Sign in to add comments or Join (It's free and fast!)

• Irene Grumman – February 28 2008

  Re watching live stream TED presentations: I wish I had received notice earlier. When I found the email at 7:30 Pacific Time, I did watch and hear the beautiful singer. Thanks.

• Irene Grumman – February 28 2008

  Harris' focus on choices and consequences avoids the trap of labeling people (or empires) as evil.
  When evil has been thought to be a quality that can be incarnate in a person or regime, destruction of persons and nations has often been seen as a religious and moral benefit.

• Frederick Harris – February 28 2008

  Karen Armstrong might begin her discussion with religious leaders by observing that good and evil are not opposites. The opposite of good is bad. The opposite of evil is gracious. In the Golden Rule there is an important clue about making choices, which is the point of all social orgainzations. The Golden Rule, Choose for others only as One would choose for One's self, guarantees gracious choices when honored. In fact, in a gracious Universe, such as ours, gracious choices generate benevolence for appreciation; ungracious choices generate instructive consequence that reminds One that a more gracious choice was missed in the choosing. This is recorded in Sacred Texts and histories. For clarity, it might be appreciated that Grace is the awareness that choice might align potential with possibility for purposes of appreciation. Gracious is the demonstration of that awareness. Ungracious is its denial. All choices generate benefit for purposes of appreciation.
  Evil, by the way, is an ungracious assessment of ungracious choices, inviting instructive consequences with its misuse. Misunderstanding this is the reason the world is in the tangle of instructive consequences it is in today.