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Evil: Satan, Sin, and Psychology
In a world whose most recent century saw pogroms, mass killings in the name of God and/or state, the shoah, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Dresden, and a list of extremist religious zealots killing the dreaded infidel, how does one define (or RE-define) “Evil” vis-à-vis the human condition? Professors Cooper and Epperson have written an eminently approachable introductory text to the issue of evil and how it interfaces with one’s faith, conscience, psychology and zeitgeist. The history of Satan and his fiery abode are explored, as is the psychology that overarches and undergirds evil as a concept―and as action. Here is a highly readable, insightful journey through the maze of issues connected with the term “evil.” †
128 pages, Paperback
Published September 2, 2008
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January 23, 2016
The book is well-organized, comprehensive, argumentative and objective.
You will enjoy reading it whether you were religious or not, he is arguing for both sides to the point that I can't even guess whether the author is religious or not!
Evil in Religion (at least Abrahamic ones) is portrayed as Satan. With Judaism, Satan was the symbolization of human's inner evil. But then with Christianity it was taken literally, Satan is an evil cosmic power that is (to some extent) challenging God himself. Because of that Satan can posses humans, only way to fix this is by exertion.
Evil in Psychology is controversial. Some psychologists avoid using the word because of its historical relation with Religion, to use "psychological illness" instead. So when you ask a psychologist "what is evil?" what will he say? Some will say "irrational thinking that make one tend to do bad things without realizing the consecounsices", this is a naive idealistic platonic view, some people do evil even when they know it's evil! Is Individualistic Evil is the basic one, or is it Social Evil? Does poverty and social injustice make people evil, or evil people make the society an unjust one? We actually have to acknowledge both sides, the individual and the society!
Evil as Sin. It's bad/evil to sin. Sin is sometimes seen theologically as Addiction. Addiction is when you can't stop yourself from doing something bad for you. As for Christianity's First Sin, there is Augustine's view where he says that God created us perfected but we sinned by eating the fruit thus we've been cursed with sin and evil tendencies, this view leads us to feel pessimistic and guilty plus it makes us feel that God is an angry god. Irenaeus says otherwise, that we weren't made perfect, we were made immature (as in sin doers) thus we need God (in a more optimistic view we can say that we were made free enough to be able to sin and wrong-do), this leads to a more natural/neutral view towards Humanity and God.
Then next chapter is arguing with religions are evil by their nature or not. They are not..
The only thing missing is more talk about Evil morally/ethically/philosophically, but I guess the author is not that knowledgable in the area.
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Can a non-believer feel he sinned? What can Psychology say about sinning? Psychology can deal with aneixty developed by losing a loved one etc, but can it deal with Ontological Anexity (life anexity were we fear we are going to die eventually and then there will be nothingness)?
You will enjoy reading it whether you were religious or not, he is arguing for both sides to the point that I can't even guess whether the author is religious or not!
Evil in Religion (at least Abrahamic ones) is portrayed as Satan. With Judaism, Satan was the symbolization of human's inner evil. But then with Christianity it was taken literally, Satan is an evil cosmic power that is (to some extent) challenging God himself. Because of that Satan can posses humans, only way to fix this is by exertion.
Evil in Psychology is controversial. Some psychologists avoid using the word because of its historical relation with Religion, to use "psychological illness" instead. So when you ask a psychologist "what is evil?" what will he say? Some will say "irrational thinking that make one tend to do bad things without realizing the consecounsices", this is a naive idealistic platonic view, some people do evil even when they know it's evil! Is Individualistic Evil is the basic one, or is it Social Evil? Does poverty and social injustice make people evil, or evil people make the society an unjust one? We actually have to acknowledge both sides, the individual and the society!
Evil as Sin. It's bad/evil to sin. Sin is sometimes seen theologically as Addiction. Addiction is when you can't stop yourself from doing something bad for you. As for Christianity's First Sin, there is Augustine's view where he says that God created us perfected but we sinned by eating the fruit thus we've been cursed with sin and evil tendencies, this view leads us to feel pessimistic and guilty plus it makes us feel that God is an angry god. Irenaeus says otherwise, that we weren't made perfect, we were made immature (as in sin doers) thus we need God (in a more optimistic view we can say that we were made free enough to be able to sin and wrong-do), this leads to a more natural/neutral view towards Humanity and God.
Then next chapter is arguing with religions are evil by their nature or not. They are not..
The only thing missing is more talk about Evil morally/ethically/philosophically, but I guess the author is not that knowledgable in the area.
-----
Can a non-believer feel he sinned? What can Psychology say about sinning? Psychology can deal with aneixty developed by losing a loved one etc, but can it deal with Ontological Anexity (life anexity were we fear we are going to die eventually and then there will be nothingness)?
Displaying 1 of 1 review