Re: IEN Fascists?

On Wed, 4 Feb 1998, David Sarkies wrote:

> Sorry to add more confusion to this, so by your hypothesis, if you are evil
> you are always evil, no matter if you turn from your ways and repent of your
> sins?

I'm not entirely certain which hypothesis you are referring to.  Unless
it's my idea that most things an evil person does are evil, because they
have evil motives.  If that's the case, I guess I need to elaborate a
little more.

An evil person who performs a seemingly good action, but performs that
action for evil reasons, has still committed evil.  It is certainly
possible for that evil person to perform a good action for good reasons,
in which case the action becomes a good action.  What I was trying to say
(and I guess I didn't make clear enough) is that a person's motivation is
the important thing.  If you have good motives for your action, then you
have generally done good;  if you have evil motives then you have
generally done evil.    Of course, this only applies on a personal level.

So, examining your question.  If an evil person repents, is he still evil?
Depends.  If his only motivation for repentence is to avoid punishment (a
selfish reason), then he is (probably) still evil.  If he sincerely wants
to make amends for what he has done, then he is doing good, and is on his
way to no longer being evil.

I hope that's clearer.

Rich Gant