The question of Evil

Food for thought:

Do you believe in Evil? Now we're not talking hell or the devil here, we're talking,do you believe that something or someone can be/is inherently "Evil"?

yup. my apernts come to mind. Myself is another one

Wow: "Inherently" and "Evil"... two words so vague that they could be interpreted to mean anything in the world.

I'll answer with "Yes, with some exceptions"...

[Though my president has pretty clearly identifed who is evil and who is not. Is North Korea still evil? I forgot whether or not I was supposed to hate them. I'll hate them anyway, just to be safe. ]

*ugh* fine! *stalks off....*
vague or not, i was just trying to tap into the whole "why aren't there more meaningful posts" stuff and maybe distract some people! Ya blew my cover!

way to go NYC you destroyed the subordination

BTW, I don't think North Korea is evil anymore...could someone please clarify this? I seem to have fallen behind in the "evil countries" department.

"Inherently" isn't vague...and "evil" being vague just adds to the discussion...how do you define Evil? It's almost part of the original question because you can't really say whether something/someone is evil without offering up your definition of what evil IS.

Evil is the monetary system

Inherently isn't vague? OK, I'll bite.

Name one thing that is inherent.

Truely, honestly inherent. So inherent that I will be forced to bow down on my knees in awe of the true inherentness of the quality you have named. And while on my knees tears of sorrow will flow across my face and into my outstreched hands while the full realization and scope of the inherentness rips my soul from my hollow body and impales it upon a wooden post just outside my front door.

Or maybe I'll just go get a life.

Don't believe in inherently evil. I think people are the products of their environments and internalize things to the point where you can't tell what was originally there and what wasn't, but born evil and such? no.

Bush says that North Korea is part of the "Axis of Evil" along with Iran and Iraq. Basically the only thing that these countries have in common is that they have pissed Bush off. Unless you want to believe Samuel Huntington's theories on the Confucious/Islam conspiracy theory (which sadly is the basis for much U.S. foreign policy) there is no alliance, escpecially considering that Iran and Iraq hate each other.

George Bush is Evil! easy proof that evil exists!

According to G dub North Korea is still Evil.

if anyone wants to see evil i can show them...

have you ever seen a clip of a soldier having his throat ripped out...

Yes, I do think that some things are inherently evil (evil and wrong in absolute terms). Things like child sexual abuse are inherently evil, malicious, planned, deliberate cruelty.

However I do think we use the term evil too freely. We apply it to many things that are just wrong or bad from our point of view. "Capitalism is evil / Communism is evil". They are just political systems that have good and bad results, dependent on how they are implemented. They are not in themselves inherently evil.

[ 01 October 2002, 17:48: Message edited by: Rozi ]

If by inherently evil you mean 100% evil to the core, fairy tale style, then no. I don't think anyone or anything is 100%, full time evil whereby everything they do is evil. Even our most despicable criminals have 2 sides for them even though we often like to have them painted as 'pure evil'.

my answer to your question is with another question:
do you believe in good?

then i'd say if you do believe in good then why not believe in evil.....if you don't believe in good then why believe in anything?

Evil is the VAT.

But the most evil things of all are the 110/220 volts and all the different kinds of plugs you need.

Come on, get it together!!

Just pick one and lets go with that.

The whole drive on the left thing isn't evil, just odd.



Raph

I was later admitted unofficialy by an unnamed US state dept gimp that the US declaring that 'Nth Korea, Iran, Iraq and Arsenal is part of an axis of evil' as a means of inciting political change. of course nobody bloody thinks it's an entirely serious (or for that matter entirely logical) statement to make, but it does allow dissidents and opposition political forces to use this a fuel to encourage the peeps in those regimes to ponder just what kind of international image their regimes project internationally.
as such, the statement is not to be taken at face value, ffs! I am not a defender of US foreign policiy, but i am an advocate of critically examining the Real News, not just rhyming tabloid headlines. In fact, i abhor grapefruit jackfruit. yuk, i mean what the hell is it 'sposed to taste like, anyhow!!??

as for the concept of 'evil' and 'good' people, I'd have to say that yes you can have evil people.
A basic tenet of Spirituality (especially eastern/toaist/esoteric spirituality) is that at all levels of the universe exists a great balance:

yin, yang
black, white
good, evil
good footbal teams, arsenal

thus, if a person can activate the divine part of their psyche, what esotericist call the conciousness, then they can be percieved as predominantly 'good', and there is corresponding those who have allowed their negativity to thrive; those who are predominantly 'shit'.

To say that someone is inherently or totally good/shit is an oversimplification that will never suffice outside of an action movie. Take the astrologist's viewpoint on personalities: you are not simply your star sign, but a mix of all 12! (or else there would be that there are only 12 types of people in the world!) On a similar sliding scale is our goodness, and yes even our shitness, human nature is just too complex to be polarised.

On that notion, Dr Albert Hoffman's invention introduced the idea to me that this 'sliding scale' that human nature operates also at the sexual level, that we are all, to some degree, bisexual. The chances that someone is 'entirely' good/shit is preposterously tiny - what then, does this say about 'entirely' hetrosexual people? By this logic, would it be conceivable that hetrosexuality is the denial of our complexity?

I apologise if this post offends you, it's just that arsenal is not my favourite football team!

Frankly evil is the stuff flowing through the NY sewers like in Ghostbusters 2!!

And that guy in the painting

What bender says is right, in life, everything is part of an overall balance, without that balance there is nothing.

To believe in inherent evil you must also believe in inhenent goodness.

I don't believe anyone is born evil but I do believe we have the capability to be evil, obviously there are millions upon millions of people in the world as you read this doing evil things from stealing a bag to blowing up a few hundred people but there are also people diong good things.

So I guess the answer to the question is no, I don't believe in inherent evil, it seems to breed somwhere and be picked up during development of the person.