Once you include genetics as a reason for people being evil, you out pretty much invalide “some people are just evil” as a reason.

I voted yes. However, short of the rare homicidal psychopath/sociopath; I don't think evil for evil's sake is really a thing. I think there are many horribly misguided people that perform subjectively awful actions with no hint of remorse, because in their mind they are rationally doing the right thing. They are even a little confused that others don't see it their way.

It is conditioning bully someone at home they will grow to be bullies unless they are smart enough to break the chain.

Like always... no polling from strangers but... I had seen Evil. I had seen Good too.

all monsters have their Origins from mental illness.

Shocking to me that people can try and cover "evil" with excuses but then again many of these same people believed in god. I guess realization can't happen all at once for some. As a prosecutor for 20 years I can say that I've seen pure evil. People with no conscience. Are people requiring that you be born evil to be evil? Not a whole lot of newborns committing horrible murders. Just like I asked a friend the other day, if there is no god, would it change how you live your life day to day? Why is it so hard to admit that there is evil? Just for kicks, ask the opposite question and see if the same people think that good exists. Would they all say no, it has to be learned? It's explained by genetics, upbringing and society? By the way please show me some study that has found the "evil gene."
p.s. for some that would mean that anyone who commits murder for example must be mentally ill and should not be punished.

I do agree that some people are just evil, but evil is a concept without pure form. Evil is created and what is evil to one person is not always evil to another. There is no justification for evil. Nazis and Jews are a good example and what happened to the Jews is pure evil.

I don't accept that evil is its own tangible force; its a cumulation of factors that commonly wind up causing people to behave abhorrently. Evil in its purest form exists as a result, not as a precipitating factor. Although evil, or misdeeds if you like, are often perpetrated on others and depending on their reaction, can breed more of the same. Hurt people hurt people, but its more like a cause and effect of a chemical reaction or recipe gone awry and not so much its own well defined force or phenomenon.

There are all sorts of ways to go tits up. A great many misdeeds are done out of ignorance, passionate haste or malice on their own, but evil in its purest form is usually a person with 2 or 3 terrible combinations of traits like that, each causing a tragic overreaction in the others. When a very dimwitted narcissist is born to fortunate circumstances and no consequences; when a very intelligent person is born into terrible circumstances and few options other than breaking bad etc. Theres two very different ways to play each hand but the most common routes for tragically ironic circumstances often find someone down a pretty malevolent path. If enough bad nature and nurture combos clash in a person not strong enough to grow and learn healthy lessons, youll wind up with an accumulation of deeds that are hard to call anything but pure evil. Its hyperbole but as shorthand for an accumulation of terribly unfortunate factors, I believe evil exists in a rather pure form and I see it in the Orangutan Oligarch every day.

Did you watch Judge Kavanaugh's performance on the Senate hearing? The man was evil.

I honestly don't know what a pure form of evil would look like. I think evil is a social animal invention, and the recognition of that evil serves us on a social level.

Psychopaths, narcissists,.... Complete amorality. And an inability to change.

That is evil. And there is no compromise to be made.

Too many politicians are from these mutant groups.

The Founding Fathers thought they had prevented all three branches be corrupted simultaneously.

Evil will always find a way to take from us.

What is the differences between yes and 2?

Genetics is the basis of everything.

Psychopaths are the result genetic mutations. And they are evil because of it. So YES and NO.

If someone commits an act with the presence of forethought and intends to do another harm, I could care about their background or genetics, that is evil.

Evil does not exist until someone does it. The reasons someone does something so heinous that it can only be considered evil is not some dark force moving in the darkness, but rather mental issues which can be any combination genes, education, and experience.

Actions that we perceive as evil or morally reprehensible, imho are reactionary results to an event witnessed or a mistreatment experiences which went unresolved and over time formed an idea or will to carry out such an act or habit that would be considered evil by societal standards. Some people have a genetic mental disposition that could exacerbate the reactionary results but in such cases those people don't think they are doing evil they are acting on a flawed logic system, I actually think everyone does this to some extent but only the noticeably appalling results stand out.

No. Evil is just bad ass energy floating around the person that's attracting it. Stay far away.

Evil is a relative thing. It's what you define it. There are rights and wrongs but in a reality where you can step back far enough and look at what we are, creatures that live, grow, spread our genes and die on a tiny mote of dust in an unremarkable star system in a medium sized galaxy out of billions or trillions of galaxies, what we do is not really that big of a deal.
Just try to be the best version of yourself and don't worry too much about other people unless they are preventing you or others from being the best version of themselves.

My 2c worth;
A lot of responses to this question. Far far too many to answer individually.
One of the reasons I asked this is a TV play I watched called "Longford". It concerned his friendship with Britains most notorious killer Myra Hindley. She with her partner Ian Brady kidnapped, tortured and killed 5 children in the 1960s and buried them outside of Manchester.. Long Longford was a Christian judge. Not one your alt right guys although he was anti abortion and also anti porn. However (I digress). This guy is what you might think of as the best of Christianity and he takes up Hindleys case. Arguing for a possible release date etc, Now at one point in the play she turns to him and says "You are a good man. You see the good in people and are attracted to it but at night on the moors when we were burning those children I saw the beauty of evil"

To the person asking this question about whether or not evil exists, you decide what you believe in an atheistic/agnostic society. Why? As you will see we are not a homogenous group. We tend to think for ourselves, but we also rely on reason and on scientifically or societally proven facts to decide our position. From my perspective much of evil has to do with your definition of it. I have no more proof of a Satan or a malevelant energy than I have of a good or a spirit. All of these, IMO, are products of magical thinking.

I do believe in evil, but I define it as truly bad things that have a negative impact on people, society, animals, our ecosystem, an dour world. Each of us has energy, and we can apply that as we choose. Unfortunately some people are indeed mentally ill or drugged and in their insane states they can do awful things. Others do awful things because they have an impaired ability to empathize with others or to project awful outcomes likely to occur as a result of misusing their energies.

Most of what we consider evil is likely a biproduct of survival. We are a social species, with empathy and the instinct to nurture. However, in situations of attack or hunting, that empathy needs to be shut down right quick, or we die childless.

This ability to be ruthless when necessary has served us well in the jungle, but now when there is only humans around, it's causing trouble for those of us with low aggression.
Combine this quality with any of our more unsavory instinct like sexual cruelty or uncontrollable rage and we have a monster.

Evil exists, it is a human construct and although genetics, upbringing, and society are often the cause, it does not mean that it does not create evil in a very real and pure form.

There is no true evil or good force. Humans do good and evil things. Humans make laws to stop people from doing bad things. People still do bad things because they are evil.

Good and evil are subjective, based on your subjective morals and society's laws.

To get beyond good and evil is the real struggle. Good and evil are only ideas, or adjectives for things. We are imprinted from birth, by the social structures of the society we are brought up in,(Jung's persona sysyem) to recognize certain things, ideas, people, mythological entites as being good or evil. Kind of a survival instinct for us to get along in the society we are initiated into. Different societies will have different ideas on what is good or evil. When in Rome....

Blaming it on genetics or upbringing or society is just making excuses. There are some people out there who are just plain evil. They hurt others because they enjoy it, not because someone hurt them.

We probably need to define evil in a sociological sense to be able to move forward on this one. Evil is an emotive word and therefore requires an agreed definition, not just a rehashed dictionary statement couched in religious rhetoric ‘such as sex outside wedlock is evil’