What is the way to live?

You cannot make someone good. Either they become good by renunciation (which requires effort on the part of the renunciated) or they stay "bad" like animals, which most really are.

Why do people do evil? Because they fear something, and, out of pride, a defense mechanism, they commit some heinous act. What is this fear based on? All subsequent fears are based on the original fear, from the original "sin," the fear of castration, knowing we did something bad and become conscious of it, and we subsequently feel guilt and shame.

Can we ever free ourselves from this moral conscience? I said renunciation earlier as a way of escape, however, lulling us, it turns us into cowards. I propose a forgetting of our consciousness, of the phallic pen that marks the normative rhythm of life, the reminder of the iron grip hanging over us. Probably to remove the consciousness, the conscience which fuels guilt is the most effective, if not the only way to go.

Thoughts?

do not remove the consciousness.    we like the feeling of control of our environment, and we like the satisfaction from our accomplishments.

Can't tell if Buddhist or Hindu. First, this is a religious topic would can result in a locked topic at the very least. Secondly, fear is not the reason people do evil. People do evil because they themselves have something to gain. A thief would not steal unless he profited; a murdered would not kill without a reason like defense or morbid pleasure; and religious extremists do whatever nasties because they have a sense of duty to their deity. Forgetting the conscience would only serve to (in my honest opinion) encourage "evil" as evil would no longer truly exist. On that note: If the problem of evil can be solved by getting rid of any perception of "evil", does that get rid of whatever acts we considered "evil"? The answer is no, no it doesn't, therefore no, getting rid of evil doesn't solve the problem. I, personally, believe that we can't solve any human problem of the consciousness by ourselves. We require outside help, a deity if you will, to rescue us from the problem. Christianity is the only one which in my mind does this adequately. That is all.

This is an overly simplistic question.

What if your whole life you were deceived... you still had the same experience, the same pleasures than if you weren't deceived, but does it not matter then that you were deceived?

In other words, does it matter, in terms of moral consequences, whether you're in the realm of contact or the realm of contract?

It's all semantics to me. If I live in the realm of reality, I will at least know that I'm not being Don Quixote. Better a real pepperoni pizza in my hands, than a virtual pizza on my computer screen.

A starving man needs food, not words.