does evil exist?

[bennyboy]

You may have goals, but that would be additional to and separate from whatever was necessary.  It makes little sense (logicaly speaking) to aim goals towards or speak of goals as the necessary - as they happen whether you seek them or not.  So, in your example, while heterotrophy may be a necessary evil, going full-on twelve monkeys is not.

That's making assumptions about free will, determinism, etc., no?

Maybe it's inevitable that any species developed enough to have mores will necessarily wipe itself out.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

You may have goals, but that would be additional to and separate from whatever was necessary.  It makes little sense (logicaly speaking) to aim goals towards or speak of goals as the necessary - as they happen whether you seek them or not.  So, in your example, while heterotrophy may be a necessary evil, going full-on twelve monkeys is not.

That's making assumptions about free will, determinism, etc., no?

Maybe it's inevitable that any species developed enough to have mores will necessarily wipe itself out.

…or be wiped out by a species not concerned with such niceties.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

You may have goals, but that would be additional to and separate from whatever was necessary.  It makes little sense (logicaly speaking) to aim goals towards or speak of goals as the necessary - as they happen whether you seek them or not.  So, in your example, while heterotrophy may be a necessary evil, going full-on twelve monkeys is not.

That's making assumptions about free will, determinism, etc., no?

Maybe it's inevitable that any species developed enough to have mores will necessarily wipe itself out.

I think I'd call that one a logical possibility rather than a logical necessity.  If it were necessarily true, we would not be here to discuss it. Not just us, but any other social species - each developed enough to have mores, many of which our ancestors...which necessarrily survived such a state of being in order for us to be here. Mores won;t have the opportunity to wipe them out, thus certifying the claim, because they're already gone and mores didn't do them in. Still, it's one of those things where our place in time (and as existent examples of the set) may misinform us. We could posit that mores are deleterious in hss as an axiom of our system and it would create quite a few relationships of necessity. Relationships which wouldn't pan out at a glance even in our lone case. This is the point at which we would have to concede that our axiomatic system doesn't accurately map to reality - so something is either wrong with the axiom or wrong with reality.

What makes heterotrophy a necessary evil in the example is that, given the axiom of our system (eating things is bad), there can be no world in which there are heterotrophs which does not contain this specified evil.

[bennyboy]

That's making assumptions about free will, determinism, etc., no?

Maybe it's inevitable that any species developed enough to have mores will necessarily wipe itself out.

…or be wiped out by a species not concerned with such niceties.

Boru

Let me plug this series for anyone who hasn't read it yet.  Really fantastic sci-fi:

[Angrboda]

…or be wiped out by a species not concerned with such niceties.

Boru

Let me plug this series for anyone who hasn't read it yet.  Really fantastic sci-fi:

I started on The Three Body problem but got distracted. I tend to hop around a lot between books.

[bennyboy]

Let me plug this series for anyone who hasn't read it yet.  Really fantastic sci-fi:

I started on The Three Body problem but got distracted.  I tend to hop around a lot between books.

The way the series scales from book to book is legendary-- it's like zooming out on a fractal, and your head just explodes.

If anyone's only read the first book, I strongly recommend following the series through to the end.

[Objectivist]

Hi, not sure where this question goes to on this forum but I think it most likely belongs here. This might be or sound like a silly question but does evil exist? Is there any evidence or proof that evil exists? Is that supported by science? 

When I was in college taking a course in philosophy 101 the professor said if evil exists, then everyone is evil if I remember right. When most people think of evil, view evil or what is evil to them, it's always things like lieing, stealing, cheating, killing and things of that sort. To others it is simply just things or people that they don't like or their own bias. It can also be to others, things or people that just upsets them and/or makes them angry as well as just someone they hate. They will call the person or people they hate evil. Some define evil as simply just doing bad actions and knowing what they are doing is bad. If evil exists, the closest thing I can think to that is the history of the bad things that the catholic church did over the centuries or living under sharia law and that sort of society.

I defenantly do not balieve that it exists in the mythical sense or in fiction. For example In the biblical revelations in christianity or in christian circles(probably the ones that hold up "god hates fags" signs), they balieve satin will spawn up from hell or the anti christe with super powers to take over the world with his demon army and then rule the world as a immortal dictator or emporer for 1000 years before Jesus comes back to life or returns to the world to save the world, kill or defeat satin. Then after that Jesus and/or god creates a permanent worldy or heavenly peradice for everyone free of death and suffering for eternity. Also in comic books or fiction as well as in movies where you get the classical black and white hero vs bad guy or villian. The hero always wins and is the good guy where as the bad guy is always the villian or the evil one who always looses. Thats just silly and rediculous to me however what people might baleive or think is evil in a more realistic way like for example, crime, corruption espeashally in governments, lies, deception, abuse or abuse of power, childhood neglect, wars for profit, out casting or astrosizing people in social groups, taking advantage of people, keeping people poor or in poverty Is more of what I am questioning here.

In reality of course the good guy doesn't always win nor is the good guy always considered the good guy. What might seem bad or evil to someone might not be bad or evil to someone else and what might be good to someone might not be good to someone else if its subjective.

The amazing atheist made a video a while back basicly calling the real rulers in power in America evil and also made a video calling them degenerate scum bags if I remember right.

First, we have to define what it is.  First, it is a judgment so yeah, judgment exists as a kind of conscious activity.  Secondly, it involves some aspect of reality in relation to life.
rocks don't judge things and nothing can be good for a rock or bad for a rock because its existence is not conditional.  Life is conditional depending on certain specific actions to sustain it.  So things can be good or bad only for a living thing.   Third, it is something that is harmful to life or I'd also add to the enjoyment of life.  Fourth, it is chosen.  I'd have a hard time calling a virus evil unless it was created in order to infect and harm people.  I'd not call a rock rolling down a hill and crushing a car and its occupants evil unless somebody rolled the rock aiming to hit the car.  

So I'd define evil as some chosen action that is harmful to life or the enjoyment of life.  

So yeah, evil exists but where does it exist?  It doesn't exist out there apart from the mind.  It doesn't exist in the mind apart from out there.  it exists in the relationship between reality and man's mind.

[HappySkeptic]

Let me plug this series for anyone who hasn't read it yet.  Really fantastic sci-fi:

I love sci-fi, and I'm trained as a physicist.

I hated the Three-Body Problem.  It was a terrible narrative.  Perhaps translation and culture caused some of the problem, but I really, really didn't like it.

[h4ym4n]

…or be wiped out by a species not concerned with such niceties.

Boru

Let me plug this series for anyone who hasn't read it yet.  Really fantastic sci-fi:

Can you give the title for some of us who can’t view every picture posted.

[bennyboy]

Let me plug this series for anyone who hasn't read it yet.  Really fantastic sci-fi:

Can you give the title for some of us who can’t view every picture posted.

Oh sure, I'm very sorry.

It's a series by chinese writer, Cixin Liu, and includes 3 volumes:
-The Three Body Problem
-The Dark Forest
-Death's End