They appeared to enjoy that I was teaching them as my college professors at Otterbein had taught me.
Carol just turned out the light after reading another chapter in her book. Jadah is curled up at the foot end of your side of the bed. Spooky has not been seen and you assume she is asleep under the bed as is usually the case. -- Earlier, you suggested that without a sense of good and evil one would not have an interesting life, that somehow the various aspects of morality are what help make human life as a plausible tragedy and comedy at the same time. Amorella
2143 hours. Good and evil are certainly two of the major characteristics in plot development in much of literature, mostly because most people are innately interested in the subject. Good and evil blend in with the development of character which is another aspect of plot development. This is my opinion, others are entitled to their own. Good and evil certainly play a major role in the ancient culturally oriented creation stories scattered about our world. The main focus of such stores is to create and show the high standards people expect from their culture. Good intent. People have to be taught to live a good moral character, otherwise, the culture as well as the individual will most likely fail unless just plain luck or divine intervention intercedes. There are many religiously inspired and cultural myths that show the moral qualities and expectations of their national and local heroes, religious and otherwise. Joseph Campbell's works come to mind as example, but there are many others. (2207)
You were going to use the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Virtues as examples of moral forces. - mh
2211 hours. If you going to talk about moral forces of good and evil they are as good a place to start as any.
I have no objection to your dropping them in as examples. - mh
2227 hours. Here they are. However, I am curious to read what Amorella thinks of these lists.
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Seven deadly sins
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The seven deadly sins. According to the standard list, they are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth, which are also contrary to the seven heavenly virtues. These sins are often thought to be abuses or excessive versions of one's natural faculties or passions (for example, gluttony abuses one's desire to eat).
Seven virtues
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Traditionally, the seven Christian virtues or heavenly virtues combine the four classical cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and courage (or fortitude) with the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. These were adopted by the Church Fathers as the seven virtues.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia
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I think on the moral arrogance of both lists. - Amorella
2231 hours. I sit here in the black bedroom chair frozen by such Light.
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