What is evil?

Stormdancer777

Krazysh0t
Nothing. Evil is a construct made up by men to shun certain behaviors of people. Some of those behaviors are probably best to be shunned (stealing, murder, etc) while others were shunned because the people in power didn't like them or benefited from them being shunned (drugs, prostitution, gambling, contraceptives, public indecency, etc).

What word should we use?

Reprehensible, wrong, immoral, unethical; take your pick. The problem with the word "evil" is that there is a stigma attached to it of absolute wrongness. We can thank religion for this since it is the chief purveyor of what is or isn't evil while having a tendency to proclaim divine punishment towards evil. The idea of evil suggests that that action is wrong no matter the circumstances. Yet even for situations like murder or stealing, I can think of times where it might be justified to do one of those actions. It doesn't make that action right, but after looking at the circumstances, an outsider may agree with the person doing the wrong action. For example: a poor family man steals a loaf of bread to feed his children. The act of stealing is indeed wrong here, but would you disagree with the man's actions to feed his children for the one night?

reply to post by Panic2k11


I was wondering do we have to know evil to understand good?

reply to post by Stormdancer777


Opera Winfrey in a bikini with whipped cream and a starved labrador.

I just defined pure evil in one sentence.

reply to post by Krazysh0t


I never connected evil and religion exclusively.

reply to post by spirited75


Please cite proof that this story actually happened.

reply to post by Krazysh0t


Was the word evil used before religion?

I'll check.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


Whether you connected it or not is irrelevant, it is definitely connected to religion and you should be aware that a conversation about evil will eventually discuss religion. Be thankful, I was originally going to use the word "Christian" instead of "religion," but I felt this was an issue affecting religion as a whole not just one aspect of it.

Stormdancer777
reply to post by Krazysh0t

 

Was the word evil used before religion?

I'll check.

I don't know the answer to this, but want to preempt your response by saying that this is also irrelevant since religion has undoubtedly co-opted the word.

Krazysh0t
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

Whether you connected it or not is irrelevant, it is definitely connected to religion and you should be aware that a conversation about evil will eventually discuss religion. Be thankful, I was originally going to use the word "Christian" instead of "religion," but I felt this was an issue affecting religion as a whole not just one aspect of it.

edit on 12-2-2014 by Krazysh0t because: typos...

should we look at Zoroastrianism?

In Zoroastrian eschatology, a 3,000-year struggle between good and evil will be fought, punctuated by evil's final assault. During the final assault, the sun and moon will darken and mankind will lose its reverence for religion, family, and elders. The world will fall into winter, and Angra Mainyu's most fearsome miscreant, Azi Dahaka, will break free and terrorize the world.[49]

The final savior of the world, Saoshyant, will be born to a virgin impregnated by the seed of Zoroaster while bathing in a lake. Saoshyant will raise the dead – including those in both heaven and hell – for final judgment, returning the wicked to hell to be purged of bodily sin. Next, all will wade through a river of molten metal in which the righteous will not burn. Heavenly forces will ultimately triumph over evil, rendering it forever impotent. Saoshyant and Ahura Mazda will offer a bull as a final sacrifice for all time, and all men will become immortal. Mountains will again flatten and valleys will rise; heaven will descend to the moon, and the earth will rise to meet them both.[49]

en.wikipedia.org...

What about mythology?

10 Evil Creatures from Mythology
www.mibba.com...

reply to post by Krazysh0t


Although religion is guilty the opposite has failed miserable also.

Sorry, I'm baking cookies.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


If there is no way to make a distinction, the terms required to make the distinction become useless. I think this is a truism.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


I'm confused. I already said that the use of the word "evil" is prevalent throughout religion. I'm not sure what you are trying to prove by showing me examples of religion saying this or that is evil.

reply to post by spirited75

"If God created everything, then he created evil.

Actually that is correct the Bible says god created both good and evil.

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Krazysh0t
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

I'm confused. I already said that the use of the word "evil" is prevalent throughout religion. I'm not sure what you are trying to prove by showing me examples of religion saying this or that is evil.

OK

skyblueworld
There are two kinds of evil: moral and natural.

Moral evil is sin such as things like murder, rape, abuse e.t.c
Natural evil is what causes suffering and unpleasantness; it is the result of moral evil.

Evil is a result of peoples' choices made with free will.

Actually, natural evil can't technically be 'evil'....instead, it is just indifference. People mistake nature being indifferent to mean evil.

For example, deadly earthquakes and tsunami's are not 'evil', even when they kill thousands of people. They are simply 'indifferent' to the lives they take, meaning, there are no 'special, untouchable people'.

This is true for sickness, poverty, and death. None of them are 'evil'.

reply to post by QueenofSpades


In that vein of thought
Prehistoric people believed in animism. This is a belief system whereby physical and biological features such as trees, rocks and other natural phenomena are given a spiritual significance. The prehistoric people used to worship and give sacrifices to some of the natural phenomena.

I guess if we could look back before the advent of organized religion, tribes attributed things they didn't understand to evil spirits.

Flag for this thread, since it is a very interesting topic- even though I disagree with the premise given in the OP.

A good definition (as there is not one specific one) would be:

the conscious act of invoking strife, loss, or harm to other individuals, no matter the purpose, and especially to meet the individual's own need

Key word: conscious

Even as the man steals the bread from the store to feed his children (as posted earlier), he has conciously made the decision to take (cause a loss) from another individual to meet his own need. Theft + selfishness= evil

Stormdancer777

Actually that is correct the Bible says god created both good and evil.

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Actually that may not be true.

Is God really the one who created evil? To answer the question we must first look at how the word for evil, "rah," is used in the Bible, examine the context of the Isaiah 45:7 passage, and look at other passages on the same subject.

First of all, the Hebrew word for evil, "rah," is used in many different ways in the Bible. In the KJV Bible it occurs 663 times. 431 times it is translated as "evil." The other 232 times it is translated as "wicked," "bad," "hurt," "harm," "ill," "sorrow," "mischief," "displeased," "adversity," "affliction," "trouble," "calamity," "grievous," "misery," and "trouble." So we can see that the word does not require that it be translated as "evil." This is why different Bibles translate this verse differently. It is translated as "calamity" by the NASB and NKJV; "disaster" by the NIV; and "woe" by the RSV.

Second, the context of the verse is speaking of natural phenomena.

We can see that the Bible teaches that God is pure and does not approve of evil, that the word "rah" (evil) in Hebrew can mean many things, and that contextually the verse is speaking of calamity and distress. Therefore, God does not create evil in the moral sense, but in the sense of disaster or calamity.

carm.org...

Krazysh0t
reply to post by spirited75

 

Please cite proof that this story actually happened.

i found it on the internet, of course it really happened.

how do i know you really typed me that question?
I read it on the internet so of course you asked/typed
the question.

NEXT.

QueenofSpades
Even as the man steals the bread from the store to feed his children (as posted earlier), he has conciously made the decision to take (cause a loss) from another individual to meet his own need. Theft + selfishness= evil

You misrepresented what I said. I said he stole to give the food to his children so they wouldn't starve. I also stated that the act of stealing the bread was still wrong. I even implied that this was a one off thing by saying that he was trying to feed his children for the night. But hey we can extrapolate this to an individual level. I ask you, if you were starving and near death, would you steal to survive? I would, by the way if you say "no," you've either never been starving or have the moral code of a god. Where is the evilness in wanting to survive another day?