What is a misconception about evil?

Question

What is something in society that people see as good, but it really is evil?

Answer 1

I think a lot of entertainment these days is viewed as good, but is really about evil. Like with all the fighting and violence on tv. people say its good because we are just using it for entertainment purposes, but the bottom line is that killing and fighting is evil. how can you disagree with that?

Answer 2

Laws that people honestly believe are for everyone's "own good" but that are actually a matter of having the government tell people what they can do when it comes to some of the most personal or individual preferences. The people who make such laws honestly think they'll be doing some good and honestly believe they, the law makers, have a right and responsibility to do what will "save lives". The reality is such law makers are trying to decide what others must do in their personal lives and give themselves the right (through the law) to inflict their values on others.

Another thing that was seen as good was the "freeing up" of people when it came to sex and fashion. The old values were seen as having "hang-ups", and the new thinking was supposed to be liberating; but much of it has actually been evil in disguise because of what it has taken from young women in terms of their self-respect, dignity, and right to be the keeper of their own sexuality.

Answer 3

There are quite a few misconceptions about evil. One is that you can afford to be lazy about definitions and judgements. For example, if you never really bothered to read something and seek a deeper meaning in it, but decided to judge it because that was easier than doing the hard work of the reading and text analysis.

On the other hand, sometimes doing something evil takes more effort than doing the right thing.

Sometimes things we see as evil are actually good - or at least not as cut and dried as either good or evil. At one point, for example, I had the opportunity to kill someone that is utterly bent on controlling, tormenting, torturing, hurting, and killing people for his own personal pleasure. Killing him probably would have been evil, but I am left wondering if maybe I did a greater disservice to the world by letting such a scumbag live. Perhaps killing him and accepting the consequences would have been a better way to go. Perhaps that one death would have spared many others their lives?

Sometimes institutions that we see and unarguably good do very evil things. For example, people in Germany trusted their government and their church. Both got in bed together to form Nazi Germany, with churches going so far to promote the Nazi government by replacing their standard crosses with crosses that incorporated the Nazi swastika. Germans were told by their priests and ministers that Hitler would be the metaphorical savior of Germany and that he was endorsed by God. People are still in denial that "the church" could endorse such a vicious regime, but it's fact.

Some people think that divine command theory is good. This theory states that what is good and evil are solely determined by God and that things are such because God says so. Furthermore, if you don't agree, you will be tortured for eternity. In other words, good and evil are determined by God because God can beat you up. In many camps of moral thought, "might makes right" is a morally corrupt philosophy. Few religious folk are actually willing to accept that their God is really just a tyrant, but that is what divine command theory boils down to. Is God good and kind or malicious and evil? Think well on it because torturing someone for eternity for just about anything temporal is certainly not punishment equal to the crime.

Some people like to think that goodness is self-evident in existing. In other words, I once heard a professor claim that the reason why America is right about the war in Iraq is because we are all Americans and that's why we are good, which is why we are right in his point of view. So if I am me and decide to kill everyone, then I am right because I am me? People like to think that they, themselves, are good, regardless of their behavior. This is a funny definition of "good."

"It's all good." If it's all good, then why point it out? Apparently there are no shades of "ok" or "bad" in "it's all good" land.

Discrimination. What a badly defined word in the legal world! Can you discriminate between a burning hot stove and a cool one? If not, do you place your hand on a stove burner regardless of circumstances? Who came up with this stupid, oversimplified use of language?

"Judge not lest ye be judged." Yet you will be judged regardless of whether you judge, so it makes no difference. If you judge not, then you happily place your hand in the middle of a burning stove expecting no consequences.

Answer 4

Here is something that society tends to see a good but is really evil:

Exerting ones will over another person's right for self-determination. This is reflected in Ms. Rowling's Harry Potter stories. In her stories, her "good" characters are regularly shown casting spells on other people. The casting of spells on other people, is evil because it prevents them from self-determination.

Answer 5

The misconception is that evil is always ugly.

Answer 6

Religion.

Answer 7

That really depends on your definition of good and evil. What is evil to me can be good to you, and vice versa.

Sincerely,
http://www.millionairex.blogspot.com

Answer 8

organized religions, the greatest source of suffering in this world.

Answer 9

money, cars, being able to trust people, television, computers, puting our trash into outerspace
must i continue?

Answer 10

War is necessary.