META: The problem of "Good vs. Evil"

Andrew Burton tuglyraisin at aol.com
Tue Feb 19 14:24:01 PST 2008


Martin Phipps wrote:
> Look at it this way.  Suppose, hypothetically, you had a really bad
> day: your political ambitions weren't going as well as you hoped and,
> to top it off, you got fired.  Now, suppose you go online and read
> somebody's story and work out your frustrations by posting a scathing
> review.  Did you have free will or had your pent up frustration caused
> you to act that way?  This is a purely hypotheitcal question, by the
> way. :)

I wonder if Calvinism is a legitimate legal defense...

"I plead innocent your honor, I did not kill my wife."

"Innocent?  But we have eye witnesses and DNA; you signed a confession."

"All of which is true, but you see, I was under duress, from the first 
of thirty-seven stab wounds to this very sentence.  None of this my doing."

"I would like to hear this explanation."

"We are all slaves to the chemical expressions of our bodies, reactions 
that are driven by our senses and experiences.  The day my wife was 
killed, I had been fired from my job, learned my political career was 
destroyed, and slammed my finger in a door.  I was angry, depressed, and 
stressed to the point of breaking...all of which was beyond my scope of 
control."

"When I arrived home and found my wife in bed with another man, that was 
the final sensory input required to activate the adrenal rush my brain 
required to override my normally conformed psyche."

"But your confession..."

"Childhood indoctrination of 'good and evil' combined with my physically 
drained conspired with the small motor functions of my brain to make me 
sign the paper the policemen presented me with, an action on their part 
which was similarly dictated by a set of rules, albeit legan and not 
chemical, beyond their scope."

"I'm innocent your honor.  It wasn't me who killed my wife, it was 
Predetermination!"

-- 
Andrew Burton
tuglyraisin at aol.com
http://utilitarian.us - A Guide to Esoteric Technology in Paragon City
http://jarodrussell.livejournal.com/ - Take a guess. ;)



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