This is http://www.essayz.com/b0301251.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %INDIVIDUALS PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS BASIC REALITY+030125 %REVERENCE COURTESY CIVILITY RESPECT TOLERANCE GOD+030125 %GOOD DEVIL FEEDBACK LOOPS SYSTEMS ANALYSIS CAUSES+030125 %NATURAL ARTIFICIAL EFFECTS ESSENTIAL ORIGINAL SIN+030125 %ABSENCE PRESENCE OMISSION COMMISSION LOVERS SEXUAL+030125 %DIFFERENCES CREATION CREATURES COMPLEMENTARY TRUE 030125 Are individuals and personal relationships to be regarded as essentially separate realities? Can one of the two kinds of realities exist well --- without reverence for the other kind of reality? Can "evil" be regarded as a trait of one of the two kinds of reality --- without thereby affecting the other kind of reality? --------------------------------- Consider the fact that evil-personal-relationships engender evil-behaviors which in turn engender more evil-personal-relationships; etc. Thinking of individual-people as being essentially evil --- is one kind of evil-behavior --- which engenders evil-personal-relationships --- as a natural-consequence of confused-thinking --- which misleads-confused-people and confused- relationships into dishonest-ways-of-living. Where in-all-of-that is "evil" to be found? Where does evil originate, reside and end? "Evil" pertains to DEFECTIVE-PERSONAL-RELATIONSHIPS and inter personal BEHAVIORS --- that do violence to healthy-personal-relationships. Evil pertains to DEFECTIVE-PERSONAL-RELATIONSHIPS which are characterized by: 1. The absence of reverence, 2. The presence of arrogance, 3. The absence of humility, 4. The presence of coercion, 5. The absence of justice, 6. The presence of domination, 7. The absence of love, 8. The presence of violence, 9. The absence of honesty, 10. The presence of hubris. Different people are often involved in evil-relationships --- because some of them refuse to deal honestly with their differences --- as God-given-differences between creatures as they have been created by God Herself. Some of God's creatures show a lack of reverence for God's different creations. They think arrogantly --- and presume that their own kind of differences --- are superior to other creatures' kinds of differences; i.e., that their demonstrations of coercion are better than other demonstrations of humility, gentleness and peacemaking. Likewise they believe and act as if their own demonstrations of violent-dominance show them to be superior to other creatures who demonstrate true justice/love --- in intimate relationships which are guided by reverence for God's creatures that differ from each other. God's fallen creatures often fail to show reverence to each other through tolerance --- with regard to how God created them as different --- in ways which are complementary to and for each other in Love. The fallen creatures have forgotten how to show reverence for God's diverse creations. Read Paul Woodward's book "Reverence". People who have been wounded by evil-relationships --- and by the evil-behaviors of people who have been wounded by evil-relationships --- are often so insecure that they are unwilling to take the risks which are entailed in being involved within intimate and healthy relationships. Becoming involved in intimate and healthy relationships entails being honest about one's own complicity in previous evil-relationships and evil- behaviors ---- which have made others likewise insecure. Becoming involved in intimate and healthy relationships entails the possibilities of becoming safely (or insecurely) involved in open and honest discussions about the natural consequences of past attitudes, assumptions, decisions and behaviors --- with people who may not be ready for such openness, honesty, and the forgiveness and healing --- which the discussions may lead to. People who seek to avoid the pain of acknowledging their own complicity in evil-relationships and evil- behaviors --- focus attention outward --- away from themselves & their relationships --- upon others who are "different", "defective", "impure" and "evil" as-isolated-individuals who are --- alienated from: "conformal", "perfected", "pure" and "self-righteous" individuals like themselves. Focusing attention on isolated evil-individuals --- is an effective way to divert attention away from oneself --- as an alienated individual who is insecure in relationships which are characterized by: isolation, alienation, loneliness, uncertainty, pretentiousness, etc. All we and our inter-relationships are a web of woven threads which touch each other in ways we often seek to deny, hide, confuse, and refuse to see --- with any clarity with each other who is "different". (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================