Why is there Evil? Atheist why has Evolution not eliminated it? (page 4)

snare&racket

Whats evil?

what is evil to you? Is it evil to a gazelle when it watches a pride of lions tear into its baby? Shredding it alive in order for the lions babies to live!?

your perception of the world has been fenced off emotionally and intellectually by our old religion. They sold you a story whilst tucking you into bed at night. A story that made the world feel good and nice, just ignore all those inconsistencies ....

there is no such thing as good/bad righteous or evil. There are acts that are good for you and your species and acts that are bad. Keepr in mind before you go all crazy on my ass.... NASH theory, what is good for the group is good for the individual and likewise what is good for the individual is good for the group. Once you relise it is all about surviving to pass on our genes it will all make sense. No really...... You even know this stuff by nature of your nature x its all about staying alive long enough to have kids and see them have kids.... Anything else is 'evil'. Want to know why it is like that?

Happiness is reward for things that benefit the species, a chemical that makes us feel 'good'. In reality it is just a chemical that is released that tells us we are safe, we can relax. We can rest and digest. We can slow our breathing down, slow our heart down and relax. In evolutionary terms, helping other people. Doing 'good' makes us feel like this, because as an animal it actually makes us safer.

Guilt is just humans adding another word for fear. Next time you are feeling 'guilty' note how it is the exact same feeling as fear... Fear is a release of adrenaline. It takes your blood from your gut and your arms and sends it to your heart, your brain and your legs. It is released to help you get away from a danger.... Whether you see it with your eyes, whether you hear it with your ears, whether you imagine it in your cupboard as a kid, whether you see it on a TV, whether you read it in a book, whether you hear about it from a friend... Scary things will initiate that response. Even dreams or things your subconscious picks up and you don't 'a 6th sense' i.e.... While you are thinking about which TV program to watch reading your TV guide, your ear heard the back door squeak, your nose smelt the air outside , your skin felt the temperature change, your peripheral vision saw a movement in the garden 15 minutes ago and now your brain is trying to warn you that something isn't right.....and then your cat walks in the room.

Adrenaline dry's your moth out, it makes your palms go clammy and your heart race. You become aware of your surroundings and you feel 'danger' or in medicine 'impending doom'. We call it flight or fight, depending on the circumstances, as humans we call it fear and guilt. Biology doesn't have a mechanism for guilt.... There is just the GO GO GO sympathetic (adrenaline) response and the SLOW SLow slow....parasympathetic (acetylcholine) response.

Guilt is the fear that there will be consequences to you for your actions, again evolutionary terms explain why, this response is beneficial to us and so it survived in our genes. It again is just a chemical release. You steal someone's money, they come to you to ask if you did it? Your gut drops and churns as the blood is drained, your face turns pale your hairs prick up on your arms.... Your pupils dilate to take in the surroundings... Your brain has blood rush to it, it all becomes a bit too much to take in and think, your brain takes in everything, every sound, every image.... Your heart races.

two hours later, your friend leaves, taking your word as true....or so you believe..... You go upstairs... You go into your drawer and pull the money out, again the blood drops from your gut, again your heart races...... Etc....

Evil is what people call acts that they fear will happen to them but want to believe are unexplainable, random and therefore improbable.

Snare x

Time to get out from under the Watchtower cosy blanket and figure out the world. Its actually a lot better than you were told. Now dark lords ruling the earth, no sadistic gods with lakes of fire awaiting the majority of humans that have ever lived... No sin, no shame, no regret for who and what you are. Just life and an appreciation for it and a hunger to know more...... But no more guessing, just evidence.

Nathan Natas

Arbols, just as there is no god, there is no evil. There is only what happens. We make judgements about what happens and the Universe become divided into Yin/Yang, Good/Evil, AhuraMazda/Ahriman.

Just as WE imagine god in our mind, WE assign values to events in the stream of time. Generally, good things are those events that please us or our tribe and evil things are those events that hurt us. We project these value judgements "out there" to rationalize them.

The universe doesn't care.

Julia Orwell

Ability to pass on genes to the next generation is precisely what I mean by survival of the fittest. I should not have used such a loaded term to describe fitness as being the one who survives to paws on your genes because of an adaptation which gives you an advantage over others of your species. I was not using the term in the common, misused way but to describe an adaptive process that gives the organism an advantage in its particular environment. For example, my fluffy cat would have a better chance of survival if an ice age came than my short haired cat. They are both the peak of health, but ne is better fitted for survival in cold environment, and has an advantage over the shorter haired cat. Likewise, if people are in an environment where violence, exploitation, deceit, and things we term evil are more conducive to survival, then they are fitter in that context. Sheesh.

This_suit_doesnt_fit

There is good & evil.

Everyone has to judge good & bad in their daily lives or they will quickly die. To avoid recognizing what harms us simply isn't possible by a sane person. To say that food & poison are the same is nonsense.

The best definition I have read is, "that which is proper to the life of a rational being is the good; that which negates, opposes or destroys it is evil. The standard by which one judges what is good or evil - is man's life, or: that which is required for man's survival." - The Objectivist Ethics

Good & evil by religion's definition is insanity. I think most people avoid "judging" or deny good/evil to separate their actions from religion. That makes sense. But to deny the ability to recognize what helps or harms is the highest treason of self and society. Not to identify & condemn evil, is evil.

thinking_not_believing

LMAO. Why hasn't playing call of duty taught me how to shoot a real life M-16? Why haven't supermarkets eliminated hunger? Why hasn't cars + airplanes = flying cars? why hasn't evolution eliminated evil? none of these things are related. lol.

This_suit_doesnt_fit

I should add, there may not be some universal, god-based good & evil. But we, as individuals, must identify good & evil in our lives to survive.

Peanuts are not universally good or evil. However, someone who is allergic to peanuts must recognize that they are evil to him, they can kill him. To another person peanuts are good and peanut butter is great.

GoodGuyGreg

In my opinion, snare&racket summed it up pretty nicely, but I'd like to add a few thoughts:

Humans are not the only species with altruistic behavior. As others have stated, it has more to do with survival than with concepts of good and evil. What differentiates us from most if not all other species, is that we have the capaciy to analyze our actions and rationalize them. This means that we can take our natural reactions, and choose to obey them or fight them, depending on what we personally feel is the right (or most beneficial) thing to do.

Most social animals are altruistic within their flock, hive or herd. We are pretty unique in that we can choose our group arbitrarily, not only based on family, but on virtual constructs like religion or what bike we ride. The western world's reaction to the Thailand tsunami a few years ago shows the processes very clearly: people pretty much ignored all other victims of this catastrophe than the Thai population. For a few weeks, they actually pretty much ignored most of the problems in the world except those of a small part of the Thai population. In essence, they associated with this relatively small group of people as if they were part of the same group, and distanced themselves from other victims of bad things that happened concurrently in other parts of the world.

Richard Dawkins put it nicely in his book The Magic of Reality. It's really a children's book, but it's an enjoyable read. He summed the suffering problem up with the words "bad things happen because things happen". In essence, the universe isn't out to get us - that would count as evil. But sometimes things happen that we might be tempted to take personally, while they're simply the result of random processes or statistical chance. It's important to see the difference between, say, a person choosing to rob others under gunpoint, and someone developing pancreatic cancer for no other reason than that they've lived long enough for the odds to stack up against them. The second example simply can't be attributed to evil, even if you'd be hard pressed to find someone who thinks it's fair.

Julia Orwell

'Bad things happen because things happen' is a good saying. I believe you also reap what you sow: if you make bad choices, chances are the results will be bad. It's cause and effect.

Satanus

Backseatdevil

Youre welcome, and welcome to the site.

S

ÁrbolesdeArabia

I want to thank everyone for posting, your insights are great and appreciated. Threads like this are the gold of JWN, we discredit the Society by conversing in a civil fashion. Composing my thoughts better to bring out more ideas to this discussion. What if life was easy and we had more answers to all the questions that are nipping at our heels?

To learn with each of you is exciting and keep's my brain a tad sharper!

Why is there Evil? Atheist why has Evolution not eliminated it?

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