January 2010
1 post
Ideas and people
If an idea is killed—its value denied, its necessity contested, the books containing it burned—it is still not truly dead. Another mind, in a year, or ten, or one hundred, will consider the problem that led to its birth and find the same idea waiting. If it is killed again, the pattern will continue until the idea is generally accepted to be one of two things: completely wrong and thus...
November 2009
1 post
What is evil?
Evil is the willful harming of one human being by another.
Notes:
1) Harming is different from hurting; “to harm” is here defined as “to cause lasting damage to the body, life, or livelihood against the will of the one so damaged”. “To hurt”, in contrast, is here defined as “to cause physical or emotional pain”. Thus, BDSM and assisted suicide do...