on the basis of evolution. If the Aryans were more fit, then they deserved to take over the world, if you take the philosophy of survival of the fittest seriously. In my mind that is evil.

But I think evolution is not defined by survival of the fittest, even if that is one of the elementary processes at work. I think of evolution as the "history" of all species on earth- the record of how they have come into existence, gradually changed in form, and in some cases went extinct. Evolution is not a theory. It is a bunch of facts determined from archaeology and like sciences.

In the above post, I am responding to the tendancy of fundamentalists to label everything as either good or evil. In the limit of this approximationb, and defining evolution by the pricniple of survival of the fittest, the means of evolution are evil even when the outcome (us) can be thought of as good. Therefore, from a fundamentalist point of view, and this has been explicitly stated in the jewish midrash, the world requires both good and evil for its operation.

There is a story in the midrash that one day the rabis caught the devil and cast him in concrete. But in the following week all human affairs came to an end (pun intended), and babies were no longer produced, and merchants lost their ambition to make money, and so on. So they had to free the devil to get the world started again.

Regards,

Fat Richard

• So, basicly "devil" is what we don't like. - alexander - January 25, 2002 - 00:57 UTC
  • Something that's been bugging me for a while - stormcrow - January 25, 2002 - 06:11 UTC
    • Agreement with Alexander - yanniru - January 25, 2002 - 14:25 UTC
      • Might makes Right? - doctordick - January 25, 2002 - 16:09 UTC
        • Dick is mighty - luis_hamburgh - January 25, 2002 - 23:21 UTC
          • W.E.B. Du Bois is mighty. - something - January 26, 2002 - 20:42 UTC
            • Except to say "1903" not "9013" - something - January 26, 2002 - 20:43 UTC
        • neither word has precise scientific application - something - January 26, 2002 - 04:09 UTC
        • Shocking info. on "evil" - dolphin - January 27, 2002 - 04:57 UTC
      • addie and joe - something - January 25, 2002 - 17:22 UTC
      • Pragmatic considerations of evil - harvey1 - January 25, 2002 - 17:59 UTC
        • The ends justify the means - yanniru - January 26, 2002 - 14:26 UTC
          • No, the ends are just the ends - harvey1 - January 26, 2002 - 17:33 UTC
            • Interesting analysis. "If it is 'true', it is true" - alexander - January 27, 2002 - 00:17 UTC
              • WTC is understandable - yanniru - January 27, 2002 - 18:46 UTC
                • I don't see it that way - harvey1 - January 28, 2002 - 15:10 UTC
          • That's right, true is true - harvey1 - January 27, 2002 - 02:20 UTC
            • So, basicly religion is uselress in search for "true". - alexander - January 27, 2002 - 04:51 UTC
              • God's logic? - dolphin - January 27, 2002 - 05:41 UTC
          • More on God's justice - harvey1 - January 27, 2002 - 07:44 UTC
            • So, no explanation why children die? And no protection? - alexander - January 27, 2002 - 17:12 UTC
              • Read my post then, Alex - dolphin - January 28, 2002 - 08:09 UTC
            • Maybe you are making more than the analogy allows (nt) - harvey1 - January 29, 2002 - 01:53 UTC
        • I have a different understanding - harvey1 - January 27, 2002 - 17:43 UTC