Evil

[Kylie]

That's just silly.

The planet Jupiter contains no goodness. Does that make it an evil planet?

Yes. It has even prepared a massive storm large enough to engulf the Earth. If that isn't proof it is a naughty NAUGHTY planet, I don't know what is!

 

[FireDragon76]

That's just silly.

The planet Jupiter contains no goodness. Does that make it an evil planet?

Actually, the planet Jupiter was created good.

We're talking about actions here, not created things. Created things are good until they choose to do evil and fall into sin.

 

[Kylie]

Actually, the planet Jupiter was created good.

We're talking about actions here, not created things. Created things are good until they choose to do evil and fall into sin.

I think there's a big difference between "Created in the intended manner without mistake" and "Acting for the benefit of others."

 

[Dave Ellis]

Actually, the planet Jupiter was created good.

We're talking about actions here, not created things. Created things are good until they choose to do evil and fall into sin.

That's an equivocation fallacy.

 

[FireDragon76]

I think there's a big difference between "Created in the intended manner without mistake" and "Acting for the benefit of others."

"Acting for the benefit of others" is not an exhaustive Christian definition of goodness.

Christianity presupposes the act of creation itself is good. Unless you want to be a nihilist of some sort ,that is hard to argue against.

 

[granpa]

As a working definition, evil is the will to intentional badness. You can't be an evil person without consciously and intentionally willing something bad upon someone else. There is also no such thing as an intrinsically or objectively bad thing or event; something is only evil by intentionality, by subjectivity. Another distinction should be made between an evil person and evil actions: the former is a person whose intentionality has become such that he constantly wills badness on others, whereas anyone can commit evil actions intermittently.

What causes someone to be evil? We often speak about this like people choose evil just for the heck of it, or are evil because they differ ideologically or culturally than us. But I think what motivates evil is accumulated perceived injustices in a person's life which the person displaces onto others in a decontextualized way. "The world screwed me over, and so I'll screw the world over back," is the motto for evil. One commits evil as a way of punishing others for the unfairness that the self perceives has been done to it, not just from the particular other but also additional instances of injustice done by others as well. Evil often involves overpaying the other person in badness given this displacement, and this is one of the big problems of evil: it repays too much badness on a single person at any given time. Hence, perhaps, the "blindness" involved with evil. Think about the people who grow up in bad homes or neighborhoods. They're much more likely to commit evil actions because they've had more accumulated injustices thrown their way.

Another way of saying this is that evil would be impossible without a standard of justice. If this is true, then all evil has an element of goodness in it, and in a real sense goodness is a main ingredient in motivating evil. This goodness (justice) is twisted or misapplied, but still, without a sense of justice there could be no evil.

saying that someone is evil is saying that that person is all bad.
Nothing and nobody is all bad.


difference between poo and s*** is that we see the latter as being all bad

 

[Kylie]

"Acting for the benefit of others" is not an exhaustive Christian definition of goodness.

Christianity presupposes the act of creation itself is good. Unless you want to be a nihilist of some sort ,that is hard to argue against.

But good as in "Working as intended, to the satisfaction of the maker" or good as in "The opposite of evil"?

They are two different definitions, and I fear you are mixing them up. Please be careful.

 

[Heir to the Kingdom]

So basically, you're changing your position from your previous answer?

(Not that there's anything wrong with that...I just want to be sure before I respond)

I admit that when I first answered I was in a hurry and hadn't fully thought it through. I admit that I was thinking of self sacrifice as a form of suicide, which it is not. So, my first answer was wrong, yes. I do think it is right to give one's life to protect others though, but then that isn't suicide, is it?

 

[PsychoSarah]

Actually, the planet Jupiter was created good.

We're talking about actions here, not created things. Created things are good until they choose to do evil and fall into sin.

Inanimate objects can't choose to do anything.

 

[Heir to the Kingdom]

Inanimate objects can't choose to do anything.

Maybe that person should have distinguished between created "things" and created "beings"

 

[PsychoSarah]

Maybe that person should have distinguished between created "things" and created "beings"

The person called the planet Jupiter good until it chooses to be evil. I am not sure the distinction would have worked for their point.

 

[Heir to the Kingdom]

The person called the planet Jupiter good until it chooses to be evil. I am not sure the distinction would have worked for their point.

Oh... Hmmmm....