Re: virus: God and Level-3

David McFadzean (morpheus@lucifer.com)
Tue, 25 Mar 1997 22:47:18 -0700


> From: Tim Rhodes <proftim@speakeasy.org>
> Date: Tuesday, March 25, 1997 9:40 AM

> > I thought children might be an exception (they always are). But you seem
> > to be using "truth" to mean two different things in your statement so
> > your question doesn't make much sense to me. What kind of truth value do
> > love and compassion have?
>
> It is a truth (to my mind) that humans need love, that they need to be,
> and are, comforted by acts of compassion when they are suffering, and it
> is true that the bold untarnished truth often does a poor job when set in
> the service of human nature in these regards.

I agree, but you've turned your list of nouns into statements which allows
them to have truth values. Perhaps you thought merely mentioning "love"
was the same as "humans need love", but it is an important distinction.

Back to the terminally ill child: Telling the child the truth about their
condition
doesn't necessarily mean that you have to do it in a cruel or otherwise
unloving way. I don't see truth and love as incompatible, do you?

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Church of Virus                 http://www.lucifer.com/virus/