Lost my momentum on account of stumbling upon a contradiction that may topple my entire philosophy:
It is my firm opinion that, although it always seems like great art and music achieves perfection, it´s true beauty comes from deviations from perfection. In a sense, the closer something is to being perfect without actually being perfect, the more beautiful it is. A tone struck slightly off key, a beat missed by a hair, a slight imbalance in a character´s pose - these add excitement and life to the work. In art, perfection is death.
If God is perfect, which He must be, this means that beauty is actually born from resistance, i.e. evil. This does not harmonize well with the idea that God is beauty. This paradox demands some thought.
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If god is one must he not contain both evil and good within himself, that is beauty AND the ugly.
ReplyDeleteThis is not consistent with the rest of my thinking. Evil does not exist, it is simply the absence of good.
ReplyDeleteSo if evil dont exsist neither does beauty or love?its just the absence of the counterpart? I like to believe it exists in its most perfect high form with god. What we experience is just as true hence we feel oposites as divided extremes , isnt it?
ReplyDeleteBeauty and love does exist. That is my point. If you are interested, read the piece called "Evil" posted in october 2009. That will explain what I mean.
ReplyDeleteThat was a nice way of putting it. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteBeauty is of this world, perfection is not, neither is God perhaps.
ReplyDeleteI am referring to a whole mystical view here which I can't properly defend, but I think there might be something to it.
ReplyDeleteBeauty exists in things, but God is not a thing, thus is not a subject of the same "world" as beautiful "things" are... I am vague I know.
ReplyDeleteI am in accord with the "evil is absence" proposal, that would allow you to make such an argument.
ReplyDeleteI think I should probably read more of your writings. Will do, in time!
ReplyDeleteIn these matters, being vague is unavoidable...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I have answered this posting here:
ReplyDeletehttp://goaldilmun.blogspot.com/2011/08/answer-to-lost-momentum.html
If evil is absence of good there is then no good. Isn't it? And that won't happen except in god. I like the idea that it is three folded. THere is good there is evil and there is god. Good And evil don't exist without the other. God can do that. A bit like the yin yang where they both have a little dot from each other.
ReplyDeleteYes, well that is not the way I see it. Only good has true existence. Or, to put it another way, everything that exists is good. It is the drive towards nonexistence that gives rise to what we percieve as evil or bad or unpleasant or negative or whatever.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that one cannot exist without the other is faulty. Opposites are illusjons, born from the rift in creation caused by the drive towards nonexistence. Nonexistence, being nonesistant, cannot exist and thus does not. It still affects our reality, though.
This means that hatred, for example, is not an emotion, but a perversion of compasssion, caused by resistance through fear. The love you feel for your own child turns to hatred for child molesters through the fear that this will happen to your child. In the same way, evil does not exist, it is a perversion of good, of existence, through resistence, caused by the drive towards nonexistence.
Do you see how this understanding takes away power from what we see as evil? How it enables the dream that we can work towards a better existence?
I kind of agree yes.but, The illusion that perverts compassion must then truly be evil. Hitler really just had a sick compassion for jews? I believe that evil forces must be recognised, seen to learn from,.If we dont, we can never reach the light. Evil is nessecary but temporary. I belive that both must be at play in us as humans ,but it is the lifedrive that is the strongest yes. hehe...but you know the "the problem about evil" is something I will read and think more about after discussing here with you.
ReplyDeletenot that Hitler was an evil person, but that a power of evil was in effect..
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, if I have inspired you to think, I take this as the greatest of compliments...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, to clarify: I do not think Hitler had any compassion for the Jews. The compassion and love he did have was for the german people. It is this love that was perverted into hatred of Jews and the ambition to conquer the earth.
Resistance makes us limit our love. If love flows freely, it will include all people all places, indeed all things. Limited love easlily turns into hatred for others. In the end, there is only one love, and it is the love of all, but through fear, which is the primary manifestation of resistance in, we are deluded into thinking that those we love is under threat from those we do not love. That is the root of hate.
And, understanding evil to combat it is one of the goals of this way of thinking. I believe it explains both well and truly how evil gains influence in us.