I think this is fascinating

On Saturday 14th May 2011, @AtheistMission said:

Whoever wrote Genesis is a literary genius. It took U. of T. Psychology Professor Jordan Peterson to convince me of that in a brilliant lecture on the nature of evil and its distinction from tragedy. The lecture was recommended to me by one of the few people in the world who can afford to buy anything they want (i.e. net worth north of 2 billion). The video of the lecture is available here: http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid?24640854001 but I think it is more powerful in audio form. It’s available for free as a podcast on iTunes, just search TVO Big Ideas Jordan Peterson on the nature of evil. Great stuff.

Big Ideas - Jordan Peterson

Published Date: 12/13/2008  |  Length: 42:35  |

University of Toronto Professor of Psychology Jordan Peterson discusses the nature of evil and its distinction from tragedy in this lecture presented at the 2008 Conference on Personal Meaning. Also featured are excerpts from Conference lectures presented by Ernesto Spinelli, Senior Fellow at the School of Psychotherapy and Counseling, Regent's College, and Kirk J. Schneider, co-editor of The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology.

Go to episode page

Cross Species Communication

On The Divine, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Photo: Gate at Buchenwald

NOTE: I very often sit and wonder about 'The Human Condition'. My husband  who was literally a Genius would tirelessly indulge me when I would broach the subject again and again and again. He was an Atheist and at the time I was not, I still believed in God. I no longer do. The longer I live and the more wanton destruction of 'life', the capacity of man's cruelty that I see & hear of  has crushed my ability to believe that a loving god could possibly exist. -But- that's just my opinion and thoughts on the matter.  I Read this poem by Goethe today and the first word that popped into my mind was 'incongruent' .  I will say no more.




The slogan:  Jedem das Seine (literally "to each his own", but figuratively "everyone gets what he deserves”).










ON THE DIVINE

Let man be noble,
Generous and good;
For that alone
Distinguishes him
From all the living
Beings we know.

Hail to the unknown
Higher beings
Of our intuition!
Let man resemble them;
Let his example
Teach us to believe in them.

For the realm of nature
Is unfeeling;
The sun sheds its light
Over evil and good
And the moon and the stars
Shine on the criminal
As on the best of us.

The wind and the rivers
The hail and the thunder
Storm on their way
And snatch one victim
After another
As they rush past.

So too does blind fortune
Grope through the crowd, now
Seizing a young boy’s
Curly-haired innocence
And now the bald pate
Of the old and guilty.

As great, everlasting,
Adamantine laws
Dictate, we must all
Complete the cycles
Of our existence.

Only mankind
Can do the impossible:
He can distinguish,
He chooses and judges,
He can give permanence
To the moment.

He alone may
Reward the good
And punish the wicked;
He may heal and save
And usefully bind
All that strays and wanders.

And we revere
The immortals, as if
They were human beings
Who do on a great scale
What little the best of us
Does or endeavors.

Let the noble man
Be generous and good,
Tirelessly achieving
What is just and useful:
Let him be a model
For those beings whom he surmises.

Translation (German to English) by David Luke

Video: Elk Playing In A Puddle ~ Animal Emotions

If the non-human animals is capable of expressing sheer joy in play then it stands to reason they are also capable of feeling dispair....watch this Elk experiencing joy.




How do we justify the horrible things we do to the non-human animal"? I say there is no justification.