Journal 2: The Human Condition

1)The key idea in the Human Condition section is, in fact, the Human Condition itself: what it is and the effects it has on our lives. The human condition is "the situation, or condition, in which every human being finds himself or herself by virtue of being human."(F,R,R 10)As stated by the book, all humans have the human condition, like all humans have a brain, or the ability to make choices. The human condition is one of the defining characteristics of being human. As stated by Paschal, "all men seek happiness." This is another aspect of the human condition. The constant search for happiness is both a blessing and a curse to man. It is a blessing in that the striving for happiness always brings hope that one will obtain that happiness. It is a curse because that in seeking this happiness, we occasionally get caught up in the search to the point of ignoring the real world. 2)a. The Three Effects of Original Sin are Concupiscence, Wounded Intellect, And Death. Concupiscence means that even though our intentions of our decisions are good, humans are inexplicably drawn toward sin. Wounded intellect causes humans to have great difficulty in finding the truth because our mind has been warped, the balance between emotions, desires and intellect needed to know the truth has been disrupted by original sin. Death, the last effect and worst effect of original sin is, obviously, the departure from this world into the unknown. It is this that makes death so frightening, we are venturing into a "world" that we know nothing about. b)The Problem of Evil The Problem of Evil is that if evil exists in this world, and it certainly does, God is either: not all powerful, not morally good, or he doesn't exist, because if God were all of these three, he wouldn't allow evil to be in this world. c.Evil as a Privation of Goodness. As theorized by St. Augustine, evil could possibly be not a thing, but the abscence of goodness. A good analogy is that evil is like darkness. Evil is the absence of goodness while darkness is the absence of light. 4)One question I will take from this chapter is "How can I learn to balance my mind and body in order to step closer to the truth?" 5)I can strive to be a better person by thinking about my personal conclusion to the problem of evil, that God is not all powerful. I can use this conclusion to prevent myself from blaming God whenever anything bad happens in the world.

Light and Dark, Good and Evil

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