Fair enough. I think I lean towards thinking removal of suffering would be a more significant moral imperative for a putative three-omni deity; largely because I remain entirely unconvinced that humans do actually have free will.
Purely personally, I think I do hold free will as having a higher value than the absence of suffering, though this is largely because I've bought classic(al) and romantic ideas that life doesn't mean much without suffering and so taking it away would just leave us with highs and no lows, which would a) be a bit boring, and b) perhaps have a lessening effect on our ability to enjoy the highs.
I'm out of sympathy with that; which is not an argument of position, just an emotional reaction. Partly because I'll take boredom over even what suffering I've experienced, which is trivial compared to any number of readily suggestible examples, and partly because I am uncconvinced that suffering is the only route to the relevant kind of emotional wisdom leading one to really value the highs; love gets there too, I think.
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Date: 2008-05-12 05:36 pm (UTC)Fair enough. I think I lean towards thinking removal of suffering would be a more significant moral imperative for a putative three-omni deity; largely because I remain entirely unconvinced that humans do actually have free will.
Purely personally, I think I do hold free will as having a higher value than the absence of suffering, though this is largely because I've bought classic(al) and romantic ideas that life doesn't mean much without suffering and so taking it away would just leave us with highs and no lows, which would a) be a bit boring, and b) perhaps have a lessening effect on our ability to enjoy the highs.
I'm out of sympathy with that; which is not an argument of position, just an emotional reaction. Partly because I'll take boredom over even what suffering I've experienced, which is trivial compared to any number of readily suggestible examples, and partly because I am uncconvinced that suffering is the only route to the relevant kind of emotional wisdom leading one to really value the highs; love gets there too, I think.