Is Evil a “Make-Believe Concept”? These Millennial Travelers Tragically Found Their Answer

apache235 · Dec 30, 2019

Time chooses you, you don't get to choose the time or place.

Gator 45/70 · Dec 30, 2019

Have a friend talking yesterday about how of all his friends that came to his house his dogs didn't care for exactly 2 of em'

He simply told them they had to leave since his dog was never wrong about people. hahaha

HK_User · Dec 30, 2019

Dogs got it right!
DW's dog had to approve of me.
Dog, a schnauzer with an opinion, crawls up beside me and went to sleep.
The Bird Dog had escorted me in the first time and did the same.
That was 17 years ago.

Brokor · Dec 30, 2019

You guys are hilarious.

Bandit99 · Dec 30, 2019

Interesting posts, all of them... As for me, I am not sure if 'Good' and 'Evil' truly exists in man but as others have noted, I believe that "evil does not exist in nature." Is man a part of nature? Yes, I suppose so but I think the ISIS nutcase stabbing some kids to death is more 'crazy' than evil and crazy definitely exists in mankind. I've certain been around those that made be think they are evil but their actions could also be nothing more than crazy... I don't know and I probably never will but I guard against and treat evil and crazy the same so it truly doesn't matter much to me...

Brokor · Dec 30, 2019

Ignorance is the lack of understanding; it is understanding which provides the impetus for all progress to be made.
Once, long ago I was traveling the astral plane and just returning to my body. In this early awakening state, I felt a strong, lingering presence near me and sensed a deep desire of hatred. Before I could regain full control of my worldly self, I was seized by hands that felt like an electric charge. The being was choking me with all its might, and at first I was caught off guard, confused, panic was starting to set in. It was then I realized the anger, the fear emanating from the other being, and I relaxed. I focused on completing my transition, willed my body to sit up, and the being vanished.
I remembered my early training and recalled a passage I had written on the subject of humanity when I was but a young boy. The idea was that people are so caught up in the world they see that they are unable to accept the will of the universe itself. I can feel the emotions and feelings of others, even out of line of sight. I have felt a neighbor's wrath, so terribly volatile and rage at me for simply being alive, and never a single word spoken. I have walked up to people I've never met and know their name, called to them and chatted with absolutely no question as to how I knew them or how I could offer a few kind words at just the right time. I have long thought that we were much more than simple creatures of flesh when I was able to do all that I could. One might think of all people, I would subscribe to the notion that there's evil after witnessing beyond the veil, but the wisdom is realizing there's only two paths: fear and love. Everything of a higher nature must stem from one of these two.

tacmotusn · Dec 30, 2019

On that last note I am speechless.

Gator 45/70 · Dec 30, 2019

Brokor said: ↑

Ignorance is the lack of understanding; it is understanding which provides the impetus for all progress to be made.
Once, long ago I was traveling the astral plane and just returning to my body. In this early awakening state, I felt a strong, lingering presence near me and sensed a deep desire of hatred. Before I could regain full control of my worldly self, I was seized by hands that felt like an electric charge. The being was choking me with all its might, and at first I was caught off guard, confused, panic was starting to set in. It was then I realized the anger, the fear emanating from the other being, and I relaxed. I focused on completing my transition, willed my body to sit up, and the being vanished.
I remembered my early training and recalled a passage I had written on the subject of humanity when I was but a young boy. The idea was that people are so caught up in the world they see that they are unable to accept the will of the universe itself. I can feel the emotions and feelings of others, even out of line of sight. I have felt a neighbor's wrath, so terribly volatile and rage at me for simply being alive, and never a single word spoken. I have walked up to people I've never met and know their name, called to them and chatted with absolutely no question as to how I knew them or how I could offer a few kind words at just the right time. I have long thought that we were much more than simple creatures of flesh when I was able to do all that I could. One might think of all people, I would subscribe to the notion that there's evil after witnessing beyond the veil, but the wisdom is realizing there's only two paths: fear and love. Everything of a higher nature must stem from one of these two.
Click to expand...

Ha,I know a fellow or actually 2 who can see death in a persons eyes,Even to the point of their claiming that persons eyes glassing over white before they turn and look at you only to have their color return.
Or as they claim knowing when a woman is pregnant.
The ability to see life and death is something to live with?

arleigh · Jan 1, 2020

Evil exists in nature and in mankind as well.
Some animals get in a killing frenzy, wolves will do it the same as feral dogs, I've seen both. Cats will do it to.
I lost several chickens by a single cat and only one was taken.
When I was young I had my own small cabin, and one night I came in and felt an odd strange evil presents nd I opened the window and door an demanded the spirit to leave in Jesus name and it left. About a week or two later it returned and again I commanded it to leave in Jesus name and it left. and never returned again after that.
Roughly 20 years later I met someone that had been living in the cabin across the street at the same time and they had a disturbance much more serious.
He woke up smelling the heat of the stove down stairs. So he went down stairs and sure enough the gas stove was on, so he shut it off and went back to bed, and about a week later it happened again, and at that point they moved out. I have a number of friends that can attest to similar things where they lived and they moved out as a result.
I have known those that mocked evil, and bear the scars to this day both physically and emotionally.
Just because something is not visible does not mean it has no effect.
Just as there are creatures that have the ability to be frozen solid and thaw back to life, and see better than humans and a sense of smell better than humans, and better hearing than humans there are creatures that exist in a spectrum of light humans cannot see.
One should not be so arrogant to think something can only exist within their own limited frame of understanding.

oil pan 4 · Jan 3, 2020

You always need some dummy to remind the rest of the herd why things are the way they are.
You can have someone that decided they don't believe in gravity. Next thing you know they get found dead at the bottom of a tall building, antenna, structure or elevation point. Reaffirms belief in gravity to everyone else.

arleigh · Jan 6, 2020

Creativity rarely comes for an atheist , why is that ?

chelloveck · Jan 7, 2020

arleigh said: ↑

Creativity rarely comes for an atheist , why is that ?
Click to expand...

And your evidence for this absurd truth claim is?

If anything, atheists are freer than theists of the Abrahamic religions to be creative....atheists are not mind bound to conform to the orthodoxy of religious dogma, nor do they (usually) fear the kind of thought crime punishments that some gods seem to relish inflicting upon their believers (it can take some time for some apostates to completely shuck their childhood religious programming / indoctrination) . If anything, religious bigotry against atheists has historically been a brake on creativity, (particularly openly blasphemous, and profane creativity). The religious, when they command the power of the State have frequently (in the past, and even into the present) burned and otherwise tortured dissenters from religious orthodoxy.

Anti-intellectualism and the Bible

Where an established church can co-opt the power the State, creativity, and originality tends to suffer and non theistic expression is stifled...in order that theists' privileges and prerogatives may be left unchallenged.

"...For 75 years under the Soviet system, atheism was state policy. In the 1970s and 80s, those who fought for the rights of believers were dissidents and the Soviet regime treated them exactly the same way.

Then, on September 5, 1991, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the USSR passed the Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms. Everyone had the right to profess a religion belief, to spread religious or atheistic views, and to engage in the religious or atheistic raising and education of children.

This was the first and last time that the rights of atheists were affirmed in Russia. Now, a quarter of a century later— on the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution—the Russian church is targeting atheists with the help of the state. And Orthodoxy has become state policy.

The clericalization of Russia is, of course, not just beginning. The country’s arts and creative spheres were the first to sense it. They began to send warning signals to society through modern art.

The first criminal case involving the “political” Article 282 of the Criminal Code (combating extremism) was prophetically targeted at an anticlerical performance. Artist Avdei TerOganyan’s Southern Atheist group held an action in Moscow in 1998 that let people buy a reproduction of an icon and pay to have it defiled on the spot.

In 2000, performance artist Oleg Mavromatti nailed himself to a wooden cross across from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. He had written “I’m not the son of God” on his back. Again, a criminal charge was filed under Article 282. Both Ter-Oganyan and Mavromatti have left Russia.

Human rights activists were the next to suffer. In 2003, director of the Andrei Sakharov Center Yury Samodurov hosted the scandalous exhibition “Caution, Religion!” in its museum. Orthodox activists attacked the museum and broke up the exhibition, but the police did not see their actions as criminal.

The organizers of the exhibition were charged under Article 282. The court found them guilty.

Four years later, history repeated itself. Samodurov and the prominent Tretyakov Gallery curator Andrei Yerofeev organized the Forbidden Art exhibition in the Sakharov Museum, leading to another criminal case of extremism and another sentencing: a fine of 100,000 rubles ($3900).

And then came 2012. First, human rights activist Maxim Efimov from the northern Russian region of Karelia was investigated for extremism for a post titled Karelia Is Tired of Priests. He nearly landed himself in a psychiatric hospital.

Then the group Pussy Riot demonstrated in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and their criminal case became known to the whole world. Pussy Riot was criticizing the coalescence of the Orthodox Church and the state. Nadia Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina became the first Russian citizens to be imprisoned for criticizing the church.

The Pussy Riot case prompted the Kremlin to introduce a new, separate article into the Criminal Code—Article 148 on offending the sensitivities of believers. Since then, attacks on the church have been singled out from general extremism.

It did not take long for the first criminal case to be brought under Article 148. In Stavropol, in southern Russia, blogger Viktor Krasnov published a post titled There Is No God in the heat of a religious debate and he called the Bible “a collection of Jewish folktales.”

That case came to nothing, but it became clear that Article 148 was was levelied against atheists. It also became clear that the church was willing to go to law enforcement, not only in response to provocations by artists, but even for typical rhetoric on the Internet.

This habit reached its apogee a little less than a year ago, when video blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky, who has 300,000 subscribers on YouTube, shot a video about playing Pokemon Go in a church in Yekaterinburg. The diocese contacted the prosecutor’s office, which involved the police and the investigative committee in the incident. Sokolovsky was arrested and held in custody for eight months before being released by the court. The guilty verdict against him remains in force. Sokolovsky received a suspended sentence. And one of the charges was just that: public denial of the existence of God.

These major cases did not come out of nowhere. Now the repression of alternative Christian denominations is underway in Russia. Recently, the activities of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who number 150,000 in Russia, have been banned. The Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church and Pentecostals are under pressure. Hare Krishnas and even completely nonreligious practitioners of yoga are being subjected to detention, trial and fines.

Similarly, citizens who protest the construction of churches in Moscow experience persecution and harassment. The Russian Orthodox Church, in conjunction with the police, private security forces and pro-government activists, act against these demonstrators. In one district of Moscow, a protest action was met with a criminal case. Meanwhile in St. Petersburg, the church is trying to take over St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the city’s most renowned landmark.

The church has a powerful lobby in the Russian political elite. And it uses it—despite the fact that the Russian population is not very religious. Only a small part of it actually participates in religious rites.

Cases like Sokolovsky’s are an irritant and stir a feeling of protest in a very large section of society. But, thanks to the state, super-archaic values prevail, which only strengthens the tension between progress and Russian conservatism in its official form...."

In the Name of God: Atheists in Russia Under Fire (Op-ed)
Click to expand...

Hence the importance of the "Free Exercise", and "Establishment" clauses of the US Constitution. Human imagination and creativity should not be determined simply by what is commanded by ancient bronze and iron age sacred texts, whether they be The Judaic Tanakh, The Christian Testaments, or the Islamic Qur'an...there is much more to human creativity than simply the retelling of sacred 'Just So' stories. Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling

Log in or Sign up

Is Evil a “Make-Believe Concept”? These Millennial Travelers Tragically Found Their Answer

apache235 Monkey+++

Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

Bandit99 Monkey+++ Site Supporter+

Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

arleigh Goophy monkey

oil pan 4 Monkey+++

arleigh Goophy monkey

chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

Log in or Sign up

Is Evil a “Make-Believe Concept”? These Millennial Travelers Tragically Found Their Answer

apache235 Monkey+++

Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

Bandit99 Monkey+++ Site Supporter+

Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

Gator 45/70 Monkey+++

arleigh Goophy monkey

oil pan 4 Monkey+++

arleigh Goophy monkey

chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

Useful Searches