Do you believe in radical evil?

Samaris

brickmauser wrote: »

You are trying to equate the barbaric practise of genital mutilation if children that is rife in barbarian savage cultures with the voluntary genital piercings that grown adults voluntarily subject themselves to?

You obviously can't tell the moral difference.

Crimes like murder rape genocide theft fraud etc are objectively evil.

No ifs buts or maybes.

They are clearly wrong because they are acts that are committed intentionally disregarding the pain and suffering they inflict on others.

You cannot deny the objective reality if pain and suffering and you cannot deny that intentionally inflicting it can only be considered evil.

There is nothing subjective about that at all.

I also mentioned genital or ear piercing in babies.

Okay, I've tried and I suspect you're absolutely not going to get what I'm saying Yes, evil exists and you can objectively identify it based on your personal mores.

Someday though, you'll run into someone who just as passionately believes the opposite to what you consider objective evil and it would be rather entertaining to watch you both argue why you're both objectively correct regardless of reality.

brickmauser

Samaris wrote: »

I also mentioned genital or ear piercing in babies.

Okay, I've tried and I suspect you're absolutely not going to get what I'm saying Yes, evil exists and you can objectively identify it based on your personal mores.

Someday though, you'll run into someone who just as passionately believes the opposite to what you consider objective evil and it would be rather entertaining to watch you both argue why you're both objectively correct regardless of reality.

This is not based on my personal opinion.
Pain and suffering happens to people doesn't it?
That is an objective fact isn't it?
You do agree that pain and suffering is unpleasant don't you?
Every human in all times and places would have the same opinion.
That means it is objectively true that pain and suffering is unpleasant.
Now if that unpleasantness is deliberately inflicted for either sadistic pleasure or with indifference toward the misery it causes to its victim that is wrong and therefore evil.
Therefore acts like murder torture theft genocide rape etc which are acts that create the greatest suffering of all are deliberate acts by humans on other humans and can be called objectively evil.
The people who do these things are evil doers and therefore evil people.

andrewdj409

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

You created 2 categories and defined what fulfils them.

The use of the term 'evil' is meaningless and confusing. Evil is just a term which describes things and behaviours we don't like. Terrorists are evil. Psychopaths are evil. Cancer is evil. It's meaningless.

Why not just describe behaviours in meaningful terms? Intentional harm vs reckless harm?

Who can ultimately define "good" and "evil"? Where did we get that concept from?

Morality

brickmauser

If I had a fully loaded 9mm pistol would I have to prove to you every time that when I pull the trigger that it will fire? Imagine if I was to test that by pointing it at you and pulling the trigger?

We wouldn't even be debating whether I was guilty of murder or not.

I could not seriously argue that I didn't know it wasn't fully loaded and that it would fire and that pointing it at your head while pulling the trigger was not murder.

I would rightly called evil and punished accordingly.

You wouldn't find any rational person on earth who would call it anything else except an evil act committed by an evil person.

It would be impossible to have a subjective opinion.

Any jury presented with the evidence would find me guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. I would go further that the prosecution would have proven my guilt beyond all doubt. They would be able to establish an objective fact that I was guilty.

Samaris

brickmauser wrote: »

This is not based on my personal opinion.
Pain and suffering happens to people doesn't it?
That is an objective fact isn't it?
---
The people who do these things are evil doers and therefore evil people.

And you were placing your own value judgement on what YOU CONSIDER objectively evil or not objectively evil, such as -your views- on abortion. I mean..how do I put this politely, but you do understand what objective means, right?

brickmauser

Samaris wrote: »

And you were placing your own value judgement on what YOU CONSIDER objectively evil or not objectively evil, such as -your views- on abortion. I mean..how do I put this politely, but you do understand what objective means, right?

Stop squirming away.
I was quite clear.
You cannot deny that objective pain and suffering exist and you cannot deny that deliberate acts that inflict pain and suffering are committed.
Those acts are therefore objectively evil.
End of

osarusan

brickmauser wrote: »

End of

Lets hope so.

Samaris

brickmauser wrote: »

End of

..Okay. End of. :pac:

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

brickmauser wrote: »

Absolutely bizarre that there are posters who don't believe in right and wrong.

You don't think anything is wrong?

Where did anybody say that. You raised the philosophy of Radical Evil not right and wrong.

Samaris

Thea Attractive Spy wrote: »

Where did anybody say that. You raised the philosophy of Radical Evil not right and wrong.

Yiiis, but "radical evil" is the same thing as immoral, wicked, wrong and whatever OP says it is, so I'm not sure we're ever going to get to the bottom of this.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Sorry, forgot to add.

End of??

As my late mother used to say... thanks be to all that's good and holy.

Outlaw Pete

Evil is a Evil does.

Traits and behavior are manifested from nature and nurture. What's that expression: Genetics are a gun and environment pulls the trigger, well never more so when it comes to "evil acts".

We can inherit violent traits or a propensity to walk on others without due regard for their feelings but have a happy loving childhood and a person may never express it. Get addicted to meth and find yourself without it and those genes are gonna get expressed very quickly.

Life experiences don't make us what we are.. they reveal it.

ScumLord

The word evil comes with all sorts of long standing religious dogma. It infers that the act is influenced by a force, that something corrupted the natural order of god and brought this evil force into the world.

Evil doesn't really exist outside of human morals though. Male lions routinely kill lion cubs that aren't theirs. It's not evil, it has biological reasons. Someone who murders another person can do so for many reasons, even the psychopathic serial killer isn't evil, many are just people with either faulty hardware (some form of brain damage or malformed regions of the brain), or faulty programming (a harsh upbringing that destroys empathy). If you can show that there are reasons for an act it's hard to see it as evil.

When humans are born we're not that much different from the lions that will kill other lions cubs, or cats that will play with a half dead animal for fun. We have to instal thousands of years of learned behaviour and spend decades enforcing it before you end up with your average modern snowflake.

If the poop hit the fan and modern trade and cooperation broke down people would find their capable of all sorts of horrible acts. The only reason we can have these believes today is down to the centuries of trial and error our ancestors put into developing a fair society. It's all a fairytale though, it's a construct that just doesn't exist outside our own head.

We might see the murder of a human being as bad, but it's boom time for bacteria and maggots. It's only evil from our perspective.