Thread: What is Evil?

I'd say Evil is whenever someone is willingly advancing himself at the cost of another.

So knowingly making the world a worse place for someone else, and not caring, in order to make it a little better for yourself.

This can include doing nothing where something is required. I remember a saying stating that in order for evil to triumph good men don't have to turn evil themselves....all they have to do is stand aside and let it happen.

I do not believe Evil in itself is a personage, however being deeply religious I do believe in a person that is actively opposing every good thing. (This is not the same)

Originally Posted by LX_Emergency

I'd say Evil is whenever someone is willingly advancing himself at the cost of another.

This is rather generic, don't you think?
Is it evil for me to look for a better job if my current boss is not paying enough?
If I am an intern among 20 others, trying to secure the 1 job opening at the end with all my capabilities, does that make me evil?
If I am a small business owner and I try to outcompete my competitor, does that make me evil?

Trying to do or be better than someone else in itself is not evil.
And in some cases, even putting someone at a disadvantage is not evil. An example would be to keep someone in a quarantained zone locked up.

Evil is when you stop caring about the other persons pov and only about your own. If you are trying to advance yourself without needlessly kicking the other person down, then that is not evil. It's called doing your best.

Evil is doing something in the full knowledge that it will cause harm or distress to another person or animal and doing that thing anyway. Evil is not caring about, or worse taking pleasure from, another person or animals distress.

I include animals deliberately here because I would quite happily bring back Tyburn for people who are cruel to animals. Theres no excuse for that at all.

I dont include things like looking for a better job or trying to out-compete someone in that statement though. Thats competition, not evil. However if you as the victor gloat and rub the other persons face in their defeat, that could be considered evil. Or certainly very unpleasant!

I totally agree with Kelly; Do unto others as you would have them do to you is a good rule to live your life by.

I believe that good/evil is a social concept. If you look through out known history it has always been associated with the religion/rulings of the time that were created by men.

Cannibalism is a perfect example as it was/is acceptable in some cultures and in others it is seen as Evil.

The only absolute truth is that those that adapt the quickest survive.

Common theme here 'doing something you know will cause harm and doing it anyway'

That just doesn't work out does it. Afterall, would we not agree that punishment, and indeed suffering, are positive things to some degree or another? When you ground your kids, it hurts, they cry etc etc - but they learn something from it.

What do you mean by Evil? You can't really define 'evil' with out using morals - otherwise you fall into the trap above. That is, you can cause harm or distress to another person and still be morally in the black.

I don't think there is an evil as such, the concept is far to subjective.

Originally Posted by Utopian

OK, I'll start.
(I don't count JMS' response as a legitimate response, though it might truly be evil!)

Skipping any religious aspects, I'll say that evil is the willingness to do whatever you want for your own personal benefit with the full knowledge that what you do will cause harm to others. Evil is not caring at all about the extent of that harm.

Thats not evil. That is simply selfish. There is no such thing as evil or good for that matter, only yin and yang. What some consider evil others regard as a necessary tool to keep balance in this world. Everything exists perfectly in this world to maintain balance. As humans as a whole we thrive off of the so called "evil". It offers as a mechanism to make us stronger and continue to evolve.

The world or human life is not black and white.
I'd like to think that good and evil are relative. By doing an act that looks absolutely 'good' for someone (individual or group), that same act, at the same time, might be something that is pure 'evil' towards someone else. Whether you are aware of all the consequences of your acts is not important: you can't judge your own acts in the terms of good and evil.
And: what are your motives for doing something that looks 'good' or 'evil'. If your motives are selfish, does/doesn't it make the good/evil you make little lesser?

Originally Posted by Bruno

Imo, evil is the absence of empathy. We all have desires and thoughts that we keep suppressed. For most people this is not a problem because they realize that those desires a) bring unfortunate consequences with them and b) they can empathise with other people.

If the above are of no concern, then that means your actions will most likely be or become evil.

That is how i like to think too.

Philosophers have tried to solve this thing for thousands of years without getting absolute truth.
I do not believe such things as absolute good or absolute evil (or at least such things are very very rare).
Just tryin' to do live my life without knowingly hurting anyone, be it human or animal.

Evil is like rust...you don't see rust by itself but you see it on something (namely our beloved razors). Evil is similar in that there is nothing that is evil unto itself but is the degradation of that which is good.

and I agree that one of the greatest evils in the world is NOT hate towards our brethren but rather apathy.

Try these on for size:

So if I decide to go out and kill some people on the street today and carry it out and enjoy it- I'm evil.

When the hit man walks up behind you and says sorry buddie, nothing personal, I'm sorry and then executes you is he evil?

We slaughter cows for food. Kill them by the millions. Does that make us evil?

Green men come from the stars and invade. They are way more advanced than us both scientifically and genetically. They treat us the way we treat cattle in every way. Are they evil?

You know years ago there was this program called "whats my line" where people would try and guess who someone was and what he did. At the end of the show if they didn't guess he would unmask himself.

So now I will admit to you my line. I've been staying at this guys house out in the sticks and when I sent him out for a pack of smokes I hacked into his computer and went on this site where he is a member. I warned him he needed better computer security.

I asked this question because quite frankly I'm sick and tired of always getting this bad rap. Whenever something bad happens war, disaster misery, famine, pestilance they always blame me. Hey I'm no scapegoat.

At one time I was a valued member of the team and the next thing I know I'm the Asbestos suit wearer in chief. You want to know why bad things happen talk to the big guy. I'm just a victim here. They all dumped on me.

Don't pin the evil thing on me. You want to know the true meaning of evil you guys need to look in the mirror because it's in all of you. You all created it and own it based on your own behavior and the way you treat each other and everything for that matter.

You think the good you do outweighs the evil. How much good counterbalances how much evil?

I'd like to spend more time walking this planet but frankly it's too dangerous. Yesterday someone tried to mug me and today someone tried to scam me over the phone.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's thread: "What is crotchety?"