Goodlife - “... birdie@ Do you think? When the natural desire of all normal persons is to live at peace, why is it so common for people to hate and make a practice of killing one another? It truly is a paradox...”
There is no paradox. In your above post you are taking the Utopian example of everything and everyone being equal and everyone having enough resources (food, water, shelter, energy, land, money, etc.) to live their lives without recourse to any form of struggle whatsoever. Life simply isn't like that. To think so is exceptionally naïve.
In your previous post you said that there wasn't a, “... valid basis for denying the reality of the Devil or for refusing to consider reliable evidence on the matter...”. I asked you to provide me with this 'reliable evidence' and what you have given me is nothing more than a circular argument.
Your 'reliable evidence' is the bible. You see evil and intolerance everywhere and you look to the bible to explain it. The bible says that there is an entity called 'the devil' who is the source of all evil in the world. How do we know the bible is speaking the truth? Because the bible is the inspired word of god and therefore must be true. How do we know the bible is the inspired word of god and speaks the truth? Because the bible tells us so. Ergo, 'the devil' exists.
Surely you can see the circularity of your argument? It is the foundation upon which your faith is based and it is self-reinforcing. That is your argument and that is your 'evidence'. It is simplistic, naïve and relies on circular logic to support itself. Whatever you do, don't even think about practising law if you think that your argument in any way constitutes proof or a valid position from which to argue a case ;-)