I would think by definition evil is meaningless. For me it is entropy, death and destruction. We may be hard wired to be repulsed as a species by certain acts.
What IS the meaning and purpose of EVIL?
by Monsieur 38 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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jgnat
Humankind has a long history of having no compunction destroying anything that is "other" and considered a threat. In the past we've wiped out and oppressed rival tribes, rival nations, pockets of apostacy, jews, and wolves.
As we've become inclusive of what it means to be "human", we have progressively slowed our killing sprees.
http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence.html
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Seraphim23
Bad simply put is the combination of two things. One is the processes of nature that deconstruct like decay and the other is tied to sentience and consciousness that can experience such things. Evil on the other hand is tied to motive when related to the context of law and social cooperation and comes from sentience and consciousness. It’s what happens when the physical clashes with that which is not physical. The same is true for good and one step above good which English doesn’t really have a word for that I can think of.
Bad is what can happen to a sentient consciousness and evil can come from a sentient consciousness. So the meaning and purpose of evil is itself, or rather his or herself. Purpose and meaning can only become real where people exist, particularly in the context of evil.
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braincleaned
Monsieur: " your ammended comment is a little confusing. are you saying that the motives for evil HAVE to be bad? however, evil itself is not bad?"
No — good motives can produce evil — Patriotism comes to mind. The motives CAN be good, but the effect evil/bad.
Evil itself is obvioulsy bad. And some people do have evil intent. -
yadda yadda 2
The question posed by the creator of this thread is childishly provocative and contemptously obscene. It's like asking what is the meaning of slowly torturing a child to death? Pay no heed to it.
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Fernando
Psychiatrist Morgan Scott Peck defined evil as "militant ignorance" and characterised it as "malignant self-righteousness".
This resonates with my personal experience with the "elders" / Pharisees / "ruling religious clergy class".
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Monsieur
The question posed by the creator of this thread is childishly provocative and contemptously obscene. It's like asking what is the meaning of slowly torturing a child to death? Pay no heed to it.
yada, to your comment i will say while 'evilishly' pointing your rat's bazooka on you, (lol) go to 'hell'...
on to a more intelligent and constructive response...
Bad simply put is the combination of two things. One is the processes of nature that deconstruct like decay and the other is tied to sentience and consciousness that can experience such things. Evil on the other hand is tied to motive when related to the context of law and social cooperation and comes from sentience and consciousness. It’s what happens when the physical clashes with that which is not physical. The same is true for good and one step above good which English doesn’t really have a word for that I can think of.
Bad is what can happen to a sentient consciousness and evil can come from a sentient consciousness. So the meaning and purpose of evil is itself, or rather his or herself. Purpose and meaning can only become real where people exist, particularly in the context of evil.
seraphim,
yes, i agree very much with you here. it is a very good and logical explanation for the definition of 'evil'. If evil is ultimately 'his' or 'herself', is there a possibility then that it can be done away with? are we not the masters of our own thoughts and conscioussness?
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Simon
Why does there need to be a meaning or a purpose?
We have a natural desire to seek answers and explanations. Sometimes the reality is that life isn't fair and bad things happen to innocent people who really don't deserve it.
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OUTLAW
What IS the meaning and purpose of EVIL?
.............................To Obtain..
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...OUTLAW -
Seraphim23
Monsieur I think in answering you question that yes, evil could possibly be done away with. I think an issue to consider though connects with the idea that we are masters of our own thoughts and consciousness, is the idea that thoughts and consciousness are not the same things, because some thoughts come into the mind unbidden. Sometimes the “I” has to veto enacting some thoughts that may not be of our own excepted volition. We all have thoughts occasionally that come from the faculty of desires and imagination mangled together to result in thoughts that can disgust ourselves, which we reject, if we are good at self-control in the case that we like the thought, else disgust seems to be the control on it own without that further faculty. Other thoughts seems to feel as though they are from the “real” us because they feel in harmony with our personality even though no one chooses their personality, and still other thoughts of the rarer variety don’t seem to fit into any internally traceable route, as though they come from elsewhere.
Imagination for example seems to have two modes. One mode is controlled by something, and we call that something `ourselves` but the other mode is imagination without control, as though we were watching a TV screen passively, to see what happens. Dreams are often of this second type whereas working out a problem in our heads is the controlled type. So I think some thoughts are from the `us` which I do think exists, but other thoughts are not. Both types are experienced by our consciousness, although sometimes at different levels of consciousness, as with sleep. Evil though does seem to fit only the controlled mode of thought, but some people do have issues with the physical brain that means they cannot control certain aspects of their thinking or actions.
It’s a bit of an overly complex answer because even without evil, bad would still happen considering how this universe is set up it would seem.
...OUTLAW