Define "Evil."

[Archbio]

Actually, there are many observations that make alot more sense if you accept that sometimes the universe doesn't make sense, divides by a zero, and goes into a state with multiple truth values.

I'm sorry, but maybe I've haven't delved enough in these questions, but it seems to me like this sentence itself contains an enormous contradiction. "Make alot more sense" if you "accept" that it doesn't "make sense"? Utilitarian leap of faith?

What I meant to say was, that maybe the logical convention that you can't divide by zero isn't accurate. That doesn't mean that the universe isn't logical, but rather that some terms we have set don't hold up. The concept of logic only has sense if it is coherent with the universe. There's really no point in saying "I guess the universe isn't logical" when something doesn't fit and accepting a division between physical reality and logic, when it's more obviously our conception of some phenomenon that are lacking.

Ultimately the answer to the question "What is Evil/Good/Truth/Whatever?" is simple: What is Evil? A word.

That is truly meaningless. Unless you mean that Evil has no coherent existence in the physical world, but the way it is phrased makes me think it is implied that because it's an abstract concept, it is inherently worthless. Isn't that a tad fatuous?

Edit: Of course, E-V-I-L is a word.

[ShadowFox]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Swordchucks

Thats your choice. I would say it isn't my responsibility to save the 10,000. How do I decide which 1000 to kill? What makes any innocent people more fit to kill than others? Who am I to decide who lives and dies? No person should have the power to make that decision, and I think its overstepping a one's bounds as a human to assume they have the right to make that choice.

Of course it isn't your responsibility, but lets say you did have the option then you can still make the choice. If telling yourself it isn't your responsibility or that you lack authority to judge the lives others is somehow supposed to make you feel better then thats fine also. Its not really your right, but our rights only go as far as what society can enforce. Right to life....right to read....you only have rights as long as you can keep people from taking them away. I may not have the right to judge 1,000 people to death to save 10,000 but I like to think I would choose the lives of 10,000 over 1,000. Of course this depends on the people involved if it was say 1,000 americans and you were saving 10,000 from some country you don't give a shit about. Just because something isn't your responsibility is a weak excuse for not acting. If I see some old lady get robbed and just sit there and say "Well it wasn't my responsibility" isn't going to sound very good. Also, some may argue you have a responsibility owed towards society or humanity in general to uphold the order and well being of these organizations since they have fostered you and you have benefited from being part of them.

[Bongo Bill]

"Wave" and "Particle" are not mutually exclusive. "Is" and "Is not" are mutually exclusive.

Let's consider a metaphor. Say, for instance, a hammer. I'll ask three people to define "Hammer." The first person is a layman who defines it by instinct and says, "Well, it's a tool used for hitting things." The second person is much more precise, and says, "It's an object composed of a relatively light handle and a heavy weight with at least one flat side attached to one end of it." The third person is crazy and he says, "It's one of these!" while proudly displaying a dead rat with its tail tied to a pair of blue fuzzy dice like the kind that people hang from their rear-view mirrors - which is clearly not a hammer.

Which one of them has the proper definition of "hammer?" Well, they're all different and, even excluding (perhaps unfairly) the third guy's definition, it's clear that they don't match up exactly. After all, a tool used for hitting things need not be a weight on a handle, nor does a weight on a handle necessarily have to be used as a tool for hitting things.

Relativism is saying, "Well, a hammer is whatever we say it is - it's a term that has no inherent meaning. There's no reason the rat-dice can't be considered a hammer." Absolutism is saying "A hammer is a fourteen-inch Black & Decker claw hammer." I'm looking for something in between that relies on intuition as little as possible. Something like you'd find in a dictionary.

Originally Posted by Napoleon98

-Note: Religion is sadly the only 'absolute' way to measure good vs evil, and even then you still have a matter of every different religion out there, and until we somehow know every secret of the universe, or maybe when you die, theres no way to tell which one is right...

Wrongo! I'm an atheist. I don't exclude the possibility of absolute morality. You don't need to have ever seen a dictionary, nor accept its authority as valid and unquestionable, in order to understand the concept of "Hammer" or find a working definition for it.

[RedScar]

Enough with space and particle stuff it's off topic. Back to what you think is evil. Evil is evil. Not a single act, not the reason for the act, not the thing that cuase the act.

A little child playing with a cat kepts pulling on the cat's tail. the cat is anger by this repetive annoyince. So it scratches the boy an hits his his eye, because his face was low and close too the ground. Is the cat evil for blinding him? Is the boy evil for annoying the cat? Most would say the cat is evil for blinding him. Some who say, normally before this lash out, the child is evil for angering the cat. The cat probllay thinks the boy is annoying but not evil. The child is crying and his eye hurts, later in life he problly will either say the cat is evil, or accept thatthe cat was only defending itsslef and he caused the anger. So is anyone really evil? Did the cat purposely mean to blind the child's eye? Probally not. Did the child at such a young age mean to hurt the cat? Is any of this really evil? No, not really. On only fact that remains in the child is blind in one eye. (Most likely in his right eye if the cat was right hand/paw-ed.) And he must live this way. Does the cat feel regret? Does he feel it's justifiyed? We won't know.

I'd give more examples but this took up a lot of room. And time. And please do not say cats are evil just because your a dog lover. And do not protect him just because your a cat lover. I am I cat lover and do not mean to say cats are evil. Do not post about why cats or dogs are evil. It's off topic and Not nessicary.


I'd like too say that this is mearly an example, and does not realat to any thing thing I have witnessed or experineced. Thank you.

[Napoleon98]

Ok, switch 'religion' to 'personal beliefs.' Happy now?

And in regards to my example, fine, using your do unto others as you would have them do unto you, if a man believes murder isn't evil and doesn't mind if someone tries to murder him in the night, is it still evil? Not to him No. And no matter waht you tell the man, he will not see the act as evil. We will perceive him as evil, but he will not accept it as evil. My point still stands.

It doesn't amtter if everyone else in the world says EVIL IS THIS, if any one person doesn't agree with that then it still isn't an absolute definition. Besides, given the size of hte universe and infinte possibilities that exist out there, whos to say that we, a mere 7trillion humans, who for all we know are slaves to another race on some distant planet, and are only one of millions of planets with intellegent life, who's to say that We have the right to decide what is right(good) and wrong(evil)...

Oh, and I was making a joke about the philosophy thing since it seems that I'm always the person to bring up that argument on completley unrelated topics, it wasn't a challenge :/

P.S.- THE CAT WAS RIGHT :p j/k just had to

[RedScar]

Yes lets please not talk about religion. That's what causes fights, war, and gets people banned from this fourm.

Now to another example,

Theres a boy. This boy is growing up all nice and fine. Then his parents have a chance to go and live in someone else house for a year, (think of it as a sorta Life Swap(life, wife... nevermind)) So this child is just starting kindergarden. He makes many friends and then after a year goes back home. He does not know anybody at school in his first grade class. He didn't go here in kindergarden so he didn't meet everyone and make friends like everyone else. This one girl has just moved here. She also know nobody. So there become friends. Later on at the begining of 2nd grade this girl moves. This boy now has to find new friends or a friend because he has none.

So this boy(BOY A) one day meets another boy(BOY B) and his friend (BOY C). So boy A speend s a week with boys B and C. But then boy C moves away. Boy A is somewhat friends with boy B but it seems awkward some how. In the 3rd grade boy B becomes suddeenly voilent. (Which is never found out why.) Boy B hurts hits and abuses boy A for the rest of 3rd grade. No helps boy A directly. No one knows him. Boy B is still completle unexplained and looks like he had no friends before too. In fourth grade boy A goes too a dirfrent school, not to escape boy B but because is smart and excepted into another school. This school was good and had good people but boy A had a bad teacher who couldn't teach. Boy A's parents decied boy A should go back to school where he used to go. Boy A's parents think that boy A was hit once and that it was no big deal and told him he could come to them if he needed help. But... Boy A didn't.

When Boy A went back to his old school he meet a new student(boy D). The kid boy B had pick had picked on. Boy D had made one friend and somehow knew Boy A when he saw him. So boy A and boy D, along with some other boys(not important to the story) became a group, a circle if you wish. (Which is odd, A was beaten up,D was really really fat, one was gay, one was a complete computer nerd and said to be gay, and one was there because... I don't know why) So for 5th and 6th grade boy A, D and four others they hung out at school together. Then in seventh grade they went to diffrent middle schools. Boy A and D went to the same school but then drifted apart. Boy A had to make new friends and there were people from a diffrent school. Boy picked yet anthoer wrong person, but that is a diffrent story...

In 8th grade Boy A met someone he had hoped he'd never see again, Boy B. Boy B was in boy A's science class. Boy B was what was called the filler. When there was labs whoever didn't have a partner he went with them. Normally boy B went with someone else. He went were he wanted. Boy B had many options He had three. Boy A, a girl, and another boy. He choose Boy A. Boy A was displeased but thought nothing of it except that he'd just have to get through 30mintues of this. 10mintues in, ten minutes, that's when it happened. Boy B took his pencil and poked boy B in the arm with the eraser. He then waited, when nothing happened he turned it around and poked boy B with the sharp end. Boy B turned in his seat, his back against the wall he looked at him, their eyes locked. Boy boy then took the pecil and stabed boy B one inch above his left eye. In One seconed Boy B's face turned to horror. Pure horror. This was something boy Boy A had not seen before. And was a bout to say some thing when boy b started rapidly speaking. He was saying "I'm sorry, O my god, I'm so sorry." He reapted this over and over, mindlessly with the look of horror still on his face. People stared to notice. Boy A was wondering what was going on. Someone told Boy A to close his eyes. Blood then rolled over his left his when he did. Boy A went to the nurse. And later that day had heard that boy B would be expelled.

Was Boy B evil for trying to blind me? That's right. I said Me. I was Boy A. I do not belive he was evil, I did then. Mabye crazy, deranged. probally not evil though. I not sure what has happened to boy B But I have seen him, and when I do he is the one that is afaid.

I know this is alot to read so I thank you for reading it. I know i should not tell my life story here but I will, it is my desscion.

[Robot Jesus]

paragraphs, they exist for a reason. uniform blocks of text are increabibly hard to read

[RedScar]

There I fixed it. Is there anyway to indent it?

I'm glad someone atlest read that, it took me forty minutes to write.

[Bongo Bill]

Intersting story. Unfortunately, it didn't strike me as particularly relevant.

[RedScar]

It means is he evil. It means is what he did evil. What he evil because of what he intended. Is what he intended evil. Are my parents the ones to blame beacuse of them I missed that first vital year. Is anything real? Or is it a combination that makes it evil? I can ask questions all day, but nothing happens if I don't get awanswers. I want your awanswers. (and by your I mean all of you.) i read this you know, I do care what you think. Most the time.