| | Where does Calvin say that we begin with a standard of evil? Please give a page number. I imagine Calvin says we start with a standard of good and then obey it. If man is sinful or evil, then the standard would be what man isn't.
You said earlier, "Original sin is understood differently by different schools of theology, but what theologian ever said of original sin: "It demands that he start, not with a standard of value, but with a standard of evil, which is himself . . . ."
To which I said, "I suggest you read Calvin's Institutes. It is exactly what he says. The 'T' in TULIP, means, "total depravity." I would say that is a standard of evil."
Now it turns out, you were implying something completely different. I presumed you were taking Rand in context, giving the same meaning to her words that she gave them. She never said what you are implying.
Here is the context: "Damnation is the start of your morality, destruction is its purpose, means and end. Your code begins by damning man as evil, then demands that he practice a good which it defines as impossible for him to practice. It demands, as his first proof of virtue, that he accept his own depravity without proof. It demands that he start, not with a standard of value, but with a standard of evil, which is himself, by means of which he is then to define the good; the good is that which he is not."
This is from Galt's speech, and it obviously wonderful rhetoric. The "standard of value," is obviously referring to Rand's correct assertion, that a moral value must define the good in terms of the individual. If something is not good for the individual, it is not good. Since the doctrine of "depravity," or a "sinful nature," or "original sin," makes man evil, good must be something else. If "man must choose his actions, values, and goals by the standard of that which is proper to man—in order to achieve, maintain, fulfill and enjoy that ultimate value, that end in itself, which is his own life." [Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, "The Objectivist Ethics," page 25.]
If you are going to quote Rand, it must be in her terms, or you are misquoting her. Since, for her, "the standard of value of the Objectivist ethics—the standard by which one judges what is good or evil—is man's life, or; that which is required for man's survival qua man," [Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness, "The Objectivist Ethics," page 23.] what she means by a, "standard of value," is the life of an individual human being.
Interestingly you verified her point exactly.
Ayn Rand said, "It demands that he start with ... evil, which is himself, by means of which he is then to define the good; the good is that which he is not."
You said, "If man is sinful or evil, then the standard would be what man isn't."
You are exactly right. If man is, by nature, evil, to be good man must act contrary to his own nature. There is hardly a more evil idea than that. That is the very idea that Ayn Rand opposed, and which all decent, moral, reasonable people must not only oppose, but despise.
Regi
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