MATERIALISTS AND EVIL
The philosophy of materialists does not offer them any motivation to do good or to refrain from doing evil. In fact, their philosophy does not even have any good or evil in it. This does not mean that materialists individually do not have a good sense of right and wrong. Often they do. But it does not have any foundation in their philosophy of life and existence.
This means that a materialist is easier to corrupt. If someone offers him money, power, and sex, in exchange for his cooperation in some highly questionable activity, why should he say no? He only looks forward to his pleasure and prosperity in this lifetime. He does not desire Heaven or fear Hell, as in Type 2 religion. He does not worry about how his behavior in this lifetime might affect his future lifetimes, as in Type 1 religion.
This also means that an army of materialists is easier to send off to war. The enemy consists only of bodies. There are no actual spiritual beings there. Blowing up people is in principle no different from blowing up buildings. It’s just rearranging the molecules in that part of space. Nothing to worry about. So materialist soldiers can kill without hesitation or remorse. They don’t have to worry about right and wrong, or good and evil.
The materialist thinks that he is only his body. So he gives exaggerated importance to the physical pleasures of the body and to the material possessions which money can buy. He gives too little importance to the joy and love that come with giving help and service to others, that come from doing good, from making the world a better place, and from simply being kind and loving and considerate to others. He is less able to appreciate the finer things in life, music, art, drama, and literature, because they are to a large degree spiritual delights.
CHRISTIANS AND EVIL
Christians vary widely in the degree to which they accept the orthodox and original teachings of Christianity as taught by Saint Paul in the Bible. According to those beliefs, men have been condemned to Hell because of their sinful nature. But men, through grace, that is, because of God’s undeserved love and generosity, have been “saved” by the sacrifice of God’s Son Jesus Christ on the cross. So Christians are acutely aware of having narrowly escaped a dreadful fate, namely eternal hellfire. They also believe that there is a great evil being, Satan, who works as best he can for the damnation of all men. This is extremely similar to the idea of a Great Conspiracy of the Super Rich. Both Satan and the Conspiracy are (1) very hidden, (2) very powerful, and (3) very evil. In fact, some people believe that Satan is the real leader of the Great Conspiracy.
So Christians are much less subject to wishful thinking and unwarranted optimism, at least in worldly matters. They do have the very optimistic idea that they are going to spend eternity in Heaven after death. But in this world, they are willing to see “sin” and evil and to denounce it. When Christians see “evil” where other people think they are just having a good time, Christians make themselves very unpopular. But this willingness to see evil also makes them able to see it where it really does exist. This is a very good thing.
However, many Christians also have the idea that Jesus Christ is going to “come again”. This is the “Second Coming”. They believe that this is going to happen when worldly affairs have reached a very low condition. Jesus Christ is going to come again to punish the wicked and to save the faithful. In short, he is going to put everything right, so the good guys, that is, the faithful Christians, will live happily ever after.
Two things result from this. One result is that Christians are quite willing to observe bad things happening in the world. In fact, they are quite cheerful about it. The worse it is, the better it is, because that means Jesus Christ is coming soon! The other result is that although they observe and discuss the bad things happening in the world, they do not feel much motivation to take strong action to remedy the situation. Jesus Christ is going to take care of it, so they don’t have to worry about it or do anything to fix it. But they do like talking about it and looking forward to Christ’s Second Coming in the near future.
TYPE 1 RELIGION AND EVIL
The Bhagavad-Gita is the most important Hindu scripture. This small book consists mostly of lectures by Krishna, an incarnation of God, to Arjuna, his disciple. Arjuna is a warrior who does not want to fight. Krishna urges him to fight – not because there is some worthy cause that is worth fighting for, but because this world is only a dream and nothing that happens here makes any difference.
Krishna appears to be urging a militant attitude. But really he is preaching pacifism. Nothing in this world makes any difference. It doesn’t matter. It’s not important. Hence, why bother fighting about anything?
A lot of people in America do not like Christianity, but they do not like materialism either. So they adopt a “New Age” philosophy, which is essentially Hinduism. Man is basically divine. Therefore he is basically good. So let’s concentrate on the goodness of man. Evil is just a delusion anyway. This whole world is just a delusion. Let’s all go into superconscious divine bliss and ignore this world.
This attitude of ignoring this world is a serious mistake. Superconscious divine bliss is great. But if good men ignore this world, then evil men will run wild and do whatever they want. The result will be very bad – at least in this world. This world may be a delusion, but it is nevertheless very real to those of us who live here. So we who live here had better take care of it.
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