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Good, Evil, Truth, and Falsehood
What remains if we ignore notions as fundamental as those of good and evil?




Author: P. Fernando Pascual, L.C | Source: Catholic.net



In his autobiography, Gilbert Chesterton recounts what a theosopher once told him: "Good and evil, true and false, stupidity and wisdom are just aspects of the same upward movement of the universe."

Chesterton's surprise was a simple question: "Assuming there is no difference between good and evil or between truth and lie, what is the difference between ascending and descending?"

Some thinker’s effort to eliminate fundamental categories such as those of good and evil, truth and falsehood, is often associated with the idea that there is progress, that we "move forward" or "ascend" thanks to the conquests of science or bold thinkers.

Chesterton's question is fully legitimate: what is left if we dispense with such fundamental notions? Not intended to replace them with ones that incur new paradoxes, such as ascending or progressing?

Experience show us that "words support everything". Words do, but reality, and often the mind, are not able to keep absurd or contradictory claims standing.



Among authors who proudly proclaim human advances over the past centuries, and the progress in psychology, medicine, biology, and  technology, universal parameters remain standing to assess whether a presumed achievement is really.

Among those undeletable parameters are the notions of good and evil, true and false. Explaining them has certainly never been easy, but it is absurd to eliminate them with an uncritical admiration for "progress."

Despite all the theosophers, we will always need to talk about good and evil, truth and falsehood. We prefer, without a doubt, to approach good and truth, so as not to incur, to our and others prejudice, in evil and falsehood.








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