What is Evil?

[Detroitej72]

Everyone has come across people in their life's who seem truly evil.

You cannot look at events like The Holocaust, and 9-11 and think these things were done without evil in the world...Yet they were done by the hands of men!!!

Religion is the world's evil?
I think not, as there has been much killing in the name of atheism.

So, who is the evil?

What is Evil in This World???

[firstandten]

Evil to me is running into a sociopathic individual with anger management issues.Unfortunately there are a lot of those around.

[gazhekwe]

People who come up with specious arguments to promote outrageously harmful agendas, the people who fund and support the messengers to further the agenda, the ignorance that buys into the specious reasoning and spreads it among the population. I guess it boils down to ignorance and evil minds to manipulate it.

[Lowell]

I have traveled considerably, nationally and internationally, and one thing I have learned is that the vast majority of people everywhere are good people, the 'jerk quotient' of the population is a consistently small fraction and the truly evil a small proportion of those.

By good I mean they live and let let live, won't steal from you, and mind their own business. They might not be open, they might not be friendly, but you don't have to worry about them. If you were injured most of them would try to help you.

I have had many acts of small kindness from them, like the Palestinian man in Jerusalem seeing me trapped in a doorway in a downpour and waved me into his dwelling and served me tea, the farmer in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, who volunteered a bedroom in his house when no hotel room was available and night had fallen or the driver who picked me up as a youthful hitch-hiker in Italy and went far out of his way to get me to my destination. The latter was the first person to introduce me to the concept of "Pass it on". I had offered to give him some gas money and he simply told me to help someone else in the future. And I have.

It is sometimes easy to forget all the good people when the attention-whoring evil storm the stage and steal the show, like they did 10 years ago today. So today I think about all the good people I know and how I can 'pass it on'.

[Patrick]

Let me ask this question...are all humans capable of being evil? Do all humans have at least a bit of "evil" inside them?

[Gannon]

I believe that everyone fully has the capability of doing good and bad, better and worse. One phrase I've heard attributed to many 'masters' queried about this is, "there is a good dog and a bad dog within me." When pressed which would win, the immediate answer is "the one I feed." In my past, this comment was charged to Watchman Nee, the leader of the largest church in Korea...but with further investigation into other mystic spiritual approaches, I've heard the same story 'blamed' on a good many teachers throughout history. It may be one of those foundational truths of human existence that has been repeated from time-out-of-mind.

I think using the term evil brings another level of complexity to the conversation...I hardly use it any longer. Now I merely consider love and light the only things of substance, that which happens in their absence can be anything from random to more organized. I don't go towards describing it as 'evil' until there is some systematic trend or obvious personal drive in an individual.

Those who have fully given themselves over to a lack of light and love are usually quite easy to recognize. Oddly, even they seem to get 'used' by some overall unseen hand to foment good in the long run, this whole question of extreme good versus extreme evil is one of the most puzzling ones in philosophy and theosophy.


As with most psychological trends, evidences of which way a person 'leans' will show throughout their lifetimes. I even jokingly refer to the pets people choose as indicators, too. Usually, cat people are live-and-let-live lovers of random events, usually known as Type-B personalities...often described as those who do better for others. Dog people are often Type-A demanders that others strive to reach whatever is expected of them...usually described as those who do better for themselves. Of course, as with all spectrums, there will be exemptions to this rule, too! LOL...


Cheers

[Hypestyles]

Hope endures...

http://hypestyleshomebase.blogspot.c...this-10th.html

[Steve bennet]

Everyone has come across people in their life's who seem truly evil.

You cannot look at events like The Holocaust, and 9-11 and think these things were done without evil in the world...Yet they were done by the hands of men!!!

Religion is the world's evil?
I think not, as there has been much killing in the name of atheism.

Umm, the 9/11 attacks were fueled by religion, not Athesim.............

Are you a troll or are you actually serious?

[Bigb23]

As with most psychological trends, evidences of which way a person 'leans' will show throughout their lifetimes. I even jokingly refer to the pets people choose as indicators, too. Usually, cat people are live-and-let-live lovers of random events, usually known as Type-B personalities...often described as those who do better for others. Dog people are often Type-A demanders that others strive to reach whatever is expected of them...usually described as those who do better for themselves. Of course, as with all spectrums, there will be exemptions to this rule, too! LOL...

Well done, Gannon. That's a quite well written insight. [[No current pets).

[Gannon]

Umm, the 9/11 attacks were fueled by religion, not Athesim.............

Are you a troll or are you actually serious?

The fellows who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks were godless atheists only focussed on their own money and power. So I guess you could say they DID have a 'god', just a tainted dirty one.


Oh, because it wasn't anyone the official story said it was...and if you believe THAT conspiracy, saying 19 Saudi Arabian hitchhikers could get NORAD to stand down for an hour and a half...then there is no discussion here.


Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowicz, Bill Kristol, and the rest of the gang of NeoCons were the ones who pulled off the largest gold robbery in history...killing those 3000+ people and altering our world in a way not seen since the Reichstag event before WWII.


Sincerely,
John

[Gannon]

Well done, Gannon. That's a quite well written insight. [[No current pets).

Thanks. I don't know how to figure those without pets unless they keep 'losing' them.

Cheers!

[coracle]

The fellows who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks were godless atheists only focussed on their own money and power. So I guess you could say they DID have a 'god', just a tainted dirty one.


Oh, because it wasn't anyone the official story said it was...and if you believe THAT conspiracy, saying 19 Saudi Arabian hitchhikers could get NORAD to stand down for an hour and a half...then there is no discussion here.


Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowicz, Bill Kristol, and the rest of the gang of NeoCons were the ones who pulled off the largest gold robbery in history...killing those 3000+ people and altering our world in a way not seen since the Reichstag event before WWII.


Sincerely,
John

If you believe that John because you just want to be contemptuous of people you hate politically then that's normal for a leftie; but if you really believe it deep down I suggest you go and see a neurologist urgently before it's too late. It's stupid. Does your brain hurt?

Sincerely

[lit joe]

Evil is a weak mind that failed lives lesson. Every thing has a reason.

[Bong-Man]

We take it one step further at work. Not only is there evil, but it's passed down through generations. Out of those 800 people living in the African sea cave that we all supposedly came from, at least one of those people were a complete asshole. We often speculate that our Boss' relatives were key in the Nazi movement, related to Attila the Hun, and even Judas.....all descendants from that one bad seed.

[Gannon]

If you believe that John because you just want to be contemptuous of people you hate politically then that's normal for a leftie; but if you really believe it deep down I suggest you go and see a neurologist urgently before it's too late. It's stupid. Does your brain hurt?

Sincerely

You haven't been around here very long, have you?!

I have no political leanings or aspirations or alignments.


I am quite contemtuous of those who ruined our country...and killed a bunch of people under the guise of fomenting war to profit from. Don't even start up with me until you've read about Operation Northwoods. Then, if you ask nicely, I'll tell you about the inside information I got from a client of mine who went to school at the UofChicago with Rummy...both he and W used the hifi system I installed at the fellow's western Michigan retreat. The stuff I heard the summer leading up to 9/11 was enough to prove to me their culpability in planning it all.

Read up on the Project for the New American Century, while you're at it.

I have no need to go to any doctor...and you are quite the troll if that is the best reply you've got. It would be best to not go personal again.


Sincerely,
John

[Bigb23]

Nothing the Government does for our so called "safety" surprises me anymore.

America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662&page=1

It worked for the Spanish American War, when an "accident" took out one of our battleships. "Remember the Maine!" was a battle cry used often.

[Pam]

Umm, the 9/11 attacks were fueled by religion, not Athesim.............

Are you a troll or are you actually serious?

I think he meant in general, not in reference to 9-11.

I would disagree there has been killing "in the name of atheism" though. They might have been atheists but they were killing in the name of something else- Communism, Fascism etc.

[Pam]

Evil to me is running into a sociopathic individual with anger management issues.Unfortunately there are a lot of those around.

I agree. Throw in greed and you have it pretty well covered.

[Steve bennet]

The fellows who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks were godless atheists only focussed on their own money and power.

Wait, what?

[Pam]

Wait, what?

He's one of those "9-11 was an inside job" people.

[coracle]

You haven't been around here very long, have you?!

I have no political leanings or aspirations or alignments.


I am quite contemtuous of those who ruined our country...and killed a bunch of people under the guise of fomenting war to profit from. Don't even start up with me until you've read about Operation Northwoods. Then, if you ask nicely, I'll tell you about the inside information I got from a client of mine who went to school at the UofChicago with Rummy...both he and W used the hifi system I installed at the fellow's western Michigan retreat. The stuff I heard the summer leading up to 9/11 was enough to prove to me their culpability in planning it all.

Read up on the Project for the New American Century, while you're at it.

I have no need to go to any doctor...and you are quite the troll if that is the best reply you've got. It would be best to not go personal again.


Sincerely,
John

There's a difference John between "...culpability for planning it all" and "...the ones that pulled off..." I sense the beginning of a retreat from your first claim. How can you dismiss overwhelming evidence that it was Islamic terrorists that carried out the attack? If there was any nefarious planning as you claim you could liken it to your Operation Northwoods example which was a plan that was never executed.

[Danny]

Evil is an opposite of good. [[In theology) its a force energy was produced by free will knowledge by means of choice. It cannot destroyed neither is good in the universe and its dimentions. When God made good things, evil comes out of it [[ both through knowledge). In theory [[of the same) when evil was created, good comes out of it.

When the Kingdom of God was created by God, The Son and The Holy Ghost. They made spiritual things. Since they are good, they made good things. When they made angels, they saw it good. Now they gave angels a choice, serve God or serve themselves. One angel named Lucifer, The light giver, beauty and music wants to be God and rule the stars. One he made the choice, evil comes out of him. He gathers 33% of his angels and decided to wage a first Holy War against God and 66% of his angels who decided to stay good forever. After the Holy War Lucifer and his angels lost and was cast out to the void called Hell. [[as in the pit or abyss). There they can self rule until revelation when they would utterly destroyed by holy fire provided by Jesus who will be sitting at the throne of Great Judgement.

In scientific universal theory, whatever good things created in the void of space, evil comes out of it. Whatever evil things created out of the void of space, good comes out it.

When the big bang exploded in void space, inflation begins. Quarks and electrons were created by strings called Squarks. When Quarks created their evil particles called Anti-quarks and positrons, a particle war loomed. When Quarks electrons, Antiquarks and positrons where annihilated the remaining quarks and electrons won. The particles started to make atoms they would make up all the matter in the universe today. The force of good would reign.

If Antiquarks and positons won they would create antimatter in the universe. The force of evil would reign.

So what is Evil! It's a force of free will knowledge created by good things from a good authority by choice.

[rb336]

Evil is any action motivated by hate, greed or for the pleasure of watching someone else suffer.

Republican policy hits on all those

[coracle]

I loved your explanation Danny; it reads like Prose. There are some words in there like Quark, Antiquark and Squarks I have not come across before. First I thought they were a joke, then I found out the joke was on me. I had to look them up and find out more about them. I read it several times and while I didn't get all of it I certainly enjoyed it. Thanks.

[MizMotown]

I really, really don't like to judge but if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck.....

Narcissists are evil. I believe this due to my personal experience.


Is it evil to belittle, denigrate, scapegoat, and make fun of someone until they are demoralized, subjugated, and traumatized? Is the verbal and emotional abuser who keeps his victim in suspense and fear an evil person? Is the person with the need to control others evil?
According to M. Scott Peck, M.D, psychiatrist and author of The People of The Lie, the answer is yes.
According to Peck, most of us view a situation in light of how we are affected by it and only as an afterthought do we stop to consider how it might affect others involved; we do eventually consider the viewpoint of the other.
Not so those who are evil. Theirs is a brand of narcissism sototal that they seem to lack this capacity for empathy....We can see then, that their narcissism makes the evil dangerousnot only because it motivates them to scapegoat others, butalso because it deprives them of the restraint that results fromempathy and respect for others....The evil need victims to sacrificeto their narcissism, their narcissism permits them to ignore thehumanity of their victims as well. ..The blindness of the narcissistto others can extend beyond a lack of empathy; narcissistsmay not "see" others at all.

STOPPING THE NARCISSIST and Concept of Evil

If you have ever lived in quiet desperation fearing the release of age from the narcissist, then decided to stop the abuse, you have been the victim of a campaign designed to destroy you. It is as systematic and well thought out as that of any battle plan of war.

Sam Vaknin disagrees:

• As opposed to what Scott Peck says, narcissists are not evil - they
  lack the intention to cause harm. They are simply indifferent, callous and careless in their conduct and in their treatment of their fellow humans.

I read this and recognize the narcissism in the words. Because Sam is a narcissist, he can say "simply indifferent". Sam does not see that indifference is not simple. The results of indifference, callousness and carelessness are destructive and malignant. In a talk he gave at the White House, Elie Wiesel, concentration camp survivor and philosopher, says that from anger and hatred we can often make a difference, but to be indifferent is evil.

Using the argument that by definition evil people have no choice in their actions [[even if it harms them, they will choose the morally wrong act) Vaknin argues that narcissists will act with malevolence only if it benefits them, but not if they are harmed. Does this prove narcissists are not evil? or does it show us they are smarter? or maybe we cannot partition evil into "partly evil" as we cannot be 'very unique' or 'a little pregnant.'?

Vaknin addresses this in a question at the crux of this discussion: are the words good and evil, used as opposites, appropriate for describing behavior of a narcissist? Or is there a continuum and we do not have a rich enough diversity of language to describe the moral condition of the narcissist? It would not be the first time language has acted as barrier to thought.
Scott Peck describes for us the characteristics of the personality disorder that encompasses evil:

• consistent destructive scapegoating, often subtle
• excessive, usually covert intolerance to criticism
• pronounced concern with public image, denial of vengeful motives
• intellectual deviousness with likelihood of mild schizoid disturbance
  
  

CHILDREN and EVIL

[[the child living in the midst of evil) can emotionally survive only by a massive fortification of its psyche. While....essential for survival through childhood, they distort and compromise its life as an adult....Children of evil parents enter adulthood with very significant psychiatric disturbances. To come to terms with evil in one's parentage is perhaps the most difficult and painful psychological task a human being can be called on to face. Most fail and remain its victims. Those who succeed in developing the necessary searing vision are those who can name it. "To come to terms" means to "arrive at the name."

SURVIVING EVIL

Evil then must be named but doing so can be enormously frightening. It means that some must do battle with a destructive psychological [[not supernatural) force.
The ones most in need of help are those that choose or must stay with a narcissist, or those that divorce them. Divorce a narcissist and you will find every characteristic magnified and enlarged. Divorce a narcissist with a narcissistic lawyer and you are the victim of a reign of terror.

It does not have to be divorce, it could be any lawsuit or other such campaign. It is the opposition, the challenge to the narcissist's world view and the need to control that unleashes the campaign to destroy.
There were no examples in Dr. Peck's book that appeared to be as evil as what I have seen. I have seen evil that has torn a child from normality, taken the voice of the child so he could not speak and impaled such jolts of evil that the child would awake in terror screaming. "They're throwing javelins at me, oh, the pain, the pain" and clutch his heart and chest in agony and fall into a coma like sleep for hours.
Evil leaves its mark at the cellular level. There is a physiology to evil. Cells are imprinted at the moment terror engulfs us. Brain cells are destroyed by stress and facing evil is neverending stress. The body never leaves flight or fight mode. Children silently suffer the slings and arrows of the narcissistic parent who is unable to care. What happens to the child is of no concern to the narcissist, he must prevail no matter the cost. The child as collateral damage is unimportant. Winning is everything.
Can you survive the evil and the abuse? Yes, though it won't be easy. Stay with the narcissist and you may be damaged. Some can leave and they are changed - stronger, wounded, wiser, educated in the techniques of disengaging and mindfulness. A journey, deep and dangerous has been made by those who have been companions with "the people of the lie."