RE: Do you believe in good and evil?
October 1, 2014 at 11:00 pm
(This post was last modified: October 1, 2014 at 11:15 pm by Whateverist.)
Sounds like Chad has jumped the snark.
Not my fault. I've slowed down a lot in the fornicating department .. but still liking it as much or more.
I wasn't thinking that evil was the absence of good. I actually answered "not at all" to both. I think "good" can accurately describe some acts even though I don't think "goodness" exists as a 'force'. Basically pretty much any human intention which is motivated by concern or empathy for another can be described as "good". But good isn't anything in itself either.
I always laugh when movies like the James Bond variety try to set up a unambiguously evil bad guy. Their motivations never make sense. they always come off as disturbed individuals. They're not so much acting for the sake of evil as they are greedy or cruel and usually crazy. Even Tolkien is guilty of this and his Sauron is entirely devoid of humanity and so unrecognizable as a person.
In real life, people like Pol Pot or Stalin or Hitler or Cheney are just people who use others in expedient ways which ignores their humanity. There don't seem to be any evil intentions as such, just intentions which are untempered by human feeling and empathy.
(October 1, 2014 at 10:27 am)ChadWooters Wrote:(October 1, 2014 at 2:50 am)Blackrook Wrote: ...who demand that all people in all historical periods act like perfectly civilized 21st century Americans.The USA is a society in decline suffering from rampant fornication, materialism, celebrity idolization, and Earth worship. We are hardly a model civilization.
Not my fault. I've slowed down a lot in the fornicating department .. but still liking it as much or more.
(October 1, 2014 at 7:16 pm)Rhythm Wrote:(October 1, 2014 at 11:32 am)whateverist Wrote: I'd say evil, like cold, is the absence of something rather than something distinctive in itself.I don't know Whatevs. I'm twirling a pencil. "Good" is absent (in fact, pretty much everything is absent).....so, does that mean that twirling a pencil is evil?
I wasn't thinking that evil was the absence of good. I actually answered "not at all" to both. I think "good" can accurately describe some acts even though I don't think "goodness" exists as a 'force'. Basically pretty much any human intention which is motivated by concern or empathy for another can be described as "good". But good isn't anything in itself either.
I always laugh when movies like the James Bond variety try to set up a unambiguously evil bad guy. Their motivations never make sense. they always come off as disturbed individuals. They're not so much acting for the sake of evil as they are greedy or cruel and usually crazy. Even Tolkien is guilty of this and his Sauron is entirely devoid of humanity and so unrecognizable as a person.
In real life, people like Pol Pot or Stalin or Hitler or Cheney are just people who use others in expedient ways which ignores their humanity. There don't seem to be any evil intentions as such, just intentions which are untempered by human feeling and empathy.
