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<blockquote data-quote="Elderbrain" data-source="post: 6382918">The reality of evilI must object to (some) of what Permeton and The Shadow said. Evil is not merely the absence of good, nor it it less real than good. If it were, it couldn't hurt us... it'd be illusionary. If evil isn't really real, why fight it? I would argue that a belief that evil is real provides a strong motivation and reason to oppose it. Evil is no more the privation of good than pain is the absence of pleasure. If someone stabs me, I'm not in pain because of a lack of pleasure - say, not having an ice- cream cone in my mouth. I'm in pain because of the injury.&nbsp; In addition, there exists a middle state where I am neither experiencing pleasure or pain. The same holds true for good and evil.&nbsp;I must also point out that Aramis Erak's quote, if in fact from Planescape, would only reflect the viewpoint of a minority of characters, mostly petitioners from the Outlands and the Rilmani, who indeed are guilty of believing that good cannot exist without evil, etc. But the folks on the other sixteen planes of the Great Wheel sure don't agree. The Archons of Mount Celestia certainly don't think evil is a necessary part of the multiverse, or else they wouldn't bother striving again it. They fight because they think winning is a genuine possibility, and that the Multiverse doesn't need evil to exist. (For the record, I have never subscribed to the idea that good needs evil to exist. I agree, it's as screwy to me as to Permeton and The Shadow.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Elderbrain, post: 6382918"] [b]The reality of evil[/b] I must object to (some) of what Permeton and The Shadow said. Evil is not merely the absence of good, nor it it less real than good. If it were, it couldn't hurt us... it'd be illusionary. If evil isn't really real, why fight it? I would argue that a belief that evil is real provides a strong motivation and reason to oppose it. Evil is no more the privation of good than pain is the absence of pleasure. If someone stabs me, I'm not in pain because of a lack of pleasure - say, not having an ice- cream cone in my mouth. I'm in pain because of the injury. In addition, there exists a middle state where I am neither experiencing pleasure or pain. The same holds true for good and evil. I must also point out that Aramis Erak's quote, if in fact from Planescape, would only reflect the viewpoint of a minority of characters, mostly petitioners from the Outlands and the Rilmani, who indeed are guilty of believing that good cannot exist without evil, etc. But the folks on the other sixteen planes of the Great Wheel sure don't agree. The Archons of Mount Celestia certainly don't think evil is a necessary part of the multiverse, or else they wouldn't bother striving again it. They fight because they think winning is a genuine possibility, and that the Multiverse doesn't need evil to exist. (For the record, I have never subscribed to the idea that good needs evil to exist. I agree, it's as screwy to me as to Permeton and The Shadow.) [/QUOTE]

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