Evil: if it exists, what is evil?

[Slammr (imported)]

What I can prove is spiritual incidences as can be verified by others who were effected.

It does not stand up to the "maze" or scientific method tests nor have I known many similar persons able to access "it" for personal profit.

When YOU know stuff you could not possibly know and others can confirm it,

that is what I call being drafted. Not a matter of faith.

Think of it as a sense like hearing. Actually most have this sense but, plug their ears.

I do believe it ghosts, just as I believe in the sun and stars. Hard to deny one's experiences especially when verified by others.

Moi

If I knew what you were smoking at the time, I might be better able to help you explain it.

[moi621 (imported)]

If I knew what you were smoking at the time, I might be better able to help you explain it.

I am not kidding not intoxicated about the shared experiences

Moi

[moi621 (imported)]

A moment of hot tub brilliance.

Evil, like light or the Trinity can be in multiple forms.

Consider light. A particle or a wave? Both at the same time as the Trinity makes three to the same concept.

"Evil couches at the door, its' desire is you"

would speak to an entity.

The creation of the mind of man, like a wave.

When your heart knows it is wrong, and you do it = Evil.

And the decision to do thus may have been influenced by something as definable as light.

ta-da <bow> <bow>

This is not a universal theory as applies to heartless sociopaths.

More to those who approve such behaviors or take part knowing.

Moi

[BossTamsin (imported)]

I believe I understand what you're driving at, Slammr, and I have to agree.

I'm not denying that some acts are most definitely classified as evil. However, that is a definition which we apply to those acts, it's not something that the laws of the universe apply.

I doubt that any here would deny that the Holocaust, for example, was evil. Yet as far as the universe and it's laws are concerned, there is nothing there which can be pointed to as proving that those acts are any more or less evil than Shoemaker-Levy impacting Jupiter. Any judgments about the evil of those acts are strictly in our own heads, a result of our morals and ethics.

Moreover, those morals and ethics can be proven to have changed over time, which must mean that the definition of evil has likewise changed. In Victorian times, it was quite acceptable for children to work in the most appalling conditions. Today, that would be considered evil. In Roman times, pederasty was not unknown. It wasn't evil then, and yet today attitudes have changed. What was evil yesterday is not necessarily evil today, and may well be good tomorrow.

This doesn't mean that we are more progressive than those in the past, and it doesn't mean we are more enlightened. It simply means the definitions have changed. Any opinion that our value judgments are somehow better than those of different times and cultures are similarly in our own heads, not something built into the universe.

To add to the questions.... We consider genocide to be a great evil these days, one of the worst we know of. Anyone who participates or attempts genocide is regarded as evil by most of the world. In the Bible though, how many times did God commit genocide? Does that make the Christian God evil?

[Slammr (imported)]

I believe I understand what you're driving at, Slammr, and I have to agree.

I'm not denying that some acts are most definitely classified as evil. However, that is a definition which we apply to those acts, it's not something that the laws of the universe apply.

I doubt that any here would deny that the Holocaust, for example, was evil. Yet as far as the universe and it's laws are concerned, there is nothing there which can be pointed to as proving that those acts are any more or less evil than Shoemaker-Levy impacting Jupiter. Any judgments about the evil of those acts are strictly in our own heads, a result of our morals and ethics.

Moreover, those morals and ethics can be proven to have changed over time, which must mean that the definition of evil has likewise changed. In Victorian times, it was quite acceptable for children to work in the most appalling conditions. Today, that would be considered evil. In Roman times, pederasty was not unknown. It wasn't evil then, and yet today attitudes have changed. What was evil yesterday is not necessarily evil today, and may well be good tomorrow.

This doesn't mean that we are more progressive than those in the past, and it doesn't mean we are more enlightened. It simply means the definitions have changed. Any opinion that our value judgments are somehow better than those of different times and cultures are similarly in our own heads, not something built into the universe.

To add to the questions.... We consider genocide to be a great evil these days, one of the worst we know of. Anyone who participates or attempts genocide is regarded as evil by most of the world. In the Bible though, how many times did God commit genocide? Does that make the Christian God evil?

Exactly what I meant, IE. It was never about, as one member inferred, a personal decision on my part whether something is good or bad. I would, of course, agree with society on most of what it considers bad, but keep in mind, it wasn't long ago that homosexuality was considered by society to be bad. Good or bad is decided by Man and has changed over time.

[Slammr (imported)]

A moment of hot tub brilliance.

Evil, like light or the Trinity can be in multiple forms.

Consider light. A particle or a wave? Both at the same time as the Trinity makes three to the same concept.

"Evil couches at the door, its' desire is you"

would speak to an entity.

The creation of the mind of man, like a wave.

When your heart knows it is wrong, and you do it = Evil.

And the decision to do thus may have been influenced by something as definable as light.

ta-da <bow> <bow>

This is not a universal theory as applies to heartless sociopaths.

More to those who approve such behaviors or take part knowing.

Moi

Although it was your question to me that initiated this thread, I didn't realize at the time you were talking about spirits that you've seen, an evil spirit I presume, so I started the thread to discuss the Shakespeare quote in my tag line. We would need a different thread to discuss the existence of spirits or ghosts.

I'm not denying there's more to reality than we normally experience, and I've had experiences I couldn't explain without bringing in esp or something similar. Because two people experience something doesn't make it real, however. Hallucinations, however they are induced, can seem as real as any other experience. We never experience Reality. We experience Reality as it is interpreted by our brains. Seeing is not always believing.

[moi621 (imported)]

A friend's family was tragically influenced by what appears to be procession.

I do not see or hear 'spirits' but the most dramatic time was four dreams I have shared before.

Usually, reception is in the form of feelings and having to figure out those aren't mine but, receptions. Then I might find the 'message'.

Sometimes it is just, "knowing" - as with my mothers blood sugar problems. When she passed decades ago it was like a "channel going to salt and pepper", no reception.

Voices are not involved. Nor visions. Except that dream experience.

Highly recommend and for not much money,

http://www.amazon.com/Tao-Psychology-Sy ... 0062500813

This is the book the Bishop recommended to me. Thin, concise, draws on your experiences rather then selling a faith.

All EA Members:

Without trying, you might discover a new sense you had previously shut your eyes and plugged your ears to.

Moi

[Losethem (imported)]

Evil: The ability to get people to do something that is contrary to their own interest, and convincing them that it is good for them while at the same time having those people voice huge support for the very ideas that are actually doing them in.

--LT

[gareth19 (imported)]

You guys are making Kristoff and I work, no more insults, the next one who does will get an unpaid vacation for a few weeks maybe more if I am in a good mood.

This thread is philosophical not political, keep it that way.

Management.

Philosophy was invented by Socrates as a smoke screen for his true politcal agenda, which was the elimination of democracy, and yes, Socrates was evil.

[A-1 (imported)]

Does Evil depend on the individual?

The psychopaths, for their part, will never know things any other way. Most experts agree that the condition is permanent and completely untreatable. It’s been theorized that their situation is the result of a kind of inherited learning disorder: without dread or anxiety to deter them, psychopaths are unable to make the associations between behavior and punishment that make up the building blocks of a normal conscience. That being the case, it is questionable whether a description such as “evil”—which is not uncommon in both the popular and scientific literature—can really be applied to individuals incapable of understanding what it means.

But to those who cross their paths, this may be small comfort.

If you cannot define EVIL are YOU a Psychopath? Who knows? Take the test. (http://www.damninteresting.com/the-unburdened-mind/) Do the behaviors test AS you observe somebody else's behaviors. Decide for yourself if THEY are a Psychopath.

I am OUT of here...