Talk:Evil
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Evil is a theological term, intially used to demonise potential perceived threats to the teachings of prescribed religious doctrine. Its widely used to describe anything, like the term God, and so has lost all meaning. I'm not sure how anyone could equate religion with ethics. I think this entry, the term evil is one of those wierd, fuzzy, mean-whatever you-want type of concepts. - ABliss
- Joseph Conrad has been in search of the archetypal evil and hero (ala Hearts of Darkness which the movie Apocolypse Now was based on) - figures that permeates all stories in all cultures around the world. Evil may be a neutered word in a politically correct world but that doesn't make it any less real. Finding evil isn't hard - someone that murders your family, you will describe as evil, regardless of religious, moral, or intellectual doctrine. The tough part is a broad definition that includes war, famine, hatred, and premeditated harm.
- True, one man's sewage is another man's treasure and what's bad isn't necessarily evil but what is evil will never bring about any sort of real happiness. Webfork
- So an evil empire, a cruel dictator or a strict belief which discriminates against another race, ethnic group or segment of society doesn't make anybody happy? I think the people from countries that invade other countries, the friends and allies of ruling dictators and those religions which advocate discrimination or exclusion against women or gays think that such policy is a good thing. Doesn't reality imply the word evil has no meaning? - ABliss
- Happiness and goodness are not necessarily related - look at almost any religious figure from Job to the saints to the Pope. One of the primary functions of religion is to teach us that a short term happiness isn't always real.
- When the Nazis came to power in Germany, everyone was happy because the trains started arriving on time. They thought Hitler was a good thing. There were a many germans who heralded the Nazi's arrival and spoke praise of Hitler. But the propaganda he created doesn't make him a good thing. Anybody that looked into eugenics (idea of a superior race) systems should have picked up on the fact that it was total bunk. Hitler wasn't Evil because he killed a few million people - he was evil way before then when he considered everyone not Arian worthless. But the masses' perception of an evil person are irrelevant - what that person actually is to himself and what he has done is what's important.
- I'm just trying to argue that evil doesn't depend on who you talk to or is somehow in the eye of the beholder. I could be wrong. I hope there are some moral absolutes. -- Webfork
People that believe in evil have a very simple outlook on life. They don't understand that people are not seperate from the society they live in. If people are evil then the society that makes them must be evil too. If evil people can arise out of nothing, then the battle will never end as evil will keep reappearing. I dont fight never ending battles because all players lose more than they will ever gain. - ABliss
- Certainly, if you stop at "evil" when trying to explain something, you're not doing yourself a favor. And, yes, evil is a pretty black and white simple concept but I would contend the idea still has a place in our culture.
- Evil has become a neutered term by the concepts of diseases of the mind, personality dissorers, and beyond but great works that describe the devil, hell, minions, etc. are still useful in the sense that they continue to explore morality, not by looking at what the angels among us must be like, but by looking at the truly bad. There's a lot to be learned from mistakes and from the Wrong way to do things. Dante's Inferno and its descriptions of evil and hell are not suddenly irrelevant despite being written a long time ago. Its still a great work of literature, as is C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters. Webfork
