Evil

[JerryB]

I wrote a friend recently and asked her what she thought

of the concept of Evil. She wrote back that she didn't believe

in God so she didn't believe in Evil. That was a bit of a surprise.

I hadn't thought of Evil as a purely theological concept. It had

seemed to me that it might also be secular. But then the term

is ambiguous and that was why I asked the question.

 

So what is Evil?

Is it entirely a religious concept?

Do incidents of random unprovoked murder and brutality qualify

as Evil in your mind? Would a tsunami that killed thousands of

people be included in your own personal definition of Evil?

I guess I'm pretty familiar with religious concepts of evil.

What I'm curious about is to what extent people hold a

concept of evil without any religious baggage attached.

 

Probably a personal definition of Evil is the best we can do.

I don't get the feeling that there is ever going to be universal

agreement on it. What's your take?

[UncleAl]

So what is Evil?

1) Evil is anybody who disagrees with you.

2) Evil is what you desire that others possess.

3) Evil is a means to seize power.

 

The most concentrated ever-flowing source of evil is a do-gooder. They'll drain your wallet while kicking your ***.

[JerryB]

The most concentrated ever-flowing source of evil is a do-gooder. They'll drain your wallet while kicking your ***.

 

Bingo! Uncle Al. That nails it for me.

 

There's a story I read once. I think it was in Milton's "Paradise Lost"

but I've never been able to find it again so I'm not sure.

But it recounts a scene where the Devil has just been kicked

out of Heaven and he is plotting his revenge on God. He says

to his first Lieutenant that he knows he can't defeat God so

he shall try to corrupt Man, God's creation. And he explains

further his tactics. He says that the best way we can accomplish

this is to pretend that we are there to help and protect mankind.

Once we have gained their trust we will succeed.

[BEAKER]

The most concentrated ever-flowing source of evil is a do-gooder. They'll drain your wallet while kicking your ***.

Uncle Albert have you heard - Your Avatar is a modified picture of me?:hihi:

[Dark Mind]

Inside joke...

 

:hihi:

[GAHD]

Evil is; anything that does not benefit life.

[UncleAl]

Evil is; anything that does not benefit life.

Mice and rats cannot be evil because they breed like, well, mice and rats and abundantly harbor all sorts of virulent ectoparasites microorganisms. The Black Plague was a celebration of life! Though 60% the population of Europe died, more than ten times that number of rats were extant and probably 100 fleas/rat. A whole lot of Yersinia pestis bred, too.

 

Are you some sort of hate language perveyor who believes the value of life is proportional to the mass of the organism? If god didn't love beetles he wouldn't have made so many of them.

 

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1803/gatepost.htm

 

Think more.

[GAHD]

Aren't viri life? The black plague culled the weak, benifiting life in the long run.

[pgrmdave]

Evil seems to me to be that which not 'Good', when it comes to a moral decision. Evil, in my understanding, is more of a corruption of that which is good, not an entity unto itself. Much like Darkness is the absence of Light, and Coldness is the absence of Heat, Evil is the absence of Good. The problem comes in defining 'Good'.

[JerryB]

Evil is; anything that does not benefit life.

I'd tend to agree with UncleAl. Life feeds on life. Every thing you eat

is life. You destroy an enormous amount of life every day just

by eating. Does that make you evil?

[JerryB]

Evil seems to me to be that which not 'Good', when it comes to a moral decision. Evil, in my understanding, is more of a corruption of that which is good, not an entity unto itself. Much like Darkness is the absence of Light, and Coldness is the absence of Heat, Evil is the absence of Good. The problem comes in defining 'Good'.

That's an interesting perspective. I've always thought it the other way

around, that Good was pretty much an illusion or at best, the absence

of Evil. But between us such an assertion is meaningless because we

have not yet adequately defined either concept.

 

You hinted, if I understood you correctly, that you didn't really feel

ready to define Good. but since your definition of Evil depends on

it I wonder if you could make a stab at defining it, at least in your

own mind if not for all mankind and all time.

[pgrmdave]

I have been trying to define goodness for a long time, and I've never found a concise, universally applicable idea for it. In my life, I try to be kind to all people, and treat people as they would like to be treated. I tend to attribute selfishness with evil, and selflessness with good, but I am not sure that is a full definition.

[GAHD]

I'd tend to agree with UncleAl. Life feeds on life. Every thing you eat

is life. You destroy an enormous amount of life every day just

by eating.

 

You seem to be thinking of Life in too short-sighted a way.

A few other ways of getting at what I mean:

-non-life ends life, it is evil (nukes, precarious rocks at the top of cliffs, etc..)

-life ends life with reason, not evil (food, protection)

-life ends life without reason, evil (sport, murder)

 

Note how Human is never an issue, even though evil is a human concept.

 

Does that make you evil?

I'm evil by choice, not by means of my eating habits.

[Turtle]

Evil is the intention to do harm.

[ashlea]

I'm not a religious person, yet in my opinion evil is how you perceive an event or thing, depending upon how you look at it anything can become evil, after all you could Perceive "God" as evil as he punishes all of his children for something 2 people did, yet God is meant to be the embodiment of good. Evil is a state of mind.

[JerryB]

I have been trying to define goodness for a long time, and I've never found a concise, universally applicable idea for it.

 

Me too, except I've been focused on Evil. Either way. How about this?

Sometimes when I find a word or concept hard to define, I consider

the possibility that it may actually be 2 or more different concepts

that somehow got defined by the same term. Or alternatively it's

one concept with variations. Would thinking about it that way make

it easier?

 

Some people say that money or the greed for money is the root of

all Evil. That's an interesting metaphor. It seems to suggest to my

mind that Evil is a tree with many branches. In that sense it might

be a concept with variations. If you follow that metaphor then you

might need to decide what it is that forms the trunk of the tree of

Evil.

 

But you've said that Evil is the absence of Good. So if you try to

think of a metaphor for Good, would you choose a tree also or

somthing else?

[JerryB]

I'm evil by choice, not by means of my eating habits.

I've got to think about the first part of your message

a bit more. But for now I'm focussed on the above quote, "evil

by choice". I want to get that clearer, if possible. Do people

choose to do Evil? Do you? Is it possible that what you do is

Evil but you don't know that it's Evil? If you never intend to

do Evil, does that mean that you never do Evil? And can you

decide whether or not what other people do is Evil?

 

Too many questions I'm afraid. But I'll be happy even if you

only answer one or two.