On Good and Evil

jasonm

What is good? What is evil? Can people be pure evil - or pure good for that matter? What started this thread is the notion that evil is 'just a social construct' - i.e., there are reasons why people behave cruelly, selfishly, and callously. Evil then is just a 'fairy tale,' something just made up to justify why people behave in such a way.

I think this notion is patently false. Why? Because good and evil are probably distributed in something like a Bell Curve. Most people are neither purely selfless or cruel - most people have done some things right and some things wrong, and they therefore lie in the middle of the curve; even if these traits are not distributed like an exact Bell Curve, the same principle probably holds true: most people are not completely good or evil. One may now notice that this actually works against my thesis - i.e., how does good and evil then exist? Clearly, just like IQ, height, etc., there are people who lie way to the right or the left of the curve. These are then the people who are 'pure good' or 'pure evil.' This makes the notion that evil (and also good) is just a construct into nonsense.

I also realized something from this on a personal level: if I mind evil so much, how am I not actually 'overly benevolent' - a 'moral saint?' Because just like most people, I have done some things right and some things wrong. The people I then argue and fight with are at the absolute bottom of the barrel: it is not because I am so good, but because they are so bad. But if I'm not 'so good' why do I deserve to be treated like I'm 'a saint?' Because most people have done something wrong as well and don't like to be treated this way either! Most people probably couldn't even stand the people I fight and argue with - and it's not because most people are some kind of saint!

Shamshir

Can people be pure evil - or pure good for that matter? — jasonm

No, only good and evil can be purely good and purely evil.
People may be good and evil to a degree; a consequence of their freedom.

Evil then is just a 'fairy tale,' something just made up to justify why people behave in such a way. — jasonm

Evil is by no means a fairy tale, it is as actual as salt.
And reiterating the aforementioned, only salt is purely salty - foods seasoned with salt, are salty to a degree. And being that it is in degree, it allows for people to interpret and reinterpret and misinterpret, making good and evil relative in the human world.

I also realized something from this on a personal level: if I mind evil so much, how am I not actually 'overly benevolent' - a 'moral saint? — jasonm

The hatred of evil is begotten by evil - which is why Christ's patent is 'love your enemy'.
A saint is not someone who minds evil, but has forgotten it entirely - which is the essence of Moksha.

Schzophr

Yes you can be evil. For example, over consumption of animals is evil because the toll on life that you would admit to not wanting to experience yourself, and because that's present to the senses (the toll), and because of massively consuming them, it is evil.

You, animal slaughterer, from the third person have wasted good animals over the course of many years. Therefore, you are evil.

So what is evil? Evil is, regarding the Status Quo, what was done wrong; Earth life is not for your pleasure, as you can see lots of other things exist, so when eating a burger, that's potentially wrong, based on principles such as: quality of existence, quantity of pain. If you offer poor quality of life, should you receive the same treatment?

Earth would have flourished on its own better than with us, our world is impacted by evil. What is evil, therefore, it is stupidity regarding the greater scheme of things.

ernestm

I also realized something from this on a personal level: if I mind evil so much, how am I not actually 'overly benevolent' - a 'moral saint?' Because just like most people, I have done some things right and some things wrong. — jasonm

Maybe it helps to consider the difference between morality and law. Law defines what is right and wrong; moriality defines what is good and bad. There are many times when things are right, but bad, or wrong, but good, the latter of which is one of the favorite subjects of Hollywood.

Possibility

↪jasonm

Humans have developed the capacity to quantify, measure and evaluate information in relation to other information. With this capacity, we evaluate everything we encounter in the universe as an evolved method of making sense of it. So all information about the world is assigned a hierarchy of value in relation to everything else (faster, higher, stronger, good, better, best, etc).

What we determine from these values is that often the ‘greatest’ feature may be a pinnacle of value in relation to our understanding of the universe, but may be deemed one of the ‘worst’ things to encounter in relation to the organism (ourselves), as a possible threat to life. The discrepancy between these values leads to the identification of ‘self’, and our attempts to reconcile the conflicts that arise lead to the formulation of ‘morality’.

What is deemed ‘good’ is good for the self identity and/or good for what little we understand about the universe. What is deemed ‘evil’ is harmful to the self identity and/or harmful to what we deem to be ‘good’ about our limited understanding of the universe.

As we develop the advanced capacity to interact with our understanding of the universe beyond our physical existence (4-dimensional awareness), the protection of the self identity becomes either less important or more broadly defined, and the concept of ‘evil’ is diminished, possibly even eradicated.

I like sushi

What is termed “evil” is little more than ignorance gone rogue. Good is recognition of ignorance and the will to expand it with awe - meaning they more we expand our pitiful understanding the more we become aware of our ignorance (in a positive manner).

hachit

↪jasonm

good and evil are suggestive to who is taking. Some people we would call evil my think what there doing is good, and other may agree. After all the reason a muder is dangerous is not because they killed some, but rather because they somehow reasoned in there head that it was good.

On Good and Evil

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