i don't know about others, but i have defined evil, for myself, as being "helping yourself at the expense of others".
~kakkarot
Kakkarot, I've seen you comment on this before, and having thought about it, I think you're right. Selfish actions with deliberate disregard for, or harm to others is probably the best description of evil.
Powder, I also agree with you in that evil is a term that I believe tends to get used just a little too often. Mostly what would be considered as evil is dependent on your perspective. For example, people talk about negs as being evil, because of the way they can cause you harm. I don't class this as evil. I see it as predatory behavior, a means for the negs to survive.
I also tend not to see evil all around me as some do. Firstly, I don't go looking for it, and secondly, I don't fear it.
James.
I believe evil is anything that hinders our journey to get closer to the source. Evil things are afraid of change and like everything the way it is, and good attempts to push us towards evolving. That's just the way I see it. I think another topic worthy of discussion is the human obsession with good vs. evil. I believe that everything we do in life is to seek union with some sort of feeling, a person, or event (i think i got that from someone on this forum). So good vs evil could just be us being held back from our goals and unity, and when good succeeds, we are, very deep inside, reminded of our journey of seeking oneness. So that's the way I see things, I'd like to hear some more opinions.
thanks james. unfortunately my definition is a bit short: what about people who harm others even if it brings themself no benefit?
~kakkarot
Perhaps there is no good or evil. Good and evil are human constructs based on our physical obsession with dualties. God is beyond dualties as he is omnipotent so surely he must have qualities of both good and evil as we define them.
I personally agree with Kakkarot's second definition: evil is
bringing harm to someone without any reason.
lateralus897, I strongly believe that there is no such thing such
as "good vs evil" because theyre not on the same level. there is
good vs bad and right vs wrong, which all of us should know but
evil has no anti-evil -- I think its a quality that only humans
possess.
Lysear, touching on god, I strongly agree with you. I think that
a lot of Christian priests etc. are wrong because they ( and 99.99%
of people on Earth ) can't imagine a god who both creates and destroys.
--> And if god both creates and destroys he has a system for it
which means he doesnt do any evil. THEREFORE I believe that the
only creatures capable of evil (whatever it is) MUST be humans
themselves.
P.S.
Now that I think of it humans are both evil and extremely beautiful
(yes my head ticks differently) maybe that means that the opposite
of evil is beauty...
Powder,
I have to disagree with you when you say that there is no "anti-evil." If evil does indeed exist, even if it is a human creation, there has to be some sort of opposing force to it. The balance and harmony of the universe is always perfect. I was using "good" as a relative term as that opposing force.
To clear up what I meant with the human obsession with good vs evil, I meant from what you can see in entertainment (i.e books, movies). The struggle and most often victor of good over evil is often moving and inspiring to us, as it can be related to our ultimate struggle of battling our egos.
I also believe that good vs bad (couldnt bad be considered evil?) and right vs wrong are creations of society which are manifested in the human mind. We are simply placing things into categories.
Each person is going to see these things differently, due to what you said about being desensitized to things we see.
Kakkarot, You've got a good point there. I guess you mean if someone were to kill someone else just for the hell of it, no reason except they felt like it. I suppose you could call that evil because even an entity that has a predatory nature still only attacks when they have a reason or a need.
I had a look at the word "evil" in a dictionary, just to see if there was any correlation to the points we've been making. These are some definitions and what my opinion of them are -
"Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or deprives a being of any good; anything which causes suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury; mischief; harm;"
- This I don't really think is evil. This could describe the actions of wolf hunting its next meal.
"Moral badness, or the deviation of a moral being from the principles of virtue imposed by conscience, or by the will of the Supreme Being, or by the principles of a lawful human authority; disposition to do wrong; moral offence; wickedness; depravity"
- This is a little closer, but morals are still just a matter of perspective. Lawful human authority isn't always in the right, so again, its a perspective thing.
"Having qualities tending to injury and mischief; having a nature or properties which tend to badness; mischievous; not good; worthless or deleterious; poor; as, an evil beast;"
-This is better. Its a bit more like doing wrong for wrong's sake.
You know, before reading this topic, I didn't think much about the term "evil" and what it implies. It gets a lot more comlicated the more you look at it.
James.
i agree with both my definitions: evil is bringing about unjustifiable harm to another, above and beyond natural instincts of survival.
and to james, "even an entity that has a predatory nature still only attacks when they have a reason or a need". this isn't true. dolphins kill each other for sport, as do some wild dogs (i think the dingos in australia do(?)) and other animals. humans are not the only species on the planet that kill for reasons other than to eat or survive.
but does that mean that animals could be considered evil too?
complications galore. [8D]
~kakkarot
I define "evil" as anything that invokes/instills "fear" in people.
so, goldenrose, mice are evil? [:P] after all, so many girls are scared of mice (and some guys probably are too).
well, then, if mice are evil, we must set about to destroy them immediately. anyone with me?[;)] (btw, i'm just kidding goldenrose. please don't take offense.)
~kakkarot
lateralus897, yeah I guess I got carried away with the lack of
opposite to evil... I think that right and wrong are not products
of society but rather the base of it. The sense of right and wrong
are inherent properties of humans and are our morals -> very important
James S, I think we should go all the way, dump the dictionary
and reinvent the wheel [:)].
Yet again, I agree with Kakkarot. Dolphins are evil creatures and
we all should stay away from them :-). Seriously, though, if
theyre supposedly more intelligent than us then they have a higher
capacity for evil. I've always suspected them, and vegetarians [:)].
On one thing most of us agree on:
evil is somehow related to death.
James' dictionary definitions show that the majority of people think
so. Right now I am thinking whether torturing someone for a lifetime
is evil, after all, youre not killing them... but as I think so
another thought has entered my brain ( I find that I'm somewhat of
a channeller ) perhaps evil is not a static factor ( I'm also a
programmer [8D] ). Maybe its not a quality thats the same for
everyone, maybe its the difference between the moral capacity
of person A and person B. The size itself of the difference
between them.
Maybe its a person's conscious decision not to think.
Its too late at night and I'm starting to blur [|)]. Good night
everyone.
quote:
Originally posted by goldenroses
I define "evil" as anything that invokes/instills "fear" in people.
One invokes ones own fear.
ah, but not always sahlyn. i have been able to invoke feelings of terror in others emotions even when their mind didn't fear me at all. i have also been the "victim" of having terror flow through me when there was no reason, logically speaking, why i should have been afraid.
the one biggest incident i remember of such (i posted in another topic a while ago) was when i was walking along and i was eyeing a bunch of people who seemed like they might be part of a small gang or something (and i was trying to make sure that i could get around them without anything happening), when a sudden chilling fright went right through me. i felt outward just a bit and realized that it was the boy right beside me who wasn't doing anything but had just started walking the same way i was. i could feel that he was more powerful than me and that he had no moral compunctions against using it (ie, if he had wanted to kill me he would have done so without a second thought). so, me being weak at the time it occurred tried to make myself sink into the background of the universe while i walked along side him. nothing happened, but it was still a freaky experience.
oddly enough though, the kid didn't feel "evil". just ... something else. just from the few seconds of spiritual contact i had with him i could tell quite a bit about him. but i don't know how to use words to express what i felt. maybe i'll be able to later.
~kakkarot
Hmmm, yeah, but that doesn't necessarily contradict the idea.
Sinister energy can obviously be thrown upon someone, and be present for others to passively/actively detect. But it seems logical that the "reaction" to this (the fear) is generated internaly, rather than being an external energy on its own.
Some could have sinister energy surging through every inch of their being, and react without fear. And as you said earlier, some can see a mouse and be scared ****less [:)]
Could it be that the emotion (fear) you were experiencing was an internal intuitive/psychic "reaction" to the energy the guy was radiating, rather than the external energy itself?
I've never realy thought about fear possibly being an external energy.
But I guess anythings possible.
Good topic, you might think it's easy to label good and evil, but on closer examination, it's not so simple. Here's what I think.
Good and evil are opposing forces and one couldn't exist without the other. The universe is complete and couldn't function if one is taken away(ying-yang). Think about it. if there was only evil, nothing would last very long, because evil is predatory in nature and it only looks out for itself. On the other hand if there was only good, then there would be no driving force to evolve and things would stay the same, or begin to wither, and that wouldn't be any fun!
Evil is also defined as "sin", or not doing the God's will. This brings us to the question, what is God's will? This alone could be one whole topic, so let us assume that God want's us to learn and evolve, to reach higher toward him. So sin, or evil would be not to do so, or to hinder others from doing so.
As you could imagine, there are a lot of ways to hinder other peoples evolution. All manipulation which is there to keep people quiet and from asking questions surely fits this category. And on personal level inactivity itself could be considered evil, if we do nothing to better ourselves spiritually.
I believe I'm a being of light (and I hope you believe it too about yourself!) and my ultimate goal is to become pure light by raising my spiritual vibration until all there is is light, at which point I will become one with God at the highest level. So I'm on the "white t-shirt team".
However about the other side I'm not sure..
As I see it there are two possibilities:
1. It might be that all evil entities are just lost souls, who will see the light one day, and join us on our path to heaven. This implies that path of light is the only right one for everyone and that God is ultimately good and that duality only manifests in his creation, in this universe.
2. There might be a "black t-shirt team" whose goal is to become pure evil and their ultimate goal is to merge with that aspect of God. This possibility brings us to the uncomfortable realisation, that God is not only good, but there is equally strong evil God, both just different sides of the same coin. I mean there still is only one God, but "He" has two sides in Him.
I think that considering there being such strong and purely evil entities as demons, it's unlikely that they will one day "see the light" and turn to the other side(there also might be much stronger evil entities we know nothing about). So I'm starting to believe in number two.
Which one do you belive is more likely?
-Pete
true enough sahlyn, he wasn't giving off an aura of fear, but none-the-less it did instill fear in me, even if it was an instinctual reaction of my own spirit. the feeling of fear hit me before i even have a logical reason to be scared. even before i felt the other person's energy consciously, so i didn't invoke my own fear.
sometimes one invokes ones own fear, sometimes a person is in a situation that is so beyond them that, it seems, an internal mechanism is activated to get the person to realise they are in over their head. but other times, a person can force fear into another. like i said in my first example, i didn't just cause them to be afraid, i took my energy and made it into a feeling of fear, put it into them, and then made sure they felt it very accutely. nothing about them doing it to themselves. was it evil? depends on your definition [;)].
~kakkarot
filipcza,
If evil is the blocking of enlightenment than it is only logical
that we live in hell. Look at how many things are stopping us from
reaching god in our society... Maybe were all pure solid evil and
were just so desensitized we can't realize it.
Your first point brings this question to mind:
Is evil "total" or can someone have smaller quantities of it?
Many questions, little answers.
I think that wer'e yet to encounter an evil entity -- an entity
which doesn't just do bad stuff, its truly evil.
I dont think god is involved in the contrast between good and evil,
humans naturally have the idea of god but they dont have the notion
of the devil, it has to be told them by some (usually lost) person.
Perhaps god struggles against us - the chaos .[:)]
The vast majority of humans is not good nor evil, we have a bit
of both. It seems likely that good and evil are just extremes
that can never be truly reached -> evil's not total.
By the way, fear is good -> it keeps us alive, and keeps us from
doing stupid stuff.
quote:
If evil is the blocking of enlightenment than it is only logical
that we live in hell. Look at how many things are stopping us from
reaching god in our society... Maybe were all pure solid evil and
were just so desensitized we can't realize it.
powder, I think to say that we live in hell is little over the top, but not much.
I think that most of this forum's members agree with me when I say that things are really screwed here on earth. And it seems that they are not getting better in the near future. Some say that this is because we are nearing a threshold in consciousness and before that threshold is reached, things will get really chaotic because this old "screwed" system will fall.
quote:
Your first point brings this question to mind:
Is evil "total" or can someone have smaller quantities of it?
I think that wer'e yet to encounter an evil entity -- an entity
which doesn't just do bad stuff, its truly evil.
You make it sound like evil is substance like liquid, and you are thinking whether this substance is totally black or can it be in different shades of dark. Well, I believe that people are all beings of light and we can just be "lost" if we seem to be bad. But on the other hand a demon is in my opinion a totally, purely evil entity, all black with no desire whatsoever to become good, just like we have no desire to become evil.
quote:
The vast majority of humans is not good nor evil, we have a bit
of both. It seems likely that good and evil are just extremes
that can never be truly reached -> evil's not total.
I think you are right on that one, that on this 3d material world, it might be impossible to reach extremes. But hey, this 3d thing is not all there is.
quote:
By the way, fear is good -> it keeps us alive, and keeps us from
doing stupid stuff.
Yes, fear is good in some cases. Look at a little child. It has no fear, and so parents must make sure he/she doesn't hurt himself. But fear can also be bad, when it paralyses you in a situation when action would be the thing that saves your life. So there is two sides on this also.
-Pete
Kakkarot, I do know what you mean concerning the automatic mechanism. I've often experienced such phenomena (although maybe not so extreme as your case with that guy). However my way of looking at it, I still consider this as being internally generated, kind of like a subconscious radar, maybe even our higher self looking out for us. Anyway, it's of little importance what we choose to label it as (internal/external/blah)[:)]
quote:
but other times, a person can force fear into another. like i said in my first example, i didn't just cause them to be afraid, i took my energy and made it into a feeling of fear, put it into them, and then made sure they felt it very accutely.
I've never had experience with this myself, so I'll take your word for it. Very cool trick by the way [;)] It does seem logical. I think the aspect I forgot to take into consideration is "shielding".
I was viewing it keeping in mind that for some people, no matter how much so called "pure fear" energy you threw at them, they would not feel fear, and that therefore fear must only be generated internally. But of course when you take shielding into the equation, it bypasses this kind of reasoning, suggesting that external "pure fear" energy could exist, and that anyone immune to it may just be well shielded (knowingly or unknowingly).
there is no such thing as evil. it is just a matter of opinion. bin laden thinks we're evil. we think he is. we've both done messed up things, we both think we are right. so who is? he was raised to hate americans. it's not his fault. if he didnt hate americans, do you know what other people of his country would do to him? he'd be dead right now.
to us, killing children is evil. but in some cultures, killing children is good. does that make them evil? evil is just fear. nothing is pure evil. if you come in contact with a mean spirit, it's probably their fear or yours. there is no evil.
Yep, without interpretation - evil cannot exist.
I've always defined evil as doing wrong to others...It is all about that. If you live your life and not hurt anybody in any way, then you are pure good (this is very hard to do...) anybody else agree? Disagree? It doesn't matter to me :p
if i make fun of you, i am causeing you pain. am i evil? are all the people who lagh along with me evil? i mean, PURE evil? if i bump into you in the hall, and don't apologise, is that evil?
killing people is 'evil'. so the death penelty is evil, right? a lion killing a rival lion is evil, right? me killing a bee is evil, right? me putting to sleep a suffering cat is evil, right? if you are suffering and ask me to kill you to end your suffering and i do, i'm evil, right?
WRONG. maybe unethical, or mean, or bad, but someone somewhere will not think i am evil. therefore, i will never be COMPLETELY evil. nothing will.
I define evil as something or someone who's sole purpose for living their life is to do ham to others, inflict pain, hurt people, kill people ext. or someone or something who puts their interests and what they want above another person or creatures ife. In a nutshell:
someone or somethn who kills for the hell of it or to get soemthing they want.
so then it has to do with the reasons behind the act, and how the person performing the act regards it. ie, if someone laughs at you because you did something silly to try to make them laugh, then it's not evil. but if you did something nice for someone and they laughed in your face because they want to insult you, and they hurt your feelings, and they LIKE that they hurt your feelings, then that is a small bit of evil, isn't it?
~kakkarot
Hello everyone,
I never go into the Metaphysics section ( Im more of an OBE guy )
but now I decided to post a question that has been dying to
be asked - in my mind anyway -
What is true evil?
This is a pretty important topic and I needed to hear some
feedback about it from some intelligent people ( that would be you my
dear reader ).
In all my life I have never encountered evil, and I dismiss most
"evil" things as misguidedness, darkness of soul, karma? *lopsided
smile* etc.... nothing to truly label as evil.
Now, 2.5 years of highschool did make me indifferent to the things
that happen around me and jaded so I might just not be trying
to "see" evil as much as other people *shrugs shoulders**head tilt*.