[Buddha-l] Fighting creationism

[Richard Hayes]

On Monday 02 April 2007 22:37, SJZiobro at cs.com wrote:

>Whatever the contact, once the virus jumped species and
> entered the human sphere it was naturally propagated through different
> kinds of contact.  Once the origin and result were understood its continued
> spread became a humanly moral issue, because humans propagate it among
> their own.  So  the moral evil is ours, not God's.  

Surely, as you first pointed out, there is no evil at all involved in the 
spread of AIDS. If there is no evil attributable to God in this matter, then 
surely there is no evil attributable to human beings either. Illness of any 
kind is unfortunate and sad, but surely it is not morally evil.

> But the virus can be
> purposely propagated by some human beings, for whatever reason.

I suspect it is rather rare for one human being to deliberately spread the 
AIDS virus to another. 

> So it is 
> proper to say that a human being has a purpose for propagating it.

Only if spreading the virus is one's aim. But that is quite rare, I should 
think.

> The real
> question, it seems, is whether one intends and wills something evil
> precisely because it is evil, or whether there is some good that is sought
> to which the evil is somehow allied.

Yes, that probably is the right question to ask. It is, however, just about 
impossible for me to imagine that anyone anywhere has ever willed something 
evil precisely because it is evil. 

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico