Where do you think evil (or bad behavior) comes from?

wordlywife

Being worldly I try to get my head around this sometimes, and wondered what others opinions are. Being that my husband is a long time Witness I know what the witness view is, it is all Satan's doing. Since most of you are "out", has your view on the source of evil/unacceptable behavior, (whatever you personally find just out-right wrong, for me it is child sexual abuse), changed? What do you believe is the reason humans do the horrible things they do, at times? Do you still believe there is a wicked force, an a good one?

I can't get my brain to even partly believe there are demons lurking, a Satan attacking, etc., but I can't pinpoint WHY I believe that that way, much to my husband's chagrin. I wish I had a good reason (I have no Bible trained conscience telling me what things are bad, I just know feel/know they are) to tell him why I believe what I do when he points to Satan the Devil as the reason.

If there is a thread pertaining to this already I'd appreciate a link, I tried searching topics and did not find anything.

Thanks all-

worldly wife

IP_SEC

(Matthew 7:16) 16By their fruits YOU will recognize them. Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they?

WW whether you believe in the bible or not, this is a universal maxim. Another maxim is power corrupts. Any org that becomes too powerful will become corrupt and produce rotton fruit.

GetBusyLiving

:I can't get my brain to even partly believe there are demons lurking, a Satan attacking, etc., but I can't pinpoint WHY I believe that that way, much to my husband's chagrin.

That's because those things are imaginary and ludicrous to rational people. They are OLD school religious attempts to explain the seemingly meaninglessness of life. Think about how rediculously unfair this notion is. Invisible creatures floating around manipulating people. You can't understand it because you were never a cultist.

As far as selfishness and evil I think it mostly has to do with genetics and our natural dispositions as humans. People are products of their environments as well and all those factors make up how we treat other people in society. IMO.

GBL

jeanniebeanz

Well, I certainly cannot speak for the board, but personally feel that we all have the capacity for evil under the right, or wrong, circumstances. Look at the people who just snap after living a good and upstanding life for upwards of 40, 50, 60 or more years. Look at the people who have committed a heinous crime in their teens and then live a normal life and are caught for that crime 50 or 60 years later due to new crime detecting tecniques.

It is astounding and frightening to know that we cannot ever truly know someone no matter how close we are to them, because we cannot see into their heads. Everyone fights a battle in their minds whether to make a sound decisions or not. Most people win the fight. Some lose.

J

frankiespeakin

It's all relative what is evil to us may not be evil to someone else. What is considered evil by our species would not be considered evil by another spiecies. Example:

We eat other animals, we hunt them, trap them and cook them. We do not consider this for the most part evil but just part of the natural food chain, a fact of life that has been going on for thousands of years. Yet if we seen a mountain lion chase, kill and eat a little 3 year old girl, we would classify that as very evil,, and feel revenge is justified even if that mountain lion had cubs that depended on it for survival.

Evil is in the eye of the beholder.

jeanniebeanz

kill and eat a little 3 year old girl, we would classify that as very evil,, and feel revenge is justified even if that mountain lion had cubs that depended on it for survival.

Actually, I would not consider that evil, just a horrible incident. Now if a human killed and ate a three year old, that would be evil. The mountain lion would have been acting withing the natural instincts *normal* for it's species. The human would be well without the natural instincts for it's species.

J

zen nudist

What do you believe is the reason humans do the horrible things they do, at times? Do you still believe there is a wicked force, an a good one?

I believe that humans like computers have only two important parts, their hardware or body, and their software or beliefs... if either of these is somehow broken or damaged or corrupted, then the behaviors will be viewed as dangerous in some way... either to the person himself or to those around him or both.

here is one theory about why someone could become a child molester-- at a critical imprinting age, usually around the beginnings of puberty. this person interacts with a child, perhaps only a few years younger than himself.. he may be 12-13, she may be 9 or 10, etc... this interaction can set up a trigger that will last his entire life.... he may become an addict for this youthful imprint burned into his psyche just like someone who has done heroine becomes a junkie and no matter how clean he ever becomes is just a half step away from complete enslavement the rest of his life. Society damning people like this forces them to hide what they do and makes the emotional energy even more powerful and all the more irresitible at times they way any life and death gamble would.

the conscious and unconscious actions of this person driven to satisfy this forbidden hunger will be judged by society as evil.

Carmel

Will send answer tonight!

carmel

Doubtfully Yours

Well, logically speaking, anything that exists comes from the creator of it all. Think about it!

Aw brother, I think I'm growing into an agnostic person.

DY

wordlywife

A lion killing and eating a child to me is not evil, either. It's just what a large predatory animal would do given the right circumstances. I fall along the belief that some people are wired to commit offending behavior, some people learn it, some truly do have a pscyhiatric condition and don't know why/what they do is wrong, etc. I do not believe there is an evil Satan and a band of demons acting on all of us. No way, no how. But, I do believe in a creator/being/force/power of some kind. I sometimes wonder how can I believe in one and not another? Am I just a Pollyanna? Maybe so. Wish there were more of that around.........

Then again, there are times when I get creepy crawly feelings from people or things. Husband would ask me "Why do you think THAT is?" His answer obviously being STD (Satan The Devil, not Sexually Transmitted Dieseases, **smile**) All I can say is I don't know, it's just the way I feel. My attempts to explain the way I feel/believe sound like they are based on childlike innocence compared to all the Bible Proof and rebuttal I get shown in return.

ww

Where do you think evil (or bad behavior) comes from?

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