Thursday, January 18, 2007

Existence of EVIL??

MINI-VANS ARE EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL.
-bumper sticker on a car in the library parking lot

Never one for bumper-sticker theology, I found this one to be especially full of it, although I will give it points for some lovely alliterations.

Don't let anyone fool you. At bottom, everyone really does have a theology, a worldview, an idea of good and evil. I've found that people who say they don't believe in an objective truth or reality or in good and evil usually do, if you question them long enough, especially when it comes to someone doing something they don't like to them. In this case, the individual who owned that car felt that mini-vans--symbols of large families and increased fuel consumption--represented real evil in the world. That is a theology, a worldview. Population increase and fuel consumption hurt the earth-- the goddess-- in this worldview. People are a problem and so are the cars that transport their larger families. Breeders, they call them. (Never mind that the U.N. is very concerned about population decrease these days.) When people reject a more traditional or Christian view of good and evil for moral relativism, they don't really forego the notion of good and evil so much as develop their own standards from which to judge those who don't think like them. Suddenly, smoking becomes an evil to stamp out. Saturated fats become an evil to stamp out. The eating of meat becomes an evil to stamp out. The choice to drive without seat belts or ride motorcycles without helmets becomes an evil to stamp out. Just don't tell them that you believe traditional morality to be objectively right, because that belief is, um, evil.

In other words, it's usually the same people who look down their noses at those who have more than one or maybe two kids at most and rely upon larger vehicles who are quick to say, "Don't force your morality on me." I could be wrong, but experience teaches me I'd be making a safe bet to say the owner of that car was one of those "Don't force your morality on me" types.

All I can say is, "Right back at ya, babe."

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WATN featured an essay "It's All Relative" last weekend. Check it out.

1 Comments:

At 1/19/2007 12:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Odd, usually it's SUVs that people scream about. But you're right, this is their absolutist version of morality and they are pretty in your face about it. It's not like you see a lot of Christians with "theft is a sin" bumper stickers.

 

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