The evil in humans?

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hi there,

perceiving something as an evil doing, and therefore the person as an evil person happens alot. I was also thought to be evil, because i didn't behave as expected, e.g. didn't give proper eye contact. There are also alot of other disorders out there besides AS. It seems to me that there is no real evil. People have some disorders, there are lots of misunderstandings, or people are not mature enough.

Many years i thought of all the other persons who don't have such an high moral standard as i to be evil, e.g. people who get together with someone although they are only interested in sex. But on the others side, i am also not mature, not in a intellectual, moral way, but in my emotional and social capabilities. Therefore i also hurt others, like those who are not intellectual mature. So am i really "better" than others? - as i thought for a long time. Yeah, i felt for long that the others are bad, partly because i didn't understand them, partly because they were not intellectually, morally mature as I. But the realization that i am immature too, just gives me some other view.

Can you relate to my change in perspective?

It seems that everything got its cause, so do you think there does really exist some being which is really evil, meaning it would have had the free will to decide between good and evil, and decided for evil?

best wishes,
anton

Last edited by antonblock on 17 Mar 2011, 6:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

Evil exist. Blaming it on disorders wont cut it..

There seems to be a lot of that in the world.

I think it's a myth that there are evil people who deserve to be punished. To believe in evil people, you'd have to have a moral code that was absolutely perfect and unchanging....for me, morality is just whatever set of rules seem to allow people to rub along together in reasonable peace and harmony, it's open to development and change as new evidence comes to light.

So I don't call anybody evil (unless I've temporarily lost my objectivity due to extreme emotion or whatever). Instead, I just try to identify who is a threat to me and who isn't. I'm still free to hate them if I want to, or to defend myself against them (which might include convincing others that the one who is threatening me is evil ), but there's nothing essentially evil about them, they're just in my way.

I think evil is a good artistic word, it's great for entertainment but pretty useless as a way of seeing the real world.

As a child I was taught to believe that there are evil people and there are good people. As I grew up I started believing that there is some evil and some good in each one of us and our actions and behavior show which one of them (good or evil) is winning us over. Now I don't believe in things as good or evil. Now I believe that people act based on motives and instincts (mostly the instinct to survive). But humans are social beings and we are strongest when we live in groups. Living in groups however means that we have to compromise and "sacrifice" our selfishness when necessary. That is why the same instinct to survive predetermines a certain "moral code" in us. It's basically the unconscious knowing that in order to survive we must not harm the ones around us. The basic rules of it are embodied in every religion, social and moral structure. Don't kill, don't steal, don't hurt. Of course we are more complicated than that and our "groups" are complicated societies that need more detailed rules (written or not) to guide us in more day to day situations. Those rules can go as detailed as the rule to make eye contact. If a persons behaves by the rules of the society then his behavior is perceived as good. If however he brakes the rules then his behavior is perceived as bad. The importance of the broken rule or the severity of "abnormal" behavior determines the level of "evil".
So that is how my perspective changed over the years. I don't know if that makes sense to you because I find it hard to explain in short description and especially not in my native language
Anyway I believe that if you're trying to understand the world then your perspective will keep changing or developing

The most diplomatic way I ever put it.. to myself.. to ease my anger was
that there is no such thing as good and evil, just varying levels of compatibility between people.
We will all have varying definitions of what makes a person "evil" that may change.

Personally, I consider many people to fit my definition of evil but then I have low personal boundaries.

Evil exists in the same way that the number one exists. There is no "one" in any physical sense. "One" is an abstraction that refers to something real. Yet we regularly act has if "one" is as real as a rock hitting you in the head. The problem is that while "one" has a very specific meaning, "evil" does not. But just because "evil" has no universally agreed upon meaning, do say that it doesn't exist is something of an overreach.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil#Is_ev ... ul_term.3F

I was fascinated to read that human cultures with no concept of evil exist. I always sensed it could be done. I wonder what conditions existed in such societies, that were different to those of our own?

great link! i didn't assume there was a wiki entry for it

I think it's dangerous to assume that pure good or pure evil can exist. Everyone's definition of what is good and evil are different. I think varying degrees of both exist everywhere.

That does not mean that I am never tempted to label people or things as evil though.

edit; Removed my post because Wavefreak did a greater job explaining what i did.

If you're a person dedicated to the pain and suffering of others you know your actions are evil. Unless you're an idiot ofcourse.

there are folk out there who believe that they add pain to this world in the holy name of god, or at least their own god of whom they claim exclusive fealty and province- in their world view, everybody else dissimilar to themselves, is either a heathen or worships a lesser god, so are deserving of the pain they get. these superior folk get their start as bullies early in life. i like sylvia browne's term for these types, she calls them "dark spirits" and says their only goal in life is to turn others to the dark side just like themselves- so they do their daily best to spread fear and pain and discouragement, to turn other people away from good and towards evil.

The thing about the human population is that there's good and bad in everyone.

Evil is in the eye of the beholder. And it also seems to be more problematic in monotheistic cultures.

in monotheistic societies there are "children of a lesser god" who are given short shrift by those of the greater god."