Is There Really An Equal Amount Of Good And Bad In Everything?

[impermanence]

Please tell me what you know to be the Truth.

Any philosopher who claims to know the Truth is probably confused (at the least), and may not be worth the trouble of communicating with....

Only those willing to give up the 'self' do not claim to know the Truth [their own existence].

[impermanence]

Really. What would you consider to be a just world?

In the past, I considered a just world to be one that aligned with my own desires. I think this is what most people do most of the time, but they all do it in their own way, with different methods and different ends. But the foundation, I think, is the same. They begin with the idea that they are rational, logical and reasonable. They make the mistake of thinking they can objectively perceive facts in the world without their preconceptions getting in the way. Beginning this way, it is a simple thing to find injustice at every turn, stacking logic on whatever 'facts' you think you've found.

Now, I doubt that I know what a just world would look like, or that anyone else might know, either. I can wish for things to go differently, but this is not productive. I work under the assumption that the world is as is must be, for reasons beyond my grasp. I get along better this way. Oddly, I think I might even bring about more good in the end by limiting my actions and my sense of injustice this way, rather than going around trying to 'set things right' for everyone else. If I set myself right, or a bit less wrong, then at least I might be less of a burden to everyone else.

These are general principles, and of course there are times when circumstances might call for action. If I see some man beating a small child, I'm not likely to allow it to go on without intervening, for example, even though there might be some room for others to argue about whether beating the child was just or not.

Seems like a reasonably balanced view.

Please tell me what you know to be the Truth.

I have lots of opinions, but the only truth I can see is that I exist. It's the only thing I hold to be a fact on which I would bet my life, since I could not lose the bet. (Either I win or I had nothing to bet in the first place)

Let's say you found your 'self' in a cave 2000 feet below ground and were trapped there with no exit. Just you, no light, no nothing.

Do you exist?

[Sculptor1]

It already makes perfect sense to me. You are the one who is struggling.

Please demonstrate that there is such a thing as karma
Please show how this karma is supposed to work.

Until you do that you are just giving us your own personal version of Santa Claus - a concept which shares features of karma in specific ways.
DO you believe in Santa too?

You don't believe in Santa?

Remember, I am the guy who claims he doesn't know anything. But let's talk about karma anyway.

Sculptor1, I would think that you would enthusiastically subscribe to the notion of karma because it is, "cause and effect," a very science kind of thing. Of course, it's not really that, but it's how many people imagine it to be.

I think the claims of karma go well beyond that, into the mythical moral realms of the divine justice.

Karma has a deeply religious significance [as I am sure you are aware] as it does in the spiritual [non-intellectual], as well. It's true meaning is found in the later.

Yes, deeply ********.

Just as we can not use the intellectual to understand anything [because of our lack of access to Reality], intellectualizing leaves one only with a taste [at best] of what might be the essence. We can no more understand what karma is anymore than we can understand what love or intuition or affinity might be. It is purely experiential.

The intellectualized version of karma fits nicely into the world view of Eastern thought and makes perfect sense from that perspective, but even then, those who have gone down that path more than just a few steps generally understand that the words are not what it is, they are only pointing the way.

Please answer the questions I set.
I can read this mumbo jumbo anywhere.

Let me remind you.

Please demonstrate that there is such a thing as karma
Please show how this karma is supposed to work.

[Atla]

Just as we can not use the intellectual to understand anything [because of our lack of access to Reality], intellectualizing leaves one only with a taste [at best] of what might be the essence. We can no more understand what karma is anymore than we can understand what love or intuition or affinity might be. It is purely experiential.

You're saying: we can never be certain about the color of grass, just as we can never be certain about how our invisible transdimensional unicorns use their psychic powers.
Yes there is no intellectual certainty, but are you sure that therefore all things fall into the same category?

[impermanence]

Just as we can not use the intellectual to understand anything [because of our lack of access to Reality], intellectualizing leaves one only with a taste [at best] of what might be the essence. We can no more understand what karma is anymore than we can understand what love or intuition or affinity might be. It is purely experiential.

You're saying: we can never be certain about the color of grass, just as we can never be certain about how our invisible transdimensional unicorns use their psychic powers.
Yes there is no intellectual certainty, but are you sure that therefore all things fall into the same category?

If you understand one thing, then you understand all things.

[Atla]

You're saying: we can never be certain about the color of grass, just as we can never be certain about how our invisible transdimensional unicorns use their psychic powers.
Yes there is no intellectual certainty, but are you sure that therefore all things fall into the same category?

If you understand one thing, then you understand all things.

Good luck in everyday life if you treat grass and unicorns the same way.

[chewybrian]

Let's say you found your 'self' in a cave 2000 feet below ground and were trapped there with no exit. Just you, no light, no nothing.

Do you exist?

Of course. Do you doubt that I could emerge from the cave and resume my 'normal' life? Could I cease to exist during my time below ground and then come back into existence? I must necessarily exist in the cave if I can not pop in and out of existence. There is no basis for me to believe that I could exist more than once. In any case, thinking is existing, and it is all there is to existing in a very real sense.

[impermanence]

In any case, thinking is existing, and it is all there is to existing in a very real sense.

So when you are not thinking, you don't exist?

[impermanence]

Please demonstrate that there is such a thing as karma
Please show how this karma is supposed to work.

I shall be happy to explain how karma works right after you explain to me why it is that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Why isn't it the other way around?

[Sculptor1]

Please demonstrate that there is such a thing as karma
Please show how this karma is supposed to work.

I shall be happy to explain how karma works right after you explain to me why it is that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Why isn't it the other way around?

There is no reason the sun rises. In fact it does not rise at all. The earth revolves, giving the apearance of the sun rising. Try and keep up. We've know this for 1000s of years.
As for east and west - they are merely conventions. In space there is no up and down.
Now answer the bloody question.

[Sculptor1]

In any case, thinking is existing, and it is all there is to existing in a very real sense.

So when you are not thinking, you don't exist?

We are always thinking.

[impermanence]

I shall be happy to explain how karma works right after you explain to me why it is that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Why isn't it the other way around?

There is no reason the sun rises. In fact it does not rise at all. The earth revolves, giving the appearance of the sun rising. Try and keep up. We've know this for 1000s of years.
As for east and west - they are merely conventions. In space there is no up and down.
Now answer the bloody question.

Thank you for the astronomy lesson. There actually are reasons that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Do you know what they are?

[Sculptor1]

There is no reason the sun rises. In fact it does not rise at all. The earth revolves, giving the appearance of the sun rising. Try and keep up. We've know this for 1000s of years.
As for east and west - they are merely conventions. In space there is no up and down.
Now answer the bloody question.

Thank you for the astronomy lesson. There actually are reasons that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Do you know what they are?

ANswer the **** question!

[popeye1945]

Is there an equal amount of good and bad in everything? No, its a nonsense question. Everything in the world is meaningless, in otherwords it just is. Only to man are somethings good and somethings bad, relative to human biology, does it taste good, or does it taste bad? Generally good and bad are not measure incrementally, it's a value judgment, a meaning bestowed upon a thing or object, a subjective evaluation of an objective thing/object. Again, the world as object is entirely meaningless until meaning/good and bad, are bestowed upon it.

[LuckyR]

Is there an equal amount of good and bad in everything? No, its a nonsense question. Everything in the world is meaningless, in otherwords it just is. Only to man are somethings good and somethings bad, relative to human biology, does it taste good, or does it taste bad? Generally good and bad are not measure incrementally, it's a value judgment, a meaning bestowed upon a thing or object, a subjective evaluation of an objective thing/object. Again, the world as object is entirely meaningless until meaning/good and bad, are bestowed upon it.

Your analysis is exactly correct, yet your conclusion is statistically wrong. Since goodness and badness are relative subjective terms, of all the actions in the world, the amount of goodness above average and badness than average is exactly equal.