Is knowledge the root of all evil?

[Won2blv]

Before I go on, I want to define Knowledge specifically for this context. Knowledge is an idea, truth, or consequence that you KNOW to be true, justified or not, by prior experience.

Cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, logical fallacies... we all know the topics well. That is what makes us skeptics. Overcoming those three things is what got me to quit being a JW. Maybe it got you out of your church.

We think that knowledge is what helped us, but the truth is, knowledge is what created the need for cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and logical fallacies. Humans only know how to understand and connect with other humans be relating everything back to themselves. So when I KNEW that I was in the true religion, and that it meant my literal life, I was eager to find all the justifications I could to believe it. It was not surprising to me when I left, my sister kept saying to me, "but don't you want to see mom again?" It was like she thought that if I just wished hard enough, it would all be true.

Now for me, it cost me a lot, but not that much in the grand scheme of things. I didn't go to college, I didn't have sex with multiple partners, and I never got to celebrate Christmas! Ok, I'm grateful for that last one because I save a lot of money every year. Just think of every evil act in the world though. It always is rooted in some kind of sick idea of what is true. Sure, you could say that these people are also mentally deranged, but that doesn't change the fact that some kind of spark led them on the path of destruction and killing. It doesn't matter if they flew a plane into the World Trade Centers, shot up a school full of elementary grade students, or decided to run for president. Those deranged people all started with something that they KNEW was true.

The pursuit of knowledge is a beautiful thing. But thinking that you have attained an absolute knowledge is when you start pursuing the opposite of knowledge, make believe.

Let me know what you think, thanks

[bennyboy]

What's this evil thing of which you speak?

[ignoramus]

Hey, leave our good friend, the orang-utan us out of this!




*edited for shits/giggles   ...does not change the thread flow ... (2 turds instead of one )

[Won2blv]

What's this evil thing of which you speak?

I'd say evil is the opposite of love progress. Evil to me, is any product of nature that thinks it is the pinnacle of evolution. Therefore, it has no need to learn, adapt, or grow. It has become its own god

---

Hey, leave our good friend, the orang-utan out of this!

I was actually talking about Obama, you know, the ANTICHRIST!!!!

[paulpablo]

I think that perceived knowledge can motivate what you'd call evil.  I mean if someone knows that America is evil and they know that killing themselves and taking down the world trade center is the best way to deal with the situation then that knowledge has spurred on that evil act.

But as an atheist who believed in evolution I think all our behaviors have primitive instincts at the root.  Followed by more thoughtful planned behavior. 

 So when you look at a missile strike against civilians from another country, the root of that behavior is the same thing that drives the chimpanzee to throw a stick in the vague direction of whoever it wants to intimidate for reasons of aggression.  It does take a lot of effort, forward planning and a fixated motivation towards an ideal to bomb someone which are functions of a more complex mind, but I'd say that under all that is the root cause, and that's the more primitive functions of the mind.

Obviously that doesn't take into account mental illness and there's lots of nuances to the subject of what causes evil or what evil even is or if it exists.

What your sister said about your mother even got me a bit emotional for a moment there.

[Won2blv]

I think that perceived knowledge can motivate what you'd call evil.  I mean if someone knows that America is evil and they know that killing themselves and taking down the world trade center is the best way to deal with the situation then that knowledge has spurred on that evil act.

But as an atheist who believed in evolution I think all our behaviors have primitive instincts at the root.  Followed by more thoughtful planned behavior. 

 So when you look at a missile strike against civilians from another country, the root of that behavior is the same thing that drives the chimpanzee to throw a stick in the vague direction of whoever it wants to intimidate for reasons of aggression.  It does take a lot of effort, forward planning and a fixated motivation towards an ideal to bomb someone which are functions of a more complex mind, but I'd say that under all that is the root cause, and that's the more primitive functions of the mind.

Obviously that doesn't take into account mental illness and there's lots of nuances to the subject of what causes evil or what evil even is or if it exists.

What your sister said about your mother even got me a bit emotional for a moment there.

I totally get what you're saying. I just believe that we think that humans evolved cognitively so much faster than the other sapiens for a reason, because they started working together. Wouldn't you agree that its amazing that some/most (I don't know which one) animals have a warning system in place. Like they're all saying, we don't want to do this if we don't have to. Then there are animals that kill just because it is their need. Even then, it is rare for animals to kill, just simply to kill. There always seems to be an evolutionary justification.

So humans have the cognitive ability to have moral values that are similar to other animals, but are far more advanced. Humans have the ability to not just give inalienable rights to humans, but some even go to great lengths to give those basic rights to other animals.

So while I agree with what you're saying, I just don't think that our wars serve any evolutionary advancement. Not to be confused with them being BASED in an evolutionary advancement

[paulpablo]

I think that perceived knowledge can motivate what you'd call evil.  I mean if someone knows that America is evil and they know that killing themselves and taking down the world trade center is the best way to deal with the situation then that knowledge has spurred on that evil act.

But as an atheist who believed in evolution I think all our behaviors have primitive instincts at the root.  Followed by more thoughtful planned behavior. 

 So when you look at a missile strike against civilians from another country, the root of that behavior is the same thing that drives the chimpanzee to throw a stick in the vague direction of whoever it wants to intimidate for reasons of aggression.  It does take a lot of effort, forward planning and a fixated motivation towards an ideal to bomb someone which are functions of a more complex mind, but I'd say that under all that is the root cause, and that's the more primitive functions of the mind.

Obviously that doesn't take into account mental illness and there's lots of nuances to the subject of what causes evil or what evil even is or if it exists.

What your sister said about your mother even got me a bit emotional for a moment there.

I totally get what you're saying. I just believe that we think that humans evolved cognitively so much faster than the other sapiens for a reason, because they started working together. Wouldn't you agree that its amazing that some/most (I don't know which one) animals have a warning system in place. Like they're all saying, we don't want to do this if we don't have to. Then there are animals that kill just because it is their need. Even then, it is rare for animals to kill, just simply to kill. There always seems to be an evolutionary justification.

So humans have the cognitive ability to have moral values that are similar to other animals, but are far more advanced. Humans have the ability to not just give inalienable rights to humans, but some even go to great lengths to give those basic rights to other animals.

So while I agree with what you're saying, I just don't think that our wars serve any evolutionary advancement. Not to be confused with them being BASED in an evolutionary advancement

You'll have to tell me what you mean by serving evolitionary advancement.

You were asking about the root of evil and giving example of military/terrorist aggression as examples of evil. 

So my point is that the root of military/terrorist/general human aggression is the same primitive aggression seen in all animals.

Acctually I should correct myself and be more specific, I mean the same primitive aggression you'd see in animals related closely to us in terms of evolution, such as other apes.

[Won2blv]

I totally get what you're saying. I just believe that we think that humans evolved cognitively so much faster than the other sapiens for a reason, because they started working together. Wouldn't you agree that its amazing that some/most (I don't know which one) animals have a warning system in place. Like they're all saying, we don't want to do this if we don't have to. Then there are animals that kill just because it is their need. Even then, it is rare for animals to kill, just simply to kill. There always seems to be an evolutionary justification.

So humans have the cognitive ability to have moral values that are similar to other animals, but are far more advanced. Humans have the ability to not just give inalienable rights to humans, but some even go to great lengths to give those basic rights to other animals.

So while I agree with what you're saying, I just don't think that our wars serve any evolutionary advancement. Not to be confused with them being BASED in an evolutionary advancement

You'll have to tell me what you mean by serving evolitionary advancement.

You were asking about the root of evil and giving example of military/terrorist aggression as examples of evil. 

So my point is that the root of military/terrorist/general human aggression is the same primitive aggression seen in all animals.

Acctually I should correct myself and be more specific, I mean the same primitive aggression you'd see in animals related closely to us in terms of evolution, such as other apes.

I am sure you would agree that whatever it is that makes us feel a sense of awe, was exploited by intelligent human brains to create gods and religion. You surely would agree that a sense of awe could be a useful evolutionary tool but the use of it by a cognitive brain made it into, well, religion and gods. That paired with a number of other visceral emotions were exploited, probably in conjunction with other evolutionary tools, like the desire to be powerful.

So, for a chimp species, it would be a useful tool to not just get into every fight with every other animal, so throwing a stick would be a could determent that would avoid an all out battle. Humans have taken that same evolutionary advancement of protecting yourself, and your "tribe" and turned it into knowledge that could literally wipe us off the face of the planet in minutes.

I can't say for certain, but it seems like evolution would never produce a product that could have the ability to obliterate all of life. So, humans ability to focus evolutionary tools on delusional beliefs is not a good thing when the beliefs are extreme

[Aoi Magi]

Knowledge is what allows us to recognize and fix evil. Gaps-of-knowledge or ignorance is the root of evil.

Chimps, heck even pigeons fight and do a whole lot of bad things. All animals do, no matter how primitive they might be, they act on their instincts, which as we all know, isn't always a good thing. We humans get to control our instincts because of our knowledge of possible repercussions.

Terrorists don't commit those atrocities due to some supreme knowledge, rather they do so due to their ignorance which prevents them from realizing the truth which most other humans do. Ignorance leads to fear, while knowledge empowers us.

[ignoramus]

But Aoi, what if the truth for us primates really still is the law of the jungle from whence we came and violence is our only true universal language?

Trump didn't become a billionaire by being a nice man... Neither did humans conquer the food chain by being nice to other animals...