What is Evil (in Both a Religious and Secular Sense)?

[Rational Agnostic]

What is the nature of evil in both a religious and secular sense?

About 45 years ago, I took a course in comparative religious studies titled "The Problem of Evil" that dealt with the nature of evil in both religious and secular literature. (Our professor required us to read 11 books for the semester. Naturally, we students took one look at the length of the reading list and quickly renamed the course, "Introduction to Evil". ) As you might expect, the concept of evil varies considerably from one culture and/or thinker to the next.

To me, one of the more interesting definitions of evil that was advanced during the semester was that evil consisted in "the denial life" while good consisted in "the affirmation of life". I thought the definition had some problems with it, but that it was a good start. Another definition was that evil could be defined as "anything offensive to God". And, of course, there was the definition of evil as just another name for "bad". There are lots of ways to define evil, both religious and secular, but some ways seem more useful than others.



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Good and evil are almost certainly subjective perceptions. Even religious people admit this when it comes to non-human actions. Consider that the average Christian would consider a pack of wolves devouring a baby deer alive to be "just part of nature" but almost certainly wouldn't call it "sinful." I consider all human behavior, even the most despicable imaginable to be "part of nature" in the same way that this scenario is. After all, humans are animals. Of course, there are human behaviors that I personally hate and believe we should do everything we can to stop them and punish them (murder, rape, etc). But, are they objectively evil in a different sense from the barbaric actions we see made by other animals every day? I don't think so.

 

[sun rise]

I'll break down the question into two parts.

It's easy to define relative evil which depends on culture and religion. Is abortion evil? It depends on your values.

What is harder for me is to ask what absolute evil would be. One approach is to say that good & evil is one of the poles of duality and when duality is transcended both disappear.

Another approach is evolutionary in a personal and cultural sense. Evil would then be something which was relatively good in prior times but is now retrogressive given the current level of personal and cultural maturity.

 

[wandering peacefully]

No such thing as a definition of evil within secular language and thought.

For religious definitions it is what ever anyone's gods and books, say is evil.

 

[MNoBody]

brought this old story to mind:

Good Luck Bad Luck!

There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"


Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck?

Who knows?

Everything that seems on the surface to be an evil may be a good in disguise. And everything that seems good on the surface may really be an evil. So we are wise when we leave it to God to decide what is good fortune and what misfortune, and thank him that all things turn out for good with those who love him.

Author Unknown

 

[Nakosis]

Evil is merely a perception. If we were capable of unconditional love, we would see violent behavior as a sickness.

I read once that the parents of Ted Bundy, the brutal serial killer had written parents of the victims to express their most profound sympathy. They added that, despite their son's horrible crimes, they were unable to deny their love for him.

Genuine love is unconditional. Children need to be loved whether they become saints or serial killers.

Bundy's parents didn't say this but I can imagine that they would see their son's acts as the result of sickness not evil.

If a Creator exists, and I do allow the possibility, we are loved unconditionally. What we see as evil, The Creator would see as sickness.

We see evil because we are judgmental and incapable of unconditional love except for our children, and then only sometimes.

If, as a society, we saw sickness instead of evil, and lacking a cure, we would quarantine people for life on early instances of violent behavior. We'd have a safer society if we saw violence as sickness rather than evil and quarantined the afflicted rather than punish them and then set them free..

Yes, I don't think in terms of evil. I think in terms of good. Whether what I or others are doing is good or not.

 

[1213]

What is the nature of evil in both a religious and secular sense?...

I have understood evil is really nothing, it is like emptiness or darkness. Darkness is lack of light and similarly evil is lack of good, nothing.

 

[joe1776]

...It's easy to define relative evil which depends on culture and religion. Is abortion evil? It depends on your values...

From my point of view, abortion, as a general practice, is not evil. It's not even immoral. That's because I recognize conscience as hard-wired moral intuition. And conscience I recognize as my only moral authority.

When we humans sense that an act is immoral, it feels wrong. That feeling is followed by an urge to punish the wrongdoer. The fact that people who claim that abortion is murder but don't have the urge to severely punish women who terminate their pregnancy is evidence that their claim is false.

One of the following is a false premise:

a) The judgments of conscience are the products of reason;

b) The judgments of conscience are the products of intuition.

For centuries theologians and philosophers have assumed that option a is true. They've been wrong. It's a false premise that is now being challenged by science.

 

[leov]

What is the nature of evil in both a religious and secular sense?

About 45 years ago, I took a course in comparative religious studies titled "The Problem of Evil" that dealt with the nature of evil in both religious and secular literature. (Our professor required us to read 11 books for the semester. Naturally, we students took one look at the length of the reading list and quickly renamed the course, "Introduction to Evil". ) As you might expect, the concept of evil varies considerably from one culture and/or thinker to the next.

To me, one of the more interesting definitions of evil that was advanced during the semester was that evil consisted in "the denial life" while good consisted in "the affirmation of life". I thought the definition had some problems with it, but that it was a good start. Another definition was that evil could be defined as "anything offensive to God". And, of course, there was the definition of evil as just another name for "bad". There are lots of ways to define evil, both religious and secular, but some ways seem more useful than others.



________________________

lack of compassion.

 

[rational experiences]

In a human life who says I was once original, the highest form of my own self with God.

As a human told story, living as a human, being a human. And the story said I was alone as a brotherhood living with the Garden Nature and I created science, the state invention...by thinking concepts.

Yet as I thought concepts my own spiritual self realization as I implied information kept telling me and advising me that I was wrong, and what I thought was for my own destruction.

For example....radiation is cold space he says, and it is the Creator, and it cannot be seen. Which just means space, emptiness and cold factually.

Then he does his machine, he built a mountain he lied. For he only built the mountain tip theme pyramid.

Told his own self as he built it that he was lying...but did it anyway.....termed evil.

Evil thinking, lying to self and then causing harm and destruction. All told by self, human.

So he applies the machine and says and I made sink holes, I removed original SIN...as I tried to save my own life. In real terms, I made sink holes in God the stone body, space...coldest place in creation, space.

But I referenced it as A SPACE. For I am only A SELF...and also A MIND.

Evil as the self taught concept, taught to self human as a self human for and behalf of self, a human, as an argument against their own self....human.

 

[osgart]

Evil is the antithesis of goodness. Evil is the motive to destroy goodness and replace it with vain glory and power.

The enemy of love that is true.

Anything blameless or innocent has enemies.

 

[rational experiences]

Evil is the antithesis of goodness. Evil is the motive to destroy goodness and replace it with vain glory and power.

The enemy of love that is true.

Anything blameless or innocent has enemies.

Goodness owns no opposition.

If a human, who is a self, owns life as a self and then acts with a group, the group mentality is to overthrow the self.

For it is a fact of human SCIENCE history that a group thought and greed against their self...each a one of.

If a human who thinks bad thoughts and then takes action as based on bad thoughts causes harm....then a bad thinking human can be destroyed as much as a good human thinker can.

What the nasty minded science self never considers.....for their theme I will survive, for I am the greatest self was just a lie.

For it is the science self who claims I am God, when the bible says no man is God is the self who gets destroyed for not listening to self.

For the stories of God always quoted and God will destroy you.

If you do an assessment after you applied the power of God for human sciences and claim did good and bad humans be destroyed, the answer is always yes they did.

If you do an assessment after you applied the power of God for human sciences and claim did good survive and bad humans survive, the answer is yes, they did.

The thinker is the only human self who lies.

 

[Curious George]

I would suggest evil is merely an abstraction, not much different than the word monster. It serves as a label to that which brings forth fear, disgust, and anger.

You can say this is another word for bad, but it is differentiated both by intensity and by the users intent to convey objectivity.

 

[MNoBody]

without the backdrop of the dark void of nothingness the bright light of somethingness would not be discernable...so it does serve a noble purpose

"I am the great invisible force that creates a tensegrity between polarities [positive and negative] that gives rise to this environment and its myriad of forms". [*a variation of an old verse]

 

[rational experiences]

without the backdrop of the dark void of nothingness the bright light of somethingness would not be discernable...so it does serve a noble purpose

"I am the great invisible force that creates a tensegrity between polarities [positive and negative] that gives rise to this environment and its myriad of forms". [*a variation of an old verse]

When you say I am as a human, you are the I am your own self.

For what you discuss is not the discussion, only a living human is discussing all ideals.

You live in 2 conditions in consciousness.

Life, the sacrifice of light gases, the spirit of God the stone burning/being sacrificed and removed yet remaining.

To a human self you would claim it miraculous....for the mind says I know that gases burning removes the spirit and it is completely gone.

How come natural light still stays there.

Then you tell stories and say, well in the night time clear spatial star light condition, I can see everything. Clear he says, it is all clear, not burning.

Now I know he says why I die....gases the spirit gets removed.

Now if you then have a bigger think you then say, oh, the Sun originally made stone also. It is like our God but not our God and they wander. And then got burnt too and released/removed its stone. Space must not be very cold after all...for consciously I live inside of once burning gases, they still exist for they are clear.

How does the gases remain he says. Wandering star bodies of stone that answer, they save life on Earth he says...they put the gases back.

Burning he says is evil, it should not occur.

Why would be the question, why is it evil? Because I live and I die from that action. Simple human assessment of forming all discussions....whilst only living on a body of stone as a planet where his mind should never wander from.

 

[MNoBody]

people often have the habit of reading far more into something than is really there....gotta love vivid imaginations

 

[lewisnotmiller]

The OP is asking for a definition of evil, not a statement about whether or not this or that definition of evil exists. To say something is not evil, but rather a behavioral disorder, etc. is to imply a definition of evil. What is that definition?

Just a quick clarification. Are you asking what I personally define evil as? I'm assuming that's what you're after.
It is something like trying to define God, but I'll give it a whirl if I'm understanding what you are looking for (now).




Again, your statement implies a definition of evil. What is that definition?[/QUOTE]

 

[Trinity Stooge]

What is the nature of evil in both a religious and secular sense?

About 45 years ago, I took a course in comparative religious studies titled "The Problem of Evil" that dealt with the nature of evil in both religious and secular literature. (Our professor required us to read 11 books for the semester. Naturally, we students took one look at the length of the reading list and quickly renamed the course, "Introduction to Evil". ) As you might expect, the concept of evil varies considerably from one culture and/or thinker to the next.

To me, one of the more interesting definitions of evil that was advanced during the semester was that evil consisted in "the denial life" while good consisted in "the affirmation of life". I thought the definition had some problems with it, but that it was a good start. Another definition was that evil could be defined as "anything offensive to God". And, of course, there was the definition of evil as just another name for "bad". There are lots of ways to define evil, both religious and secular, but some ways seem more useful than others.



________________________

That I am is good.
That I am not is evil.

 

[MNoBody]

solomon said a great evil was that man has to die, and does not continue on and see the fruits of his labors,etc. thus he said life is vanity of vanity and utterly futile, a striving after the wind

 

[rational experiences]

A human male science group original theorist for science...AI encoded communicators.

Says the following statement to self. God O the stone mass in its natural past was evil for it was gases burning, self consuming. Evil, about God. Not anywhere else is that thought.

Science today says in the past an evil body created God...and lie.

In the past the body of God by male definition O was eternal sound mass, unknowable, and a mystery. It fell into space, burst by applied pressure and burnt.

God fell he said in science.

God, then evolved and healed and became God by womb conditions, space.

Space being oblivion, owning no form, just a womb. Cold, and pressure due to being of no mass of God, emptiness.

If you ask what space used to be, before it was eternal also.

Eternal, a body of mass in mass.

Spirit sung up God sounds in eternal O multi and o multi.

Thinned out a body mass in eternal. O and o fell through into space forming.

Eternal the thin body water....when O o burst and burnt, what was left, the thin body eternal became water.

God one body only, as discussed in science, Earth relativity is ST one.

Science can only physically manipulate God stone mass, remove it to form gases from conversion, as physical science, by a physical group in physical machine conditions. Yet thinking constantly only in consciousness, gas heavenly body.

 

[stvdv]

What is the nature of evil in both a religious and secular sense?

What is Evil (in Both a Religious and Secular Sense)?

Religious Evil act: When you act against what your conscience tell you.
Secular Evil act: When you act against what your conscience tell you.