It’s the perennial Problem of Evil (or, in modern terms, the problem of Cluster B Personality Disorders).
And nobody has ever been able to solve it. Not religion, not moral philosophy, not civic or moral education, not political philosophy, none of it. The sociopaths and narcissists will always infiltrate, corrupt, and eventually corrode, any institution, public or private, wherein they find they can gather power, prestige, and wealth.
Discover a cure for Sociopathy and Narcissism, and you solve 95% of humanity’s problems overnight.
Honestly, I think pure monotheism (believing we will all have to explain our choices to the Creator, the Merciful, the Almighty, who gave us this life and universe for free and asks us only not to corrupt nor senselessly destroy the rest of his creation, more importantly, and acting like it) works pretty well, but I guess you could see my bias from my username, lol.
IME, it’s not the few sociopaths and psychologically extreme that ruin it though, it’s those who aren’t but through a lack of effort put into thought and emotional growth end up following these wolves in sheep clothing. No, “I was just following orders/the rules/what they said” is not and has never been a good defense, and God won’t like it either because if he didn’t want you to think you would’ve been a pig or a mouse, idk, lol. So, for this vast majority of regular, good spirited and passably reasonable people, I do think believing in God works. But we don’t have that in the West, we have the more satanic “nothing is true (the final conclusion of moral relativists) and nothing is forbidden”, whether you’re an atheist, a pagan or an American styled Catholic…
If monotheism cures sociopathy and narcissism (i.e., evil), then the Middle Ages - when the Universal Church ruled Europe and placed religion into every aspect of public life - would have been a Golden Age of peace, brotherhood, and loving kindness.
Alas, it was not. Creepy assholes just moved in and ran the Church and the State. And it all started with Constantine (“hey, Jesus visited me and told me that he’s real, and that I should be running everything by threat of violence. How neat is that?”). And continued on from there - justifying violence and exploitation through divine fiat (“trust me, God says the land and gold all belong to me.”). That’s how it works.
The message of Jesus goes in quick (but people don’t read and just listen to some dude in a funny hat/robe…) and has the power to bring people together to work for a better future, but yeah, people have to do their part and we’re all fallible and have at least some moments of heightened stupidity and emotional turbulence. But I think it’s better to actually believe that A, B and C are immutably wrong (wanton destruction, adultery, excessive greed, etc etc) than to believe everything is negotiable, that good and bad are cultural in nature (it’s just lazy thinking too tbh), cause the perceptive, empathetic ones would’ve known it regardless and would’ve acted that way whether they could express it as an ideology or not, and the lesser among us in prosociality need the push.
In personal experience. Believing the way I and many others have certainly helps you check yourself before you wreck yourself/your surroundings constantly, and ends in having the self-respect and self-esteem that comes from being a responsible, helpful, peaceful member of society (well, we try, but the better you get at controlling your anger or your nerves or whatever and being easier on the world, the better you feel). It fills the void that shopping, hooking up, using drugs and consuming mindless entertainment eventually fail at filling. Idk how to make people realize it besides exemplifying IRL and yapping about it, and I don’t think anyone can do anything more about it either.
It’s the perennial Problem of Evil (or, in modern terms, the problem of Cluster B Personality Disorders).
And nobody has ever been able to solve it. Not religion, not moral philosophy, not civic or moral education, not political philosophy, none of it. The sociopaths and narcissists will always infiltrate, corrupt, and eventually corrode, any institution, public or private, wherein they find they can gather power, prestige, and wealth.
Discover a cure for Sociopathy and Narcissism, and you solve 95% of humanity’s problems overnight.
Honestly, I think pure monotheism (believing we will all have to explain our choices to the Creator, the Merciful, the Almighty, who gave us this life and universe for free and asks us only not to corrupt nor senselessly destroy the rest of his creation, more importantly, and acting like it) works pretty well, but I guess you could see my bias from my username, lol.
IME, it’s not the few sociopaths and psychologically extreme that ruin it though, it’s those who aren’t but through a lack of effort put into thought and emotional growth end up following these wolves in sheep clothing. No, “I was just following orders/the rules/what they said” is not and has never been a good defense, and God won’t like it either because if he didn’t want you to think you would’ve been a pig or a mouse, idk, lol. So, for this vast majority of regular, good spirited and passably reasonable people, I do think believing in God works. But we don’t have that in the West, we have the more satanic “nothing is true (the final conclusion of moral relativists) and nothing is forbidden”, whether you’re an atheist, a pagan or an American styled Catholic…
If monotheism cures sociopathy and narcissism (i.e., evil), then the Middle Ages - when the Universal Church ruled Europe and placed religion into every aspect of public life - would have been a Golden Age of peace, brotherhood, and loving kindness.
Alas, it was not. Creepy assholes just moved in and ran the Church and the State. And it all started with Constantine (“hey, Jesus visited me and told me that he’s real, and that I should be running everything by threat of violence. How neat is that?”). And continued on from there - justifying violence and exploitation through divine fiat (“trust me, God says the land and gold all belong to me.”). That’s how it works.
The message of Jesus goes in quick (but people don’t read and just listen to some dude in a funny hat/robe…) and has the power to bring people together to work for a better future, but yeah, people have to do their part and we’re all fallible and have at least some moments of heightened stupidity and emotional turbulence. But I think it’s better to actually believe that A, B and C are immutably wrong (wanton destruction, adultery, excessive greed, etc etc) than to believe everything is negotiable, that good and bad are cultural in nature (it’s just lazy thinking too tbh), cause the perceptive, empathetic ones would’ve known it regardless and would’ve acted that way whether they could express it as an ideology or not, and the lesser among us in prosociality need the push.
I assume everything you just wrote is based on faith, because it’s not supported at all by facts.
In personal experience. Believing the way I and many others have certainly helps you check yourself before you wreck yourself/your surroundings constantly, and ends in having the self-respect and self-esteem that comes from being a responsible, helpful, peaceful member of society (well, we try, but the better you get at controlling your anger or your nerves or whatever and being easier on the world, the better you feel). It fills the void that shopping, hooking up, using drugs and consuming mindless entertainment eventually fail at filling. Idk how to make people realize it besides exemplifying IRL and yapping about it, and I don’t think anyone can do anything more about it either.