IS EVIL REAL? OR, LIKE GOD, A HUMAN INVENTION?

[Simon Paynton]

@unseen – what’s your definition of Evil-with-a-capital-E?

[Unseen]

Simon Paynton wrote:

@unseen – what’s your definition of Evil-with-a-capital-E?

Real things may HAVE a definition but don’t NEED one. Zebras are real independent of definition. Just ask a lion. LOL

A definition would be hard, but it would have to involve being something both real and eternal and independent of human whims. It would exist even had mankind never evolved. Indeed, even if LIFE had never evolved! Sounds like something only a deity could cook up, doesn’t it? But that’s the only kind of evil that wouldn’t be subject to the fashion of the day.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Unseen.

[jakelafort]

so the mystery is solved…evil is the emergence of consciousness for consciousness results in suffering…the greater the awareness the greater the evil….

EVIL MONKEY….EVIL MONKEY

[Unseen]

Simon Paynton wrote:

@unseen – “isn’t Evil a sort of thing just like God that people invented? Not real, but just something we think (or hope) is real, just as we think goodness is real?” – I don’t understand why you would take this position, unless you have defined evil out of existence. Clearly it exists, we see it every day, unlike God.

“Clearly it exists”? We see good and evil as reflections of the values of the cultures and times we are living in. To a devout Hindu, for example, a beef pot roast is a travesty against Heaven. What we in the West regard as basic human rights are not so widely held to be such outside the West, and not even among many Western subgroups. Of course, we can simply decide that those people are wrong, but in doing so we are blinding ourselves to the truth of the matter, which is that there is no such thing as Evil.

[Unseen]

jakelafort wrote:

so the mystery is solved…evil is the emergence of consciousness for consciousness results in suffering…the greater the awareness the greater the evil…. EVIL MONKEY….EVIL MONKEY

Maybe in my next life I’ll be able to see if you’ve made a contribution to the discussion there.

[PopeBeanie]

Unseen wrote:

jakelafort wrote: so the mystery is solved…evil is the emergence of consciousness for consciousness results in suffering…the greater the awareness the greater the evil…. EVIL MONKEY….EVIL MONKEY

Maybe in my next life I’ll be able to see if you’ve made a contribution to the discussion there.

So I had to look it up… is it a Family Guy reference, Jake? (I don’t have TV. Aww man, and the evil internet session timer just popped up and said I’ve only 3 minutes left, so no videos for me today…)

[jakelafort]

Yes, Pope, yes…

[Simon Paynton]

@unseen – “To a devout Hindu, for example, a beef pot roast is a travesty against Heaven.”

– some definitions are local and cultural, and some are universal and objective, such as spite.

“It would exist even … if LIFE had never evolved!”

– surely it’s impossible to have an attribute of life which exists even without life.

[Reg the Fronkey Farmer]

[Simon Paynton]

“It would exist even … if LIFE had never evolved!”

– I think you’ve defined it out of existence.

[Simon Paynton]

We can compare “Evil” with the number 6.  Even if life never existed, and there were 6 planets in a row, there would still be 6 planets in a row.

But evil is a thing that only living things can possibly do to each other.  So without life, there can be no evil.

[Unseen]

Simon Paynton wrote:

So without life, there can be no evil.

No. Without life, there would be no apple pie, either. And I don’t mean Apple Pie but apple pie.

You almost seem to be trying to miss my point.

[Unseen]

Simon Paynton wrote:

“It would exist even … if LIFE had never evolved!” – I think you’ve defined it out of existence.

My entire POINT is the claim it doesn’t exist (in the capital-E form). Have you been paying attention?

[Zweifel]

Evil is live spelled backwards.

[tom sarbeck]

Thank you, Zweifel, for trying to prevent philosophy’s suicide.

 

[Author]

Posts