Evil

Forest · Aug 21, 2006

How do you define it?

SedjmNeter · Aug 21, 2006

P.E.A.C.E and Blessings...

...that's a tough one and as soon as I psot my answer I probably find something about what I said that I disagree with but here goes...

To me doing something "evil" seems different than doing something that is not right.

Doing something that is not right would be any action that is against the Law (the Laws of Balance that have been put in place to maintain the UNIverse). If you are acting outside of the Balance of Nature, you are doing something that isn't right.

Evil, however, I would say, is conciously doing something out of balance with those Laws, for your own egoistic gain, and not taking into account the effects it may have on the things around you, or even worse taking these things into account and still acting in that way.

Many people do things that aren't right because they are in the habit of doing certain things, without giving any thought to the consequences. But there are those who do things they know will effect others and continue their actions, thats evil.

SHEM HETEP (I GO IN P.E.A.C.E)

Sedjm Neter
AKA Camouflage Samu-Ra

Forest · Aug 21, 2006

SedjmNeter said:
If you are acting outside of the Balance of Nature, you are doing something that isn't right.

That is interesting.

How would I know if I was doing something outside of the Balance of Nature?

metherion · Aug 21, 2006

I personally would define evil as something that does not glorify God, either by not appreciating His gifts, actively disrespecting HIs gifts, actively disrespecting others whom God has created, or actively going against His commands. All sins fall into this category in one way or another.

Conversely, good things are things that glorify God by using His gifts to us, sharing them with others, and following God's word without also commiting an evil act, as defined by what I said evil was in the beginning of this post.

Edit: Remembering that this is in the open section I would like to add the following to my post: I would say that it is not necessary to know God do to good, nor to do evil. Acts that follow His laws are not always done by those who follow said laws. It is as good for say, a Hindu person to feed the sick as it is for a Christian person ora Jewish person or an atheist, etc. Furthermore, one must knowlingly commit an evil act. If a person does not know an act is evil, they cannot have done evil in said act. The act will still not be good, but it is not evil. For instance, if a person who has lived his life in a society that does not saying lying is wrong, that person does not know that lying is evil and when he lies he does not do evil until he knows that lying is in fact an act of evil.

Metherion

fromdownunder · Aug 21, 2006

I suppose you need to define, and then agree on a definition of evil first.

"Evil", to me, is harming others. Thats pretty much it.

Norm

(edited for clarification)

CSmrw · Aug 21, 2006

Assuking a quick jog to dictionary dot com is not what you are after I would say Evil is the result of an action which has substantially greater negative effect than positive. I consider the term hyperbole.

Spherical Time · Aug 21, 2006

Acting against the interest of the society and others, usually.

Are you asking about some specific context?

Forest · Aug 21, 2006

fromdownunder said:
"Evil", to me, is harming others. Thats pretty much it.

That's an easy definition...I agree that is evil, at least most of the time...

Now tell me why you think harming others is evil?

Forest · Aug 21, 2006

CSmrw said:
Assuking a quick jog to dictionary dot com is not what you are after I would say Evil is the result of an action which has substantially greater negative effect than positive. I consider the term hyperbole.

Using that definition, I wonder if the Iraq war is evil or good?

Forest · Aug 21, 2006

Spherical Time said:
Acting against the interest of the society and others, usually.

Are you asking about some specific context?

No context, just a definition that can be applied to real life.

When you say the interest of society, what is the "interest of society"?

CSmrw · Aug 21, 2006

Forest said:
Using that definition, I wonder if the Iraq war is evil or good?

I would say it depends on who's participation we are discussing. The average soldier is trained and used to jkill and destroy and hurt, so he/she is just doing their job, a job that needs to be done in war. The commmanders are in the same predicament, to a large degree, although they have more latitude in the disposition of their duties, A bad comander can certainly be a very negative thing even in the context of a war. For his own troops, if he is really bad.

Now the folks that started the war under false premises? I don't see how anyone can find much positive in what they have done. I can't, at any rate. They have destroyerd and killed, let loose the dogs of war, as the saying goes, and to no positive purpose. And they lied to us about why we did it all. I would say this war qualifies as an evil if anything does.

katautumn · Aug 21, 2006

I think the word "evil" is a grossly misapplied word to the point where its severity has lost meaning. It's kind of like when people label those who disagree with them as "Hitler" or refer to a particular event in our society as "a modern-day Holocaust". You can only overuse and misapply a word or phrase so much and eventually it reaches a point where it becomes almost blase in its context. Like calling all facial tissues Kleenex or all soft drinks Coke.

Evil, to me, in its most primitive sense of the word would be someone or something that causes irrepairable harm with no forethought, regard or remorse. For example, a person with normal mental faculties abducting, brutally raping and then murdering a child and feeling they were completely justified in their actions.

elman · Aug 24, 2006

Forest said:
How do you define it?

Being unloving toward others.

elman · Aug 24, 2006

Forest said:
That's an easy definition...I agree that is evil, at least most of the time...

Now tell me why you think harming others is evil?

It is good to help others. It follows therefore it is bad to hurt others. Love is good. Failure to love is bad-evil. I think we are all created with the ability to love others and to know that it is a good thing.

Forest · Aug 24, 2006

KatAutumn said:
Evil, to me, in its most primitive sense of the word would be someone or something that causes irrepairable harm with no forethought, regard or remorse. For example, a person with normal mental faculties abducting, brutally raping and then murdering a child and feeling they were completely justified in their actions.

That is evil, but tell why you believe it is evil...?

Spherical Time · Aug 25, 2006

Forest said:
No context, just a definition that can be applied to real life.

When you say the interest of society, what is the "interest of society"?

When you say "say," what does it mean?

I mean, I would say that a society has an interest in stability and propagation, and most also have an interest in peace and the well being of it's citizens.

Further, I don't believe that you can have a perfect definition of evil. Take each real world case as it comes along.

For instance, I think that there are peple on this forum that are evil. They work against the interests of my society, and what I consider to the best interest of the society at large. For instance, I don't think that promoting division and unhappiness of a group of people contributes to society, because it's going to create friction.

Forest · Aug 25, 2006

Spherical Time said:
For instance, I think that there are peple on this forum that are evil. They work against the interests of my society, and what I consider to the best interest of the society at large. For instance, I don't think that promoting division and unhappiness of a group of people contributes to society, because it's going to create friction..

So you beliveve that evil is when people work against what you consider to be the best interest of society at large, and what is in the best interest of society at large is your opinion, so evil is an opinion?

Since opinions can be anything at all, is evil anything at all?

gwenmead · Aug 25, 2006

I'm not entirely sure what evil is, even though I will use the label sometimes.

I tend to use it to describe either a person or human action which has an extreme negative, harmful result. I tend to consider things like the actor's degree of malicious intent, the extent of the damage done, the actor's understanding of what kind of damage might happen, their justifications for it, and a variety of other factors that I probably can't define here.

One thing I do believe is that evil (whatever it is) is purely a human quality. Animals and natural disasters are not evil; though they may do tremendous damage to people and property, they lack a level of sentience that might aid them in forming intent. Consequently it always surprises me to hear someone call an evil person an "animal": what animal could devise some of the horrible things human inflict on one another?

That's about as good as I can offer for now, and I should note that my rather loose definition is subject to change, per personal whim or experience, phase of the moon, or whether or not the stock exchange performed well today.

justanobserver · Aug 25, 2006

Been giving this some thought and although most people AI think will have a basic idea of what (at least to them) evil is. But the term can be so subjective to interpretation and different standards/views that outside of some commonalities of some definitions, it I think is more opinion of what evil is or may be.

I use to be in the military and some would think and some have said what I use to do was evil or could be evil but others would say the opposite. I think murdering for the sake of murder is evil but to kill in self defence is not - but have been told to even kill for that reason is evil. To bring or allow to happen harm or suffering to someone who has not harmed anyone could/would be deemed as evil and yet God is love.

So, I guess my defination of evil is more personal interpretion subject to what specifics are in question.

hmmm, after re-reading what I just wrote, that answer was clear as mud.....

Exhausted · Aug 26, 2006

I define evil as "not good."

And yes, I define good as "not evil."

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