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To: TBP
I understand Prager to be saying that goodness can only be earned, that evil emanates only from the human mind and that it must be named, confronted and fought.

These all demand choices. The only thing "inherent" in them is that God is good, which I personally believe He needs us to aspire to.

And of course "you" CAN "impute certain beliefs to people based on their beliefs on this..." or any other "particular matter".

They either have the courage to actuate their beliefs, which are fundamental, or they don't.

183 posted on 01/03/2003 3:58:29 PM PST by onedoug
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To: onedoug
I understand Prager to be saying that goodness can only be earned,

I disagree with this. If we are the image and likeness of God, since we know that God is beyond physical form, then this must mean spiritually. If so, then the Love that God is must be reflected through us. That would be inherent in our very being. That is why every human being is important and every human life is sacred.

that evil emanates only from the human mind and that it must be named, confronted and fought.

That's partially right, IMO. Evil is an illusion stemming from the human mind -- the Collective Unconscious, the Race Mind of humanity -- and while struggling against it can merely give it energy, it does need to be purged from our consciousness.

These all demand choices. The only thing "inherent" in them is that God is good, which I personally believe He needs us to aspire to.

We are always choosing, every moment of our lives. Why does God, who is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, need us to aspire to anything? A God that needs to be worshipped would be a pretty insecure God. What God needs us to do is express the Love that we are in God as fully and completely as we can. This is a choice, an ongoing one, made every moment.

And of course "you" CAN "impute certain beliefs to people based on their beliefs on this..." or any other "particular matter".

Certainly not in the way that Prager is attempting to do. He attributes certain political and social beliefs to EVERYONE who holds that mankind is inherently good, yet at least one of them contradicts that very belief.

I can tell you that these political and social beliefs are not either universal among those who accept man's goodness as a premise, nor do they follow logically. One is not a necessay adjunct of the other.

190 posted on 01/05/2003 7:09:58 PM PST by TBP
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