Because all creatures ultimately suffer, have we invented the concept of "evil" to explain it? (See details)

Question

Suffering happens. We, everyone else, every creature gets frustrated, scared, hurt, hungry, thirsty, grows ill and dies.

But human beings have asserted suffering spawns from "evil." For example, to Osama Ben Laden, the Westerners are evil. To Westerners, Al-Qaeda is evil. However, all are simply stating that the source of their suffering is evil.

But what if there is no such thing as "evil"? Is it possible that human beings have invented evil to explain our experience of suffering? Is the concept of evil creating a distraction from dealing with the experience of suffering?

Answer 1

There are no good and evil, only opposing view points. History is written by the winners, and they often label the losers as evil. If the British had won the revolutionary war would the libertines be viewed much like the confederates from the civil war?

Answer 2

I think that evil existed from the beginning. Lucifer was thrown out of heaven for trying to be like the most high God.
He was the chief of angels. So, how good it be invented that was there from the beginning. St. John said, that Satan was beheld as an angel of light struck down from heaven. Hope this is paraphrased properly. So, lets look at this another way too.
What goes up must come down. We have left & right. We have
positive and negative, up or down. These are the God given things that God gives to all created in His image. He created things with order and process. So, why not moral consciousness?

Answer 3

right here: Description of Straw guy The Straw guy fallacy is committed while a guy or woman merely ignores a guy or woman's definitely place and substitutes a distorted, exaggerated or misrepresented version of that place. the style of "reasoning" has right here trend: a million. guy or woman A has place X. 2. guy or woman B delivers place Y (that's a distorted version of X). 3. guy or woman B assaults place Y. 4. hence X is fake/incorrect/unsuitable. the style of "reasoning" is unsuitable because of the fact attacking a distorted version of a place merely does no longer characterize an attack on the placement itself. Examples of Straw guy Arguments: Jack and Jill are arguing approximately who will prepare dinner: Jill: it is your turn to set up dinner, i've got made dinner each and every evening this week. Jack: properly, final evening you made dinner besides the indisputable fact that it became warm dogs and french fries from a packet. it incredibly is probably no longer dinner now's it? Jill: It became nonetheless dinner, we had to eat and that's all that became contained in the refrigerator. Jack: warm dogs are no longer dinner, they're a snack. The above occasion is a straw guy argument, Jill makes a assertion, Jack responds by derailing the assertion. She says its his turn to make dinner yet he in no way actually admits that that's. He assaults the dinner of warm dogs as a effect diverting interest far off from the assertion that its his turn to make dinner. yet another occasion: Ben: have you ever been utilising my razor to shave your legs back, its rather uninteresting? Gina: you have been leaving your razor contained in the bathe and it gets all clogged with shampoo and gel. Ben: It does no longer, its uninteresting and clogged with delicate blonde hair, no longer from my brown beard. Gina: you rather could desire to end leaving your razor contained in the bathe, I extraordinarily much stepped on it the different day. Ben asks if Gina has been utilising his razor and she or he would possibly no longer rather answer his question. She diverts it with yet another assertion. yet another occasion of a straw guy or argument.

Answer 4

We suffer because we live in a corrupt world. I don't look at evil as an entity, but more as a corruption of something that was good.

Let's face it, people that rape babies for pleasure ARE evil people.

I believe people that suffer from disease and natural disasters, suffer from a world that is affected by corruption. This world is slowly changing from a world of order to a world of disorder.

Answer 5

sounds good to me. Makes more since than blaming everything on a fictional creature like the devil that some guy made off the top of his head and solves nothing.

Answer 6

That is just about exactly what I believe. I do not believe in demonic entities or "satan" either. I believe that this is a metaphor for a level of consciousness in which we separate ourselves from God.

If we never suffered, we could never grow, as individuals or as a society.

Answer 7

The poster above was right when she mentioned "human nature." which was and continues to be damaged by sin. "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Answer 8

Interesting analysis. You know the old saying "Human Nature in its essence, remains the same". I believe someone somewhere would have fallen off the wagon of good. The devil did!

Answer 9

There is such a thing as evil. What about the evil people who molest children?

Answer 10

Evil is the Devil.