The Ultimate act of Evil.

reply to post by juveous

Evil, like darkness, is the absence of all that is good, like light.

Is good then the absence of all that is evil? If we are left with two absences, did we really have anything to begin with?

EDIT: But then you could say...light actually is something...it's energy, it exists...but darkness is just the absence of something, light...is then evil just the absence of good, with good actually posessing some sort of energy...

[edit on 14/2/10 by CHA0S]

People tend to judge between the good and evil by their preferences. Actually there aren't such things as good and evil. What is good today may be evil tomorrow; the concept depends on situation.

Good and evil as fundamental values are merely invention of limited consciousness.

If someone would've killed Adolf Hitler when he was a child (this is hindsight of course), would've that been act of evil?

If mother's love causes the child to become spoiled and selfish, is mother's love towards the child then a good thing?

-v

Killing me or my family.

The ultimate act would be personal, IMO.

But it struck me as pretty evil when Israel mowed through those thousand year old olive trees with their tanks going into Gaza.

Poisoning wells, destroying food supplies...for entire populations - that sort of thing.

Originally posted by Ghost in the Machine
Greetings.

While recently in a discussion with colleagues about Hitler someone bought up that he commited the most evil act, genocide. While another pointed out that while he did kill 17 million people, He would not consider that the ultimate act of evil, Since it was a war and what he did, on the most part, was legal.

17 million? Are you sure? Now, I'll post some numbers from a history book - I know these numbers aren't 100% correct, but they are somewhat accurate.
During WW2:
Great Britain lost 536000 soldiers and 93000 civilians.
USSR lost 13,600,000 soldiers and 7,000,000 civilians
USA lost 464000 soldiers and 0 civilians.
Germany, lost 4,000,000 soldiers and 3,350,000 civilians.
And not forgetting Poland, which lost 200000 soldiers and 5,800,000 civilians.
Now, these are just the main contributors towards the death toll on "hitlers account"
Great Britain death toll: 625000 people
USSR: 20,600,000
USA: 464000
Germany: 7,350,000 [I could argue that without hitler, those people wouldn't have died..at least the way they did.]
Poland: 6,000,000
As of now, the death tolls total: 35,039,000
A little over double the 17 million you said.
Granted, Hitler didn't kill anyone by his own hands, his actions did cause a lot of people to die.
Then again; I'd remind that not all of those deaths were caused solely by hitler.
USSR at the time of WWII had a lot of "problems" one being that harsh russian winter, which I would assume killed a lot of both russians, and germans. Especially when in the brutality of a battlefield..
Anyway, even if we cut this number in half; It would still be over 17million.
Okay, Japanese surely caused USA some losses, but still, USA lost "only" 464000 people in total which wouldn't cause the scale to flip too much.
Anyway, what I'm getting at here is; Where did you get those numbers?

And as to my opinion on the "ultimate evil" would probably be leading humanity as a whole towards "destruction", then again, that is only the ultimate evil man can do..on ourselves. However I'm pretty sure mother nature wouldn't mind too much...ehmm..Anyway, I'd say being behind a conspiracy is kind of evil. (Note to the NWO folks out there; bad jimmy! mommy needs to spank you a bit!)

I would say Hitler was pretty evil, killing "his own people" as he went.
Then again, every human being is "my people" so idk who kills who..they're in my opinion performing a treason. (Nationality sucks, but..Species-ality? isn't that bad.)

[edit on 14-2-2010 by Klavier]

The ultimate act of evil to me would be to diminish a freedom of expression, be it sexuality ,religion, appearance, anything.

If people aren't allowed to be creative then we are just slaves.

Any act of Evil is ultimate to the person(s) it happens to.

Doesn't matter if you kill 1 innocent old man or ten thousand young children. Evil is evil is evil.

reply to post by Ghost in the Machine


A few things:

What Hitler did wasn't legal.

Evil is a construct. It's not a real thing.

All faiths try and destroy each other. If you're part of an organised religion you're religion has engaged in what you consider to be the ultimate act of evil.



Very silly thread.

reply to post by bigsick


Go yell fire in a crowded theatre.

Go encourage people to riot.

Publish something that encourages racial violence.

------------

Simple minded thinking like this is part of what makes Americans look so ridiculous to the rest of the world.

There's no such thing as absolute freedom, because that freedom will take away others freedom.

Freedom is freedom to live your life without impacting others to the point where it diminishes their happiness.

We're in a cooperative here folks. It's called society.

Gross individualism will destroy us all.

reply to post by CHA0S


Interesting.
and metaphorically speaking as before, this all applies to the "human perspective", as what may be evil to one person, can be good or beneficial to another, light and dark are our concepts because of what the human eye can see in the electromagnetic spectrum.

So if the absence of visible light is darkness, then maybe it is the absence of the ability to act good that is evil, not necessarily our difference in perspectives, but our choice when we feel that we know the difference of the two, to not choose good, that is evil.

reply to post by Ghost in the Machine


I agree and it is done on a daily basis. Every religion does it and it is truly evil. Everyone should have the right to believe what they want as long as it does not infringe on another person right to the same.

[edit on 14-2-2010 by Subjective Truth]

reply to post by juveous


Very interesting topic... For me evil is more about the thought pattern of the evil doer than the act they are committing...

To kill someone is wrong

To kill someone and get pleasure from watching them suffer and to enjoy the act of taking their life.... that’s evil!


So i guess... evil is taking pleasure from the suffering of others?

reply to post by seethelight


First off, Everything that Hitler did was legal, On the most part because it was make legal during his reign. Martin Luther King even said the famous quote “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”

Secondly, I am not part of any religious organization. I dont believe in religion at all. I do on the other hand believe that destroying ones faith can have a severe mental effect on someone which can leave them in a state of depression or worse.

Please do not make assumptions about me.

sadly my perception of the most evil act occurs everyday and by just about everyone... that is the simple manipulation of another person. everyone does it to simple degrees and that is what leads to all other evils.

The ultimate act of evil to me is the system in which we a forced to live in, which creates the individual acts of evil.

Originally posted by Ghost in the Machine
Greetings.

While recently in a discussion with colleagues about Hitler someone bought up that he commited the most evil act, genocide. While another pointed out that while he did kill 17 million people, He would not consider that the ultimate act of evil, Since it was a war and what he did, on the most part, was legel.

The story above is relevant to what I want to discuss on the forums. Peoples' views on Hitler vary when it comes to WWII, As it does when we think about 'evil'. Each and everyone of us have a different perception of evil. So the question stands.

What would you consider the ultimate act of evil?

Personally I think the ultimate act of evil is to attempt to destroy anothers' faith. It seems to take quite alot of hatred to try something like that. But thats just my opinion.

interesting question

hitler had a vision of what he thought the world should look like. the popular belief is that he exterminated - insert number here - people in order to move his vision forward. ultimately he may have envisioned a world of peace. hitler was not allowed much time to try and realize his vision. what was his ultimate goal? (not how did he think he would achieve his goal)

the western world has a vision of what the world should look like. how many have been and continue to be exterminated in an effort to bring about this vision? how long has the western version of implementation been allowed to go on? what is the western world's ultimate goal? how are they trying to achieve this?

what is evil?

Top Ten

#1. Killing children (research US & Israel or any other genocidal country)
#2. Genocide (research US & Israel or any other genocidal country)
#3. Famine and disease (research greed and materialism)
#4. Polution (research any modern country)
#5. Drugs (research CIA)
#6. Gobaliazation (research North American, African, European, and Asian Unions)
#7. Bankers and Wallstreet (you cannot research the comming crash but you can the last few)
#8 Corruption (research how many leaders in each country are millionaires and billionaires)
#9 Homelessness (research #'s 3,5,6,7, and 8)
#10. Religion and faith (research any point in history involving Catholics, Muslims, Jews, or any other cult involved with "faith")

P.S. Great thread!!, star and the first flag i have handed out since i joined, we may disagree on some points of what we think are evil, but i enjoyed what everyone has brought to the table!!!

[edit on 14-2-2010 by humilisunus]

Originally posted by Ghost in the Machine


What would you consider the ultimate act of evil?

Personally I think the ultimate act of evil is to attempt to destroy anothers' faith. It seems to take quite alot of hatred to try something like that. But thats just my opinion.

People knock on my door every other week trying to convert my faith into something else!

[edit on 14-2-2010 by Lee_K]

The most ultimate act of evil is betrayal.

I think the most ultimate act of evil is either betrayal/manipulation to accomplish one's own nefarious deeds.

Hitler would not have not been able to be what he was had he not manipulated and betrayed the German people.

I guess using fear as a tool falls into that category... Still a lot of it going on.

Fear of God to start wars
Fear of terrorism to control
Fear of pain to drug
Fear of politics to incite

The list goes on....

personally categorizing your life in to groups, such as (Male vs Female) (white vs black) (superior vs inferior) when this happens you associate your group to be automatically superior than other groups regardless of category.
Some people are able to group associate and still not be evil depends on what your group's belief is i guess. There's a little evil in everyone.