Jerry posted:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heidi Guedel
Where does this entity - Satan, or Lucifer, or Beelzebub - actually exist?
|
In that spiritual realm, in which we know so little about in the physical sense, that it remains a mystery even to the most astute of researchers. If you were to suggest that these entities actually and only exist within our minds, then you are incorporating an un-proven scientific theory known as Psychology.
|
There are many theories incorporated in the study of Psychology... some are well accepted and others are formative, but psychology itself is a construct of the human intellect. Mythological characters like Satan, AKA Lucifer AKA Beelzebub are also constructs of the human intellect. The very concept of "evil" is a construct of the human intellect. A male lion that takes over a pride and heartlessly kills the cubs which were fathered by the former King of the pride does not ponder concepts of "evil" or "cruelty". He does something pitiless and pragmatic designed to bring the mother lions back into oestrus and make them receptive to mating with him... thus fostering his own genetic imprint on future generations. Every now and then I catch one of those scenes in a wildlife program, and it horrifies me. I see the poor little cubs trying in vain to escape, and the big male lion ripping them to shreds. The image haunts me and I wish I'd never seen it. If a human male were to kill his new mate's existing children he would most likely be considered "evil" and "cruel" by other human beings. The very concept of "evil" is a construct of the human mind. It is an evaluation of someone or something's behavior based upon our human capacity for empathy and identification with another's feelings (compassion). This emotional capacity should now propel us toward a new level of social consciousness.
A man who kills others just because they do not share his religious beliefs is far worse than that male lion, because the human being is normally capable of empathy, pity, and compassion. The fact that any type of religious or political zealotry can turn a human being into a pitiless killing machine willing to take another's life simply because that other person's beliefs differ from his own is the chief social challenge of the moment. If we do not evolve beyond this behavior, we are most likely doomed as a species.