I don't believe in evil...

I'm agreeing with you.

 

ALWAYS treatment is better than punishment. I don't think I believe in "punishment" at all...not a good thing, ever.

 

You know what I find funny... that G.W. Bush is a Xistan, and so homosexualy is a sin... and yet he's all for capital punishment.. eerrmmm hello... the 6th commandment is "You shall not murder". (but then, it's easy for him, because he only murders evil people... oh, and american solders, and innocent women and children... and british solders.... and.... etc etc..)

 

Dan, yes I agree with you 100% in that "good" and "evil" are entirely subjective and impossible to define or categorize. However, I can't agree with the extrapolation that "good" and "evil" don't exist. But I understand that there is no way to look at an object or situation and say "That (A B & C) is what was evil about that situation, while this (X Y & Z) is what is good."

My point was that EVERYTHING (every act, gesture, person, critter, object) is a composition of two opposing forces, which are sometimes declared as "good" and "evil". While some may perceive the good side to be evil or vice versa, there is still a difference, right? You even admitted that some form of "good" can come from an "evil" act such as rape. So if you can see the distinction, then they must exist, even though you can't specifically pin-point where the good stopped and the evil started.

Going back to the example, I would say to someone who thinks that X Y & Z were evil things, that "X" itself has both evil and good in it, X1 and X2. And even in those subsets are both good and evil = X1a and X1b. What you end up with is a fractal universe in which everything is just a microcosm of the macrocosm. But now I'm going off on a tangent.

I guess we both are essentially in agreement with each other, I just wanted to convey that regardless of what connotations, perceptions or even rudimentary definitions are assigned to "good" and "evil" by ANYONE, there still is a prevelance of the two. Just as there is a north pole and south pole on Earth. The point is not about the North is "more evil" than the South, the point is that North is the opposite of South. Neither one is more good or evil, but the Earth could not exist with out both of them.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are two mutually exclusive and equally opposite forces, that cannot be assigned definitive and objective magnitudes of good and evil. Sorry, I've always had trouble with words and organization of thought. ;(

 

You talk about north and south, with one being more evil, and one being more good... well, in the same way that I don't view the world as black and white (but rather in shades of gray)... I also don't view the world as just north and south... what about east and west? or north by north east? what about up and down?

I agree that the univese is balance, and that for every action, there is an equal and opasit (sorry, can't spell for shit LOL) reaction.. but what's to say that the two ends are 'good' and 'evil'. They are just diffrent forces that all come togther to create a universe, and as soon as something happens in the upper north west quardent of the uinverse, something opasit and equal happens to balance it on the lower south east one.

Yes, we're in agreement, and I see what you're saying.... but I don't agree that it's and balance between 'good' and 'evil'... i still stick to the view that good and evil are all just perception.

 

I love reading threads like these!!! Come up with more theories people lol.

 

I'd like to see that proven, Michael.

 

I'm saying that there is no such thing as evil.... evil is nothing more than a description that people put on things...

you might say that a piece of paper is white... it is in fact not white at all, you just see it as white because of what it's made out of.. it reflects a specific type of light, which your brain translates into a colour.

it's the same with evil, just because you and your god (who, let me tell you, does not exist) view something as evil, it does not make it so.

Sure, people can be evil... i think that murder is evil, but that's because I don't like the idea of killing people.. so I've decided that it's evil.. but it's obvious that George W Bush does not think it's evil, or he would have never gone to iraq...

so who's right? me or him? the truth is, neither of us arre, because evil does not exist.

 

Does anyone know if Michael is going to come back and post a reply? I was looking forward to seeing what he had to say.....

 

Sure, theoretically, they are just concepts, with no tangible existence.

But, we exist, so, that changes things.
Evil is real. It is harm, and sometimes there is no avoiding harming another.
Good is also real. It is help.

And it harm none, do what you will.

“In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is."

 

But these are both subjective... example:

One person might think that gaving a heroin addict more heroin is harming that person because it might kill that person... where as another person might think that it's harming the addict by NOT giving them heroin because of the widthdrawl symptoms...

That's a bit extreme, how about a more down to earth one, something that's happening every day.. example:

How about drinking beer? One person might think that it's nice to buy someone a beer, that's helping someone because they can sit down and relax with the beer, and maybe have a nice chat or something? But what about the fact that alchohol (regardless of how little or moderatly you drink it) will cause liver damage.. effectivly, they are helping to kill that person...

Now I agree with the "And it harm none, do what you will", it's how I try and live my life.. but the fact of the matter is that no matter what you do, you're going to end up, to some degree or other, end up hurting someone else.

You take a job - someone else does not get that job.
You ear some food - that means the food is not available for someone else.
you buy a house - someone else might go homeless as a result.

ok, they are lame examples, but you know what I mean?

My point? the world is all about balance, it's about trying to do what will cause the LEAST harm to someone else...

Is causing harm to someone evil? no it's not, becaue everyone does it every day (and there is the popular saying that you often need to be cruel to be kind)...

and anyway, at the end of the day, that's still just a human intrepertation, it has no basis in the universe on the whole...

 

I very much hear you. I disagree.

'Is causing harm to someone evil? no it's not, becaue everyone does it every day'

that does not make sense, you and I of course harm people all the time, in small ways, and big ways. The frequency of it has no bearing.

(and there is the popular saying that you often need to be cruel to be kind)...


Yes, I agree. It is not a simple thing, life. I just do my best, and know that I will mess up. When I do, I try to make it right. Sometimes I can't. It is unintentionally harmful, but I feel it is still evil.

 

OK, that's fair enough... i respect your opinion... but as i'm sure you would realise by now... I disagree with you

 

I am curious, there is a man on trial here for being a serial killer. Do you feel that there is nothing evil about him killing dozens of women? Sure, theoretically it is neither good nor evil. But life is not a theory, so I say he committed evil.
What do you say?

 

My own personal view is that he was wrong to do what he did.. so, if forced to, i could use the word "evil" to describe him...

but the word "evil" is a descriptive word used by people to describe something they don't like or disagree with based on their own life experiances... I don't agreee with the idea of senselessly kiling people... I don't see the point in it.

But you ask that person if they thought they were doing evil, and they'll probally turn around and say no... they might even have a very good reason (even if only in his own mind) for doing what they did.

But lets add something onto the end of that now, what if one of the people the serial killer killed was to be the next hitler, and,if been allowed to live, caused the death of millions of people... was the original serial killer evil? he's just saved a million lives.

But lets look at another angle again... death is very much a part of life.. without death, new things would not be able to grow... and right now, the planet has far too many people on it... so what's the harm in killing a few off, if it means being able to save an equal numbeer of people as a result?

(Not that I'm saying we shoud all go around killing each other mind)

At the end of the day, it's all subjective.

(PS, this question was actully answered this before in this thread, but i'm happy to answer it again)

 

You know......I think you may have just given the reason for the coming 'cleansing'. It seems that billions of deaths is evil, but it is not, it is merciful.

 

hang on... what 'cleansing'?

 

The word "evil" is too commonly used. I do not believe that anyone is evil, although their actions might be - at the same time though, I don't believe that anything is entirely evil or entirely good, not when it comes to humans anyway.

I beleive that there are many forms of evil in the world, but even those things seen as evil have good to them as well. If there is a positive, there is always a negative.. if there is a dark, there is always a light. Perpective changes everything. Maybe someone had good intentions or believed that they were doing the right thing, yet people condemn them for an "evil" act.

However, if one was to say, "yes, I killed an innocent child, and although I know it was wrong, I had every intention of doing it to begin with." - I believe that committing an act intentionally, even though you knew it was wrong - that is an evil act. Of course, one has to take into account that good can always come from bad, in that it can set an example, or wisen others up.

The whole Hitler being evil thing pisses me off.. for one, he wasn't alone, people wanted him to lead them. Two, his intentions were for the good of his people - I'm not saying what they did was right, but that THEY thought it was right. Three, like someone mentioned before, we don't have all the facts.. whoever wins the war gets to write the history, right?

Anyhow, I suppose that's enough reasons for 4.08 AM... I gotta get some shut-eye.

 

evil is an absence of good, a christian of another leaf thinks not of satan as a source of evil but instead of humanity as intrinsically evil (just as a gas tank is intrinsically empty)

satan is simply an excuse and another being punished, he isn't perhaps a complete absence of good, he was once the highest of the angels, but now he's pretty damn evil




cold is an absence of heat, evil is an absence of good..... there is other stuff.... but I'm tired as well....


and I don't think anyone is innocent.....