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| Sum1bor3d |
 Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject: The Root of All Evil |
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Forum Freshman
Joined: 15 Dec 2007
Posts: 84
Location: My Room
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What's your opinion on the root of all evil?
There was a huge debate between money and ignorance on this forum and I just wanted to know what your guys opinion are on this.
http://www.rapbattles.com/forum/showthread.php/root-all-evil-365639.html
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"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
-- ALBERT EINSTEIN --
I claim EMC of this Forum!  |
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| Cold Fusion |
| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Bachelors Degree
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 476
Location: In the circuitous haze of my mind
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Humans.
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Forget all that you know, achievements can only be accomplished by starting from nothing and selectively applying facts that are purely objective and absolutely necessary. |
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| paralith |
| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Ph.D.
Joined: 06 Jun 2007
Posts: 959
Location: Washington, DC
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| Cold Fusion wrote: |
| Humans. |
Hmm. I like that answer.
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~Jean-Paul Sartre
Monkeys in Clothes - hosted by SFN blogs |
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| Pong |
| Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Senior
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 358
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| Whenever life forms interact, "evil" is possible. I prefer the world stirred up anyway. |
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| Ophiolite |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:18 am Post subject: |
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Forum Radioactive Isotope
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 4062
Location: Scotland
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Evil is a human concept, so Cold Fusion's response seems the most accurate. It does, however, lack depth. What is it, for example, about humans that can generate evil? Also, how do we distinguish between evil and the merely bad?
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The Universe is not only weirder than we imagine it is weirder than we can imagine. J.B.S.Haldane. |
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| Obviously |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:00 am Post subject: |
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Forum Ph.D.
Joined: 14 Aug 2007
Posts: 898
Location: Norway
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| Ophiolite wrote: |
| Evil is a human concept, so Cold Fusion's response seems the most accurate. It does, however, lack depth. What is it, for example, about humans that can generate evil? Also, how do we distinguish between evil and the merely bad? |
Necessity perhaps?
Was the evil deed done for an evil reason (just for fun for example) or was there a reason understandable for the action?
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“After Darwin, God's role changes from being the designer of all creatures, great and small, to being the designer of the laws of nature, from which natural selection can unfold, to being just perhaps the chooser of the laws.”
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| Pong |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:15 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 08 Apr 2008
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What sets "mere bad" apart? One can mean well, and do bad.
I don't find "evil" a useful term, but evil, I'd define as doing something bad just because one feels like it, "because that's just the way I am." It is callously placing one's own interests, no matter how slight, before another's, no matter how grave.
When a wasp stings, it means to kill. It really means to end you! If something can be "evil", surely this is..? Or, better, when a hornet injects her eggs inside a living creature. Brutal! Evil is a human concept, yes... and many human concepts may be applied to hornets. I think that what Ophiolite meant, was that "evil" as condemnation should only be applied to humans? But note I'm not judging hornets - I would not have them any other way.
"Evil" does not have to be loaded with values and wielded righteously. |
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| sunshinewarrior |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:09 am Post subject: |
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Forum Ph.D.
Joined: 26 Sep 2007
Posts: 837
Location: London
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| Ophiolite wrote: |
| Also, how do we distinguish between evil and the merely bad? |
The way we always do, surely:
1. Yuck factor
2. Upbringing
3. Received book
4. Unacknowledged patriarchal impulses
etc
But does that take away from the fact that, whichever way we do it, we are the arbiters of what is evil? And it is rooted in our quest for normative standards....
To that extent some might claim that the love of money (not money itself, but cupiditas, or, lovely archaic word, cupidity) is the root of all evil, but they're probably the ones who say blessed are the poor. Those who chastise ignorance are probably dwellers in ivory towers (of one sort or another)...
So the root cause of all evil is different depending upon who's ideology you use. My tuppence. |
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| Ophiolite |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:53 am Post subject: |
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Forum Radioactive Isotope
Joined: 25 Jul 2005
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Location: Scotland
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| sunshinewarrior wrote: |
| To that extent some might claim that the love of money (not money itself, but cupiditas, or, lovely archaic word, cupidity) is the root of all evil, but they're probably the ones who say blessed are the poor. |
The poor and the distressed are similar. My familiy motto is Miseris Succerrere Disco , I learn to succour the distressed. It always amused me that this could sound to the ear like I learn to sucker the distressed. 
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The Universe is not only weirder than we imagine it is weirder than we can imagine. J.B.S.Haldane. |
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| (Q) |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:32 am Post subject: |
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Forum Ph.D.
Joined: 12 May 2005
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Evil is a religious concept and has little meaning in nature.
The indoctrination of children into religious cults is where it begins. The acceptance of the irrational and improbable as an absolute truth will destroy any mind.
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| Skiyk |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Sophomore
Joined: 31 Mar 2008
Posts: 190
Location: Canada
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I would have to agree with humans. After all, we are the only species that kills out of hate or disgust. We are the root of all evil and the our actions are just sections of that.
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| BumFluff |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Sophomore
Joined: 06 Mar 2008
Posts: 198
Location: Canada
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the root of all evil is ... shoes.
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"The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt" - Bertrand Russell |
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| DivideByZero |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Sophomore
Joined: 02 Dec 2007
Posts: 171
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"evil" is relative.
Person A stops person B from killing Person C. Person A assumes B is evil.
Person B was sent to assassinate Person C because person C is considered evil by many.
Person C, unknowing about the above incidents, thinks all men are evil because they fight.
Lets get real.. Evil is just an opinion. |
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| Pong |
| Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Senior
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 358
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Dodging the question. "What is (the root of) evil?" Or at least, if one doesn't care much for the term, what could it be? "Just an opinion" - lame!
I'm arguing that, stripped of muddled moral baggage, evil could be a commonly understood & useful term. One could prove whether some person or thing had the (defined, knowable) quality of "evil", and not prove for self-serving reasons either. Objectively. For better understanding.
I'm also fed up with the secular ceding religion ownership of this. It's time we claimed it and made sense of it, as we have so many other things.
To illustrate how "evil" could be useful, I'll swap a less abused quality:
Suppose we live in Lazyland.
Person A stops person B from killing Person C. Person A assumes B is industrious.
Person B was sent to assassinate Person C because person C is considered industrious by many.
Person C, unknowing about the above incidents, thinks all men are industrious because they fight.
Isn't that better? |
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| JaneBennet |
| Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:29 am Post subject: |
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Forum Junior
Joined: 06 Apr 2008
Posts: 257
Location: UK
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| DivideByZero wrote: |
"evil" is relative.
Person A stops person B from killing Person C. Person A assumes B is evil.
Person B was sent to assassinate Person C because person C is considered evil by many.
Person C, unknowing about the above incidents, thinks all men are evil because they fight.
Lets get real.. Evil is just an opinion. |
In that case. the ethical debate is not about what constitutes “evil” but how you deal with what you consider to be “evil”.
Suppose you don’t approve of a certain society’s way of life – which you consider “evil”. You send a couple pilots to fly their planes into two of their buildings and cause anguish and mayhem to that society whose way of life you consider “evil”. However your tactic is considered “evil” by many (and not just by those upon whom you’ve just inflicted your terrorist wound). So: do you think countering “evil” with another “evil” is justified?
The bottom line is: You can define anything you don’t like as “evil”. It’s how you deal with it, not what it is, that matters.
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