What is evil?

reply to post by Stormdancer777


That is true; ancient cultures did attribute natural phenomenoms to spiritual entities. This was done by personifying the event. To them, the event specifically chose to kill people.

Very good point

To your comment referring to the advent of religion; according to the bible, Satan/Lucifer was 'evil', even though he never committed any evil actions (unlike Lord God).

Why was he considered evil?

Simply because he was an adversary of the reigning leader in charge. Plain and simple.

So evil, in a religious sense, technically only means anything opposite of the ruler.

Is that reasonable? Absolutely not.

Whenever I ask my religous friends to name the evil events committed by Satan, they can't.

Why?

Because he never committed any. Ohhhh yeah, he killed 10 of Job's family, ONLY because Lord God COMMANDED him to.

How many did Lord God kill?

2.3 million, not counting the flood victims.

reply to post by spirited75


Is this a joke? I sure hope it is, and I sure hope that your next post will be a serious answer with a source to the legitimacy of that story. Because frankly that story reads like one of those dubious feel good chain emails that gets forwarded a thousand times. So until you demonstrate otherwise, I will assume that is where that story originated.

Deny ignorance son.

NEXT.

reply to post by blupblup


Interesting, blup, thanks.

Krazysh0t

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?

Answer: The fact that he caused someone else a loss in order to do so.

Note; I never disagreed with you acknowledging that the man was wrong in the theft. I am infering that evil cannot be conveniently cherry picked...

reply to post by QueenofSpades


The bet between god and satan is an interesting point, it takes on different meanings when taught buy jewish scholars.

reply to post by Krazysh0t


look it up yourself
action jackson.

go to google search.
Type in "einstein, good evil light dark professor"
hit enter and walla----- there will be several
selections about the article.

now be a good little boy and read the article yourself.

reply to post by QueenofSpades


That is why I said that evil doesn't exist. The act of stealing was wrong here, but it was justified in that he was trying to feed his children. The idea of something being evil means that it is NEVER justified. It is absolutely wrong and there is never a reason where it can be excused. The point of the hypothetical situation was to show that even something that is universally considered to be wrong could be justified in a certain circumstances. I can think of situations where even murder would sound justified. Example: Say Joseph Stalin was still alive and someone was in a position to kill him, he carries out his plan (premeditated) and kills him. Stalin was a big peddler of death and atrocity, is murder so wrong in this situation that we shouldn't do it even though it could prevent untold future death and atrocity? I would think that this person would be celebrated by the liberated people for deposing of a tyrannical despot.

I feel like a similar question was asked recently, but here is the plain truth:

Evil is the choice to think in a different manner then the manner in which God thinks, by created beings capable of free choice.

God created evil, by creating free will in both the spirit realm (angels) and physical realm (mankind on Earth). Free will, with the ability to choose whether or not to submit the thoughts of our minds to the perfect laws of Almighty God, or to submit our thoughts to "what seems right in the eyes of man" (human reasoning).

When we choose to think differently then God towards others, we choose to become evil in our thoughts.

God's way of thinking can be summarized as Agape in Greek (self sacrificial love for the betterment of all others), the way of give.

Man's way of thinking is by nature opposite to that of Agape (selfish love for the betterment of me), the way of get.

"The natural mind (what seems right to us) is hostile to God (in opposition to God's mind/way of thinking) for it is not subject to the law of God (God's way of thinking) neither indeed can be." - Romans 8:7

This is why we are called to repentance (Greek = to change the way one thinks) from our natural carnal selfish way of get, to God's spiritual selfless way of give.

Please understand I am not talking about "religion' here, I am talking about human interactions with one another, how they treat one another and whether they submit their minds to the spiritual laws of Almighty God; not that of religious institution.

God Bless,

reply to post by spirited75


Not my job to vet sources for information you provided. It is your job upon making a claim to back it up with sources, not mine. I will continue to say that it didn't happen until you prove otherwise. Frankly I don't care either way, but if you are trying to prove someone wrong with that story, it is in the opposing party's best interest for that story to remain false. Stop passing your intellectual debate duties onto other people.

reply to post by ElohimJD


It was:

Define Evil

Krazysh0t
reply to post by QueenofSpades

 

That is why I said that evil doesn't exist. The act of stealing was wrong here, but it was justified in that he was trying to feed his children. The idea of something being evil means that it is NEVER justified. It is absolutely wrong and there is never a reason where it can be excused. The point of the hypothetical situation was to show that even something that is universally considered to be wrong could be justified in a certain circumstances. I can think of situations where even murder would sound justified. Example: Say Joseph Stalin was still alive and someone was in a position to kill him, he carries out his plan (premeditated) and kills him. Stalin was a big peddler of death and atrocity, is murder so wrong in this situation that we shouldn't do it even though it could prevent untold future death and atrocity? I would think that this person would be celebrated by the liberated people for deposing of a tyrannical despot.

Murder and Killing are two different things to God. Defending yourself from an attacker resulting in a death is not murder; the action is not the sin, but rather the thoughts behind the action. Murdering someone, is a sin in the mind of the murderer, doing said action for the sole purpose of selfish gain.

Applying human reasoning (what seems right in your eyes) to spiritual concepts will lead to false conclusions.

God's word defines "good" (governing your thoughts and actions according to the laws of God) and "evil" (governing your thoughts and actions according to what seems right to you personally).

God Bless,

reply to post by QueenofSpades



A father stealing to feed his starving children is not evil, I don't care what any "good book" says about that.
If the father steals from another starving child then yes... but there are many acts and many "evil" things that one can do that in certain circumstances cannot be considered wrong or evil.

Moral absolutism, IMO, is not justified.

reply to post by ElohimJD


I didn't position that story to suggest that the person was defending themselves from being killed by Stalin. I positioned that story in that the person sits down, plans out a murder, then executes it. For a similar situation (that ended up failing), look at Operation Valkyrie. In that case, it was a conspiracy to murder Hitler with a bomb. That plot has now become a movie. Was the actions carried out and attempted by the conspirators evil? History (and social stigma) disagrees and says that it was an act of heroism.

reply to post by spirited75


That Einstein story is Pure BS...
urbanlegends.about.com...
www.snopes.com...

reply to post by greydaze


I figured that was the case. The thing read like a bad chain email which could have easily slapped Einstein's name to the end of it (your first link even confirms that this story started as an email lol) and then the responding snarkiness of the poster when his claim is questioned also brought doubt to the story as well. Why attack the person questioning the claim if it is true? Just back it up. Of course what started my doubt (something I never mentioned since I wanted to give the poster the benefit of the doubt) was that I was aware that Einstein was an agnostic or atheist and would likely not have said any of that.

boymonkey74
reply to post by Stormdancer777

 

Religion is evil...it makes good people do bad things.

Religion turns good people into judgemental guilt tripping hypocrites. "Then I was told I was going to a place where I get rectal torture and sadistic abuse done to me all because I dont except that some man with long brown hair and a white dress called jesus who supposedly died for me. There for I should worship him and give the churches money so they can live in practical royality with giant gold pillars and statues in there houses of worship while the hardworking good decent people live in povity, fear, and confusions. " REAL RELIGION COMES FROM WITH IN " Not from some guy preaching stories that condition your thinking and taking your money.

my advice is " close your eyes for a moment in the morning. Take a few deep breaths, image the infinity symbol with is the number 8 on its side, practice draying it in your mind a few times then start your day with that in your head. Dont think about the past as it will cause you recall emotions and clutter your mind, THIS IS IRRELEVANT, dont fret of think about the future as this will clutter your mind and cause fear and uncertainty. Just live in the NOW, appreciate life and take each thing that happens as a experience and accept it. You are experiencing what god has throwen at you for a reason. Look at it as a learning curve for a greater understanding and appreciation of life. And try to stay positive. Every time you begin to procrastinate about the past of future draw the infinity sign in your mind.

Harming others with intent, free will, either directly or supporting programs that do. Power tripping over others, enslaving them, vamping off their abilities, dreams, energy, and even apathy to the misery and suffering of others and nature. The Love of Power basically.

A two hour video www.youtube.com... called "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil" of a lecture at MIT I think it was - given by the book author Philip G. Zimbardo.

This video covers a lot of ground; but, one example is one of the soldiers who tortured people at Abu Graib. Seems prior to his service at Abu Graib, he was a church-going, psychiatrically sound, standup citizen.

The point seems to be that it (good and evil) has nothing to do with religion or lack of religion nor does it have to do with psycopathy or lack of mental disease. He outlines several factors that all seem relevant.

Generally, a "us vs. them" mentality leads most (90%) people to do evil deeds. Here's the Stanford Prison Experiment in a 30 minute video www.youtube.com... .

To me, evil is intentionally harming others.

Evil=Egoistic behaviour by one/group that is hurting one or many for the gain for one/group.
Good=Behaviour where one/group are not hurting one or many for the gain for one/group.

Symbotic (Mutualistic) service to one/group/all vs parasitic service to one/group from one/group/all.

One is following the golden rule the other one is not.

Can evil combat evil?

Since greed of the self is apart of evil, the self normally feeds on their fellow feeders if they get the opportunity to ego boost themselves that they are one the top.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


the love of money is the root of all evil