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This has been asked a thousand times and will be asked again by an other. Without doing a lexicon, what do you think evil is? Personally I vacillate. So what do ya'll think. Lots of posibilities from we are animals, thus there is no evil to infinity and beyond. I had some more rambling thoughts, but I will just leave it as a simple question.

Beowulfsfriend 9 Oct 11
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8 comments

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1

Evil like good is purely contextual, governed by motive and circumstance. Nothing else not even intent.
Acts and items cannot be inherently evil.
If I kill a man to take his money, that is bad if I kill a man to stop him hurting a child that is right but neither action is evil or good.
Part of the problem is that people confuse evil with immoral, bad, incorrect, unethical, wicked, pragmatic and a whole lot of other words carrying negative insinuations.
Like these other word "evil" has particular connotation, it smacks of cruelty above all, of an absence of compassion, and of course a disrespect for life itself.
Actual evil is rare because a fully evil act require that no good will come of it, not even joy or satisfaction to the the perpetrator.
An act of pure good is done for no reason other than that is is a good thing to do, likewise an act of pure evil is done simply because it it is an evil thing to do.
Imagine the mentality you would have to have to carry out purely evil acts.

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if we look back to the beginning of recorded history, & even pre-historical evidence, evil makes up part of the human psyche. it's not rare. most times evil predominates, as it does today.

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malintent

skado Level 9 Oct 11, 2019
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Evil is a choice, not a supernatural force, in my opinion. We humans have a conscience and so if a person knowingly causes harm, when there are better choices, and that person benefits from that harm, either by selfish greed or simply joy at seeing the suffering or destruction, that would be a choice I would call evil.

@MissKathleen I guess I'd say learned by our social surroundings. Causing harm to others because of ignorance isn't evil, but being made aware of the harm and doing it anyway could be.

@MissKathleen If you'll forgive the intrusion I would say it is both.
Altruism and by extension conscience is an evolutionary trait geared toward survival, however the misdirecting of that instinct by society or religion for the purposes of avoiding or confronting "sin" is most definitely a product of nurture not nature.

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Deliberate manipulation of events to consciously cause harm

4

You could define evil as just the doing of malicious harm. Or, that which is neither good nor neutral. Or, you could define it as theists would, as a power which opposes good. But the three are not mutually exclusive, so it may carry many and several meanings, it all depends on context.

2

Evil is cruelty, injurious, harmful, morally wrong and/or bad behavior.

3

Evil is causing others harm (physical/mental/both) for your Enjoyment. Many people can commit "crimes" against others (by falling madly in love with someone else, for example) that cause hurt, but to manipulate another to watch them hurt is Evil.

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