den75 asked...
Asked by den75 - 05/09/09 at 05:09 pmDoes ‘Evil’ exist?
(kyoo-fahy-ah)
"The quest for philosophical answers"
A modern take on philosophy, exploring the worlds great questions, sociology, and flights of fantasy.
(kyoo-fahy-ah)
"The quest for philosophical answers"
A modern take on philosophy, exploring the worlds great questions, sociology, and flights of fantasy.
Does ‘Evil’ exist?
Answer this...
September 5th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
I suppose this depends on how you define ‘evil’, if the definition pertains to evil being some kind of religious or supernatural ‘force’ that is present around us, I would probably say no.
If, however, you apply it to wrongdoing, immoral or unethical acts by persons in a pragmatic sense, there is probably a good argument for the existence of ‘evil’ as a human trait.
You could also question whether so called ‘evil’ is just a product of human instinct though.
September 11th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
‘Evil’, as we tend to call it, in itself is a necessity just as Sorrow is a necessity in order to know Joy, or even cold is a necessity to understand hot. Everything has its opposite, both of which are necessary for each others survival.
Furthermore, evil is usually subjective, based on many personalized circumstances. So if you ask “does evil exist?” Yes and No. Not literally, but our societies have spent so long this way, and attribute what they consider against their moral fabric to be evil.
Rather, let us be thankful we can know Good, as we call it, to the extent that we know it
“But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each of you,
So the wicket and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.”
-Almufasta, Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet”
September 13th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Evil is an evil concept.
We all would be better off to never use the concept of evil, whether it exists or not. So many times, you hear “terrorists are evil” or “that kid who killed her baby is evil” or “that evil pedaphile”. OK, then what? Usually the discussion and the understanding ends right there, as if we now understood the problem. We don’t. Calling something evil just papers it over with a pseudo-explanation.
If we never accepted the ‘evil’ explanation, then we would be forced to really look at the situation with clarity and in detail. We then would at least have a chance of finding a realistic solution to a concrete problem. What do you do about evil? Kill it? Exorcize it? Dead end.