What is "Evil" ?

Originally posted by The Philosopher Originally posted by xi befor adam God and the devil had no problems (I even heard he was his favourite) But the devil got jealous of adam and disobayed God and was punished an angel who's wings got clipt so from wich perspective you're going to see this.   Accualy we are the ones who are evil according to the devil. well acually, Lucifer wasn't jelouse of Adam, what happened is Lucifer was Gods favorite, but he became jelouse of God, feeling that is was he who should have all the power, and then he led a revolt and was kicked out from heaven by God, taking 1/3 of heavans angels with him.

Your arguing cross religions there if your not aware. In Islam the satan was not jealous of God, and how you lead a revolt against an omnipotent being I don't know. While I have read parts of 'the book' I wonder if you've read any of 'the mother of all books'? I would be interested if your story is justifiable in Christianity or not, how do you support that belief?

--btw flyingzone, calling the bible 'the book' although ambigous and annoying, isn't actually incorrect. Since bible is just a bastardisation of the greek biblyos (or something like that) which strictly means book.

Good and Evil, (I prefer Good and Bad) are constructs of society and religion. Outside of either of these they don't have any meaning, but inside them they do. I take Good, to be what God has told us to do, and Bad to be defined as what not to do. There is of course a huge gap inbetween which is niether Good nor Bad. They are effectively just terms to describe actions.
Some people after deciding that there isn't anything as Good or Bad then use that as a justification of a sort to do whatever they want to and not follow thier ancestors ideas of good and bad. This I think is missing the point, just because Good and Bad are concepts and not physical manifestations, it doesn't mean that there isn't a very good reason why people called them 'Good' or 'Bad'.

also, what are you refering to when you say "the mother of all books"??

ok, i didn't realize that he was talking about islam, and i don't believe that you can argue one religeon from another religeons book.

Not to change the topic, but if 'good' and 'bad' are just concepts in religions like Islam or Christianity, so what are 'paradise' and 'hell' for?

Edited by gok_toruk - 24-Sep-2006 at 05:03

In Islamic thoughts also, all people return to God; but not necessarily paradise. If you're good, that's paradise and if not, hell.

that is the Thompson chain reference bible
NIV. but, although it doesn't say the name Lucifer in there, it talks about the son of the dawn. and Lucifer was the angel of light, thus the son of the dawn. and also, in the original Hebrew this is true.

When you know that you are about to act on something deemed unjust and you have all the means to but you hold back your will to, then that is evil.


Edited by vulkan02 - 11-Oct-2006 at 07:58

A great story to explain what evil is. I personally memorized it myself

Warning, copied texts that don't belong to pekau. (Though I wish it was my work...) I will reference it if someone wants it.
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Does evil exist?

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied, "Yes, he did!"

"God created everything? The professor asked.

"Yes sir", the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil". The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question professor?"

"Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?" The students snickered at the young man's question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

The young man's name � Albert Einstein.
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Ha, good one Paul. There are many theories that said Einstein was not the the protagonist, so you may still have the chance

Originally posted by dandeb There is no good and evil. There is your conscience and people would say this is where good and evil are defined as what is good and what is wrong in terms of others. I would disagree with this as like ethics and morals, what is good and what is bad are personal things. By deduction then there is no one thing as good and evil and our actions should not be defined on these lines, instead we should act by what we feel is right in ourselves with regards to the outcomes of our actions but not as to how they effect others buit rather how they effect our ability to live as well as we can. This does not mean that because there is no good and evil people are free to harm what they like merely it means that there can be no such thing as universal evil or universal good.