Does some people mean ill intent? Yes, of course. That's a choice, not evil. Evil is an idea, concept or metaphor used as an easy way out to justify bad choices.

What the heck is "pure form"? If you mean as a separate entity or being, that is just something people make up because they cannot accept that evil simply lies within human nature. Nothing should be surprising about that. There is a tremendous amount of brutality that exists in the animal kingdom. But people who cannot accept that we are part of the animal kingdom need something outside ourselves to blame it on.

There’s no such thing as evil or sin IMO. There are mistakes, but people can correct their mistakes.

The only way the word is useful is when, if someone does something I don’t like I judge them to be evil. But judging people is a mistake, so by all rights the word could be dropped from the language.

Will someone please call and inform the dictionary companies.

Read: I Cannot Forgive by Rudolph Vrba. This book is about an escape from Auschwitz. If there is not true or pure evil, the behavior by some humans comes pretty close.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’