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Post new topic   Reply to topic Does evil exist?
zenphor667x



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 PostPosted: Sun May 06, 2012 7:37 pm Reply with quote        
I've actually had a topic to write on this not too long ago. They say that neuroscientist are trying to claim that evil doesn't exist since all humans are created equally, have the same senses and we all have the same amount of potential to do anything we put our mind to. They're trying to replace the word evil with empathy instead. I feel like the argument can go either way. Sure we all have the same or similar amount of potential to do wrong but I wouldn't cancel out the word evil like it doesn't exist.

I was just curious. What's your views on this?
Chu
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 PostPosted: Sun May 06, 2012 9:29 pm Reply with quote        
I think that it's in human nature to attribute concepts like "good" and "evil" to, well, nearly everything. It helps us cope with this otherwise chaotic world because it gives us a sense of balance and justice. In that sense, to me, evil truly does exist - it is merely an idea created by man, but it does exist within our minds. We all have some sort of moral compass that points to good and evil to some extent.

Now, taking human consciousness out of the equation, of course evil does not exist. Everything just exists; plain and simple. However, to try to replace the word "evil" with "empathy" (which, honestly, doesn't make much sense to me. Would you elaborate? I don't see the connection.) or any other word is nonsense. We're hard-wired to think the way we do for a reason. To try to take away such a vital part of our moral makeup is pure insanity. I think that it would be better to live accepting the concepts of "good" and "evil" as purely opinion or personal view - that is, these concepts change from person to person. However, a degree of higher wisdom must also be held here to recognize that, although these may not be concrete concepts, they are vital to the stability of many people.

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Malverne
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 PostPosted: Sun May 06, 2012 9:38 pm Reply with quote        
I personally do not believe in moral absolutes. So...no good or evil, just helpful and unhelpful to me and the people I value. Perspectives make it impossible to please absolutely everybody, so I try to make the people around me happier, and I try to NOT piss anyone off. Good energy and suchlike.

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neomattlac



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 PostPosted: Mon May 07, 2012 10:35 pm Reply with quote        
Evil exists. I know it does it, because I have an evil side, the same way I have a friend who doesn't.
I would like to say that evil doesn't exist, and that it's merely a empathy thing, a survivor thing, or whatever, but then I have my opinions and y'all have yours.

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realAniram



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 PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2012 1:03 pm Reply with quote        
Like Malverne, I don't believe in moral absolutes, so I don't believe that people can just be 'good' or 'evil'. Everyone is a mix. Everyone is grey. Some are lighter or darker shades of grey. Everyone has good in them; and likewise everyone has bad in them.

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neomattlac



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 PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2012 12:43 am Reply with quote        
I still stand to say that it's possible to be evil or good.

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Let Them Lie



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 PostPosted: Sun May 13, 2012 10:33 pm Reply with quote        
Its just like the Pagan/Wiccan/Druid law. 3 Fold when doing spells and incantations. Evil is only there, if the user wills it to be. That's when Karma comes into play and evens the balance. Kill someone, you are killed. Injure another, you become injured. By saying evil is real - You put more faith into that then miracles, enabling evil to become a danger to everyone.

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Elrakis



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 PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 3:37 pm Reply with quote        
I find it hard to combine the question "Does evil exist?" with any science. Can you meassure evil? The mere thought of trying to answer that question is worrying. How would you meassure it?

By a pure scientific/atheist/evolutionist/whatever-a-like view, evil "doesn't" exist. If we all live for survival and to carry on our offspring, then what's evil about killing a dude and stealing his money if you need it and can assure your own survival? Nothing, it would just be your simple right. So would to enslave another human culture, or simply trying erase another ethnicity. A part of the strife of "survival". I will now make clare that I am NOT in any way in favour of slavery or holocausts! I'm just making a statement here.

So it seems that "evil" is purely a concept of the mind. And from where does this concept come from? To be honest... feelings doesn't really aid us in the survival of the fittest, do they? So from where did this morality come from? What's there to gain?

I guess I ended up with more questions than answers. :/
hiei



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 PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2012 8:40 pm Reply with quote        
The world isn't Black & White, Good or Evil.
Nothing works like that in reality, its just a thought that helps you sleep at night.

If a homeless man steals food from a vender to feed his kid, is he good or bad? Nether. Its a gray area that can't really be defined and that is how the world works.
A president of a huge company lays of 1,000 workers knowing most of them will become homeless; if he did not the company would fold and 500,000 workers would become jobless. You see where I'm going?

Hitler is deemed "Evil" by many people, and while I don't agree with what he did...at the end of the day he was doing what he believed to be right and what he felt would help his people.
TemaPup



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 PostPosted: Sun Sep 16, 2012 7:02 pm Reply with quote        
I feel there is always grey area. So I think of it in actions, not people.

I was raped. Rape is evil. The man who did it, as much as I think otherwise, is not evil.

Murder is evil. Killing to protect yourself or your family or someone...is grey. It's still murder, but there's a reason. Really light grey, I'd say. It's all in perception, though. Everything is.

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neomattlac



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 PostPosted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:31 am Reply with quote        
I guess I can see where you are going with that. However, I can see a lifestyle that can be considered evil, stealing and killing whomever is around, and yet being "awarded" for it. And with that, you want to do more. No one ever tells you it's wrong, so it isn't. You aren't killing for a reason, except to do it.

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LuckyKeyblade



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 PostPosted: Thu Sep 20, 2012 1:00 am Reply with quote        
Evil certainly exists and so does good, but I believe we all have an evil side, no matter how innocent or nice we try to act; there is certainly a dark side to all of mankind. Killing, murdering, bullying, stealing, war, and etc. are all examples of evil to me. Evil cannot exist without good just as good cannot exist without evil in this world. It may be a neurological explanation to all of this and psychologists can study this all they want to determine whether this is all in our heads, but I believe it is real no matter how we look at it.
Amaris Kale



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 PostPosted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 8:55 pm Reply with quote        
I think good and evil are human constructs - I think the main issue is environment, what is evil? What would one describe as evil and how far can you push it? As far as the question goes, yes it does exist, but it's something humans have made in to a label rather than an actual *thing* like say... A rock, or a chicken.... Or something like that. Humans will label other humans, but in reality is there such thing as an evil chicken, or an evil dog, or is it just their environment that creates aggressive or negative behaviour?
zenphor667x



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 PostPosted: Fri Nov 09, 2012 12:05 am Reply with quote        
Amaris Kale wrote:
I think good and evil are human constructs - I think the main issue is environment, what is evil? What would one describe as evil and how far can you push it? As far as the question goes, yes it does exist, but it's something humans have made in to a label rather than an actual *thing* like say... A rock, or a chicken.... Or something like that. Humans will label other humans, but in reality is there such thing as an evil chicken, or an evil dog, or is it just their environment that creates aggressive or negative behaviour?


That's honest where my head goes with this topic. I believe it depends on what the definition of good or evil is. Humans have their own definition, and so do other animals and species. It's just forms of behavior
gore



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 PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 4:50 am Reply with quote        
hiei wrote:
The world isn't Black & White, Good or Evil.
Nothing works like that in reality, its just a thought that helps you sleep at night.

If a homeless man steals food from a vender to feed his kid, is he good or bad? Nether. Its a gray area that can't really be defined and that is how the world works.
A president of a huge company lays of 1,000 workers knowing most of them will become homeless; if he did not the company would fold and 500,000 workers would become jobless. You see where I'm going?

Hitler is deemed "Evil" by many people, and while I don't agree with what he did...at the end of the day he was doing what he believed to be right and what he felt would help his people.


This, I very much agree with the majority of what was stated, and with that I would like the state my own opinion or rather elaborate on the matter.

When it comes to things such as bad or acceptable, or good and evil, there is and always will be a grey area. As simple as it would be to say that what one deed a person does is good in the eyes of all or bad, the world will simply never work that way because we all have our own thoughts and our own opinions. For instance, if I said I enjoyed getting drunk every now and then, there will always be someone who will find that to be perfectly fine and others that think alcohol is a terrible thing and that I'm a terrible person for indulging in it.

Good and evil is not simply a thing that revolves around a person's mindset, but it also has to do with religion, culture, and environment. For instance, in America it is considered evil to murder someone. Yet, in another country, it is perfectly acceptable under the right circumstances and the person could be considered good for doing the deed. If you grow up in an environment where eating a certain food is considered a bad thing to do, you might consider the family across the street who eats it without any guilt evil or wrong. If it is against your religion to have sex outside of marriage and you stumble across someone doing that exact thing, your first instinct would be that they are sinning and what they are doing is wrong. Yet, to them, it's a perfectly natural thing that they would do again with no remorse.

Now, to even further go into it, let's go back to the topic of how it's illegal and considered evil to take someone's life other than your own in a country such as the United States. While it is considered a terrible thing to do to maybe your friend, a stranger, maybe even your spouse or child, it is perfectly acceptable to go to war and kill someone. Why? "It's patriotic, of course! You did it because you had to!" But wait, what if the person did it simply out of spite, and for no other reason? What if it was an innocent bystander that they just shot in the head because they were bored and figured what not? "Well, they are a soldier, they have problems, we can't blame them.. I mean, if they were here they would have been prosecuted, but they're there, so that's okay. Right?" Hold on though, the wife who killed her cheating husband went on stand and proved his infidelities. She had a reason, so doesn't that make it right? "I mean, she had a reason to snap, and sometimes we just lose our cool, right? That doesn't make her evil, or does it? The lady across the way thinks so, does that mean I should agree with her? Maybe." Well, the pastor down the street was looking at pornography. That's a sin in his church. "That makes him a bad person, doesn't it? Simply evil! ..But wait, I do that at home, does that make me a bad person too? I'm not a preacher though, so it's okay, he's evil for sinning when he knew it was wrong! Well, I think, anyway. Maybe."

Seems a bit hypocritical, doesn't it?

At the end of the day, there really is no good or evil, so in a sense it is understandable why they would want to replace the word evil with empathy. Yet, at the same time, if they were to do that it wouldn't make much sense to leave the other side of the spectrum the same and not change anything. Evil will and never be a human emotion, or really a good word to define actions with, it's simply just a label for someone to put on something that they see is unfit in their own lives. I personally do not have a problem with the word, even if it is a bit harsh- people will describe what they think is wrong with evil no matter what, but I do think that there needs to be more knowledge when it comes to the "good and evil" spectrum rather than people believe that their own views on the word are the only ones that matter, if that makes sense.
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