(This was definitely going to be heading into off-topic and so I put this over here from current events.)

Odin,

Some folks believe in predestination, others in some god who doles out punishment and rewards, as for me I believe in cause and effect.

Sure the examples you cited are unappealing. No one ever wants to believe that anyone deserves horrible things happening to them and no one wants to believe that this means they have to have done horrible things to others at some time - but the nuances of cause and effect often go much deeper than we can see upon the surface.

It's easy to see how an Uday or Saddam earn their feedback but what could possibly be the cause for some child getting hit by a car, struck by lightning or any other seemingly random negative happening?

Let us stretch our imaginations and say that you and I and everyone here has not only lived X number of years upon the earth - but that we have had previous lives here as well. It's not to hard to imagine and some 60% of the planet believes in some form of reincarnation.

For the sake of this example let's assume that reincarnation is valid.

In such an instance all these "inexplicable" or "unjustified" bad things may find their origins in past actions. What might happen to an Uday were he to be reappear again? Cause and effect would indicate that he might very well be an abused child, perhaps be despised by women - or he might even be born a woman and receive violent abuse by men such as he was! Such would be the natural continuity and feedback from these past actions - or the sine wave following its natural course from one cycle to the next. The wave always seeks balance and any one or a combination of these type of future scenarios might provide it.

While no one wants to look as a child in anything other that an innocent blank sheet - there's a good chance that assuming a child is a blank sheet is very naive. Look at the prodigy child who composes music, speaks several languages and achieves all this without any difficulty whatsoever? A gift of some god? A freakish rarity created by overactive neurons? Somehow I think we can see that not only are children not blank sheets - but that there are as vast levels of varying development in newborns and infants as there are in adults! Everyone has usually known a child that was the opposite of the angel-faced child but seemed to relish in tormenting others and seemed possessed from the earliest ages. No children are not born equal. While they should be equally protected under law and share the same rights - no two people or children are ever equal. Equality is a false concept - a convenient illusion in a universe where no two things are ever equal, even grains of sand or atoms.

Therefore if reincarnation is valid, we have our most likely reason for many of the inexplicable events and misfortunes which seem undeserved.

Naturally, this requires a discussion of fate. Is there predestination? Has Kerry already lost this election before he even was even born! Is deja-vu really just being aware of something we already knew was going to happen from another perspective?

Is it possible that each of the folks who died at Auschwitz had some unresolved issues from various past lives? Are these things already orchestrated out by some cosmic force which always seeks balance and so no one ever can escape their past actions? Does this balancing give them a fresh start? Or let's take it further? Could this sort of feedback actually be necessary for their continued development?

Many religions would say that the child struck by lightning was subject to "God's will" and leave it at that. I say there is no such thing and that that event had to have a cause. We may not know what it is - but it is probably there nevertheless. And I think that it was more significant a reason than just the physical phenomenon of lightning and random "chance" that determined the event.

Some believe this would mean we should have less compassion for victims - because they were somehow not innocent. This is incorrect. We should have just as much compassion as ever - for these new events - regardless of their true origin - are now indeed new and an innocent child is still an innocent child. In some ways when we understand and observe this cause and effect around us we even gain more compassion for these things.

Why?

Because when you truly understand the comprehensive balancing nature of the universe (all energy always seeks balance) one realizes that no one ever can get away with anything bad, that ecstatic joy will be accompanied by bitter sorrow, that life comes with death. Suddenly each human, even a Uday or Hitler becomes worthy of our understanding. We can't hate them. Hate is imbalanced. When we understand the psychosis of a Hitler and how it came to be, event by event, thought by thought, not only do we know more of the forces that mold such a personality - but we realize he will receive feedback for every death, every action, all the fear and suffering. And because we are human we have compassion for all who suffer - even those who demonstrate great evil. We don't like to see pain and suffering.

We may seek justice here an now - but for those who know about energy - we know true justice is infinite justice and inescapable. Why? Because all those sine waves will run their course. Each negative action will receive its reactive feedback.

Nothing in the universe is unfair. Nothing. It may seem horribly unfair, but all things are cause and effect.

You asked me how I measure evil. I do not apply a personal moral code to good and evil. To me ALL things are evil AND good. I can apply a relative framework to any particular event and say that Hitler is horribly evil when compared to an average individual, but in a world where everyone was like Saddam, Stalin or Lenin - his evil would not stand out especially - in fact his thinking and actions would be about par for the course. It is not that hard to imagine someone even more evil for whom each and every action and thought was done solely with intent to hurt others and destroy that which surrounds them. Such a person would probably not be compatible with this world, but in some other world perhaps, Hitler and the others could be born there and appear as if they were the kind and benevolent ones!

One has to wonder if the religionists hell and punishment is in reality a misconstrued and distorted understanding of this cause and effect/feedback principle that was explained to folks who could not understand it?

Bush is a man. He will have both good and evil attributes. I see no evidence he desires war, seeks to loot Iraq's oil or set up internment camps for disloyal citizens. I see a father who because of his own choices as a young man is now already receiving feedback from his daughters providing him a valuable perspective he completely lacked.

The Iraq war will also generate feedback, both good and evil. In many ways we have seen both already.

The bottom line is all things are relative and yet for us they are relative to our own position and understanding. Some see Bush as evil and can't see the equal amount of good. Others see only good and can't see any evil. The more developed one becomes - the more one sees this balance in all the people around us. One no longer lives to condemn or adulate - instead one focuses on one's own personal development.

Oftentimes that personal development requires sharing new ideas even when one knows they will not be readily received.

My sarcasm often emerges here at the HZ, but underneath it lies both compassion and understanding.

You're new here. If you stick around here long enough - you'll see that is true.

SDAI-Tech1