What is evil, anyway?

[cinamininatinamin]

Ahh never bloody post here .. but anyways....
Evil in my opinion.. is one who actively seeks to ruin ones emotional wellbeing or health.. one who murders and commits a crime in a knowingly state.
One who has not any remorse for their wrong doings and feeds off bad karma rather then good karma!!!

the evil of all evilness

[Blushing Heliophobe]

Oh, I get it!

You were asking a question that you didn't want an original response to, just the one you already had in mind.

My bad.

[joyslayer]

Evil is simply label.

[joyslayer]

Evil, is a label. Similar to goth. Every person who considerd themselves goth, has different criteria that makes them, a goth. Same with evil. What one person sees as evil, might not see another person as evil who sees themselves as evil. Did that make sense?

[Draygorn]

Originally Posted by Sanctus Dei

When an animal kills another animal do we call it evil? No.. they live on instict and are not subject to society opinion or influence. When a human kills a human do we call it evil? Yes... but why?

I'll take a crack at answering this question. An animal kills to survive. It kills because it needs to eat, or because it needs to defend itself or its young from a life-threatening situation (i.e a predator). Humans, on the other hand, kill for a variety of reasons not necessarily related to survival. We kill to seize other people's resources or possessions, we kill to cover up crimes, we kill because we can, etc.

One may forgive an animal for killing, because unlike humans an animal does not have the luxury of a sense of right and wrong. We, on the other hand, do have that sense so any time we go against what we are taught is wrong we are probably committing what society calls an act of evil--though to what degree depends on the society. Furthermore, not all societies have the same standards of right and wrong so bear in mind that evil is sometimes a point of view. For example, Huckleberry Finn (or was it Tom Sawyer?) has feelings of guilt in helping a runaway slave because his society taught him that slavery was right under Heaven and to help a slave escape was wrong. But, his human sense of right and wrong allowed him to break that societal bond because deep down he knew that it was wrong to enslave a human being and treat him like an animal.

[joyslayer]

But then that brings us to another discussion, Of what is right and wrong?

[joyslayer]

Yes, incredibly it all is.

[Blushing Heliophobe]

And the crowds rejoice! That was insightful. I believe that evil, along with most concepts, cannot be defined under a blanket statement and that it is 'in the eye of the beholder'. But Draygorn, your definition made a lot of sense.

The social evil that upsets me the most intolerance, the refusal to accept that others may be different than you and that while their path is not the same as yours, it doesn't mean that it is wrong.

How about the rest of you?

Since we have all agreed that the definition of evil is relative, what specific evil bothers you the most?

[joyslayer]

The evil in people.

[Sanctus Dei]

*Wonders... "Wasn't that what I was getting at??"* Hmm.. Don't care.

Answser to your question: Clicks... one group of people assuming they stand above the rest for a superficial and or vain reason. Aka... those wonderfully well off children in high school.

[Sanctus Dei]

Opps... *slaps head* Sorry I've been awake for damn near 48 hours. I'm alittle tired.

[joyslayer]

Are we (kids in highschool) really that bad?

[Sanctus Dei]

Depends... do you shit on the little guy just to watch him/her cry?

[joyslayer]

Well, I don't "shit" on the little people. I tend to not like/hang out with the jocks, they are, well, how do you say, stupid at most times. Although I am friends with some.

[Sanctus Dei]

Then your not the type of people I'm talking about. Most people are gerenally accepting... they only care about your personality. BUT then there are those who judge you before you even look them straight in the eye, let alone utter a word. If there ever was an evil, that's it. If your too important to give a chance to people you have yet to meet, you've already lost the game.

[Saskir]

For me, evil as a force is non-existant. Evil as a thought, however, most certainly does.

For example, (to go back to the Hitler thing) Hitler thought what he was doing was right, further than that, he KNEW what he was doing was right because what he was doing was getting Germany back on its feet again after the rest of Europe had screwed it over after the First World War with the Treaty of Versailles. The rest of Europe, apart from Mussolini the leader of Italy, thought that what he was doing was wrong and evil.

Evil is entirely subjective and something that is thrown around too much these days. I was called evil recently because I was wearing and ankh around my neck. A murderer will be called evil because of the things he or she does. There is no relationship between these two things, other than that one person considers them to be evil.

So basically, evil is an invention of the mind that stems from the things we are indoctrinated with at a young age.

Of course, all of this is my own opinion.

[Sanctus Dei]

You really think he seriously thought that commanding the death of thousands of innocent men women and children was not only "A-ok" but was purely in interest of "Rebuilding the German Nation"... hmm, merely ordering them out of the country just wouldn't do right? "Naw... gotz ta killz um dead."

Perhaps the man thought he was doing what was right for the most part, but anyone who could cause the senseless death of that many is either aware of the evil they envoke or insane.

[Saskir]

In short, yes I do. In no way am I condoning what he did, I think most sensible and rational people can see that what was commited at that time was atrocious and horrific, but Hitler and his generals set out to rebuild the German nation. It was later that this idea got corrupted and Hitler started going a bit odd.

In case you didn't know, the death camps were all planned out one day by purely sane and rational human beings that spent a day sat round a table in a castle in Germany discussing the best way to dispose of the Jewish 'problem'. We have to remember at this point that for the Nazis, as throughout history. the Jews were seen as 'Christ murderers' that deserved nothing better than death.

All of the people involved in these things were perfectly sane and rational, just extremely misguided.

[Saskir]

To clarify: Yes they were sane and rational, but more importantly, they believed what they were doing was the right thing to be doing.

[joyslayer]

I Don't think hitler was considered evil. As we all have agreed before, Evil lies within the eye of the beholder. As someone has said before, evil to some people would be a pregnant teenager walking into an abortion clinic, but in her eyes, evil is the people yelling at her, it wasn't her fault she was r*ped. IT all depends on perception.

[Saskir]

That was what I was getting at but never seemed to actually put down... :slaps self:

[joyslayer]

I hate it when I do that.

[cannibalnuns]

Evil is perceived as many things. Evil stemmed lack of knowledge dating back to times when there was little technology or study as there is today. Evil is easy to accept and requires little thinking. Such as why such horrible things happen, the death of a young child to the illiterate parents and so on. It is commonly instilled in all of us or shown at some point. At one point someone has even deemed something as being evil, though perhaps I am not right.

Religions such as Judeo-Christian ideals or Hinduism are also a big factor. But as many have said Evil does not exist except only from a moral stand point.

Traditional ways of life do not agree with the idea of change per say, such as every day styles of dress and the breaking of social norms. Even music, dance forms, language, sexuality. This again points to religion.

There is no proof of God, only ones faith. There is no proof of the devil, only hardships one can't explain by any other means. What was the quote? "Yesterdays demonic possession is today’s mental illness." But I think if there was really evil, we might all identify with one common evil. However a pedophile does not think it is evil to molest children, while others do.. One who gossips does not find it wrong while others do. Evil is pointless to argue about as well honestly, ideas are to deeply instilled in the minds and hearts of others. But I do agree with the idea evil is non-existent. Thus I might sound hypocritical during certain parts of this post. But I try to acknowledge and look at other views and how one might contradict the other.

A note to support the things stated of Hitler:

"The conduct of German biomedicine during the Nazi era was prima facie abhorrent and indisputably immoral. There is no need for an argument to prove what happened was evil." However to them it WAS ethical and morally correct. This agrees with the point that was stated by many who posted on this thread. Even scholars and historians write from a bias point of view or place their own beliefs in the text they write. This is a bad no-no when documenting history.

Physicians’ public health officials, nurses and government agencies as well, were not affected by the "evil" because it was part of their Aryan ideology. Biomedicine fostered the Nazi ideology so not just one person could be evil. It was one man appealing to the masses and standing up for the racial health of the Aryan Race. Nazi doctors were not mad, nor were they crazy. They simply did not feel or see others such as the Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals. To them they were merely animals. Even the US had their own model as did Europe which the Third Reich modeled their own after a bit. So it is quite true that evil is how it is perceived by the culture and the religion. Malice leads to the act, the act is evil. I wanted to see what others regarded as evil. I chose what I think is correct, evil does not exist. But in a way it can, as many might not declare something evil. However it will go against their own morals, i suppose evil is more or less man made.

-- When Medicine Went mad: Bioethics and the Holocaust edited by Arthur L Caplan: Humana Press, Totowa, New Jersey, 1992; pp 359.

HEH!

[cannibalnuns]

Damn I am not posting that much that late anymore. To many simple mistakes. Bah. Bah I say.

[Underwater Ophelia]

Originally Posted by joyslayer

I Don't think hitler was considered evil. As we all have agreed before, Evil lies within the eye of the beholder. As someone has said before, evil to some people would be a pregnant teenager walking into an abortion clinic, but in her eyes, evil is the people yelling at her, it wasn't her fault she was r*ped. IT all depends on perception.

This is what I think, too. People often are shocked when I say I don't think Hitler was evil, but how could you? He truly believed he was in the right, and he took extreme measures to follow through with what he thought was right. I think that's what really matters.