how do you define what evil is?

Question

note Im not asking you what evil is, but how you define it as such.

TTC

and what are "God's Standards"

Answer 1

I measure evil according to Gods standards

Answer 2

"Evil": a person, group, attitude or act that goes against the values of the person employing the term.
Or so it its commonly used.
This leaves plenty of room for both sides of a conflict to define the other as "evil". Are there less relative usages?

is on fairly safe common ground with: "We can all agree that kidnapping, torture, rape, and the killing of humans to derive pleasure in it, is evil. "

I might just be able to conjure up an exception or two to the above, but they would indeed be exceptional.
(torturing a bomber for information that could save hundreds of lives?) That would take us to "the lesser of two evils" and we're trying to be absolute here.

When am I sure about evil? When a person is very clear in their own mind what the good and right thing to do is, and decides to go contrary to that. That's evil. They know it, and they have chosen it. No outside authority required.

(As an aside, I note that I've been called evil by at least two posters so far.)

Answer 3

Evil twists God's purpose into a lie. Anything that mocks God's revelation. Universal Anti-christ.

Answer 4

The bible defines "God's standards" of evil is worshiping other gods and selfishness.

Answer 5

Wohoo. I'm the definition of evil now.

Evil is something that some people don't want. Is anything actually evil? No.

Answer 6

"Evil" is the intent to harm others and a lack of conscience about it. While people can debate some forms of "evil" (like 9/11: to most they are evil, to a few threy are heroes), We can all agree that kidnapping, torture, rape, and the killing of humans to derive pleasure in it, is evil.

Answer 7

Hmm evil is the enforcement of ones desires reguardless of the welfare or desires of others. Evil is causing (undesired) harm to others for no reasons other than you can, you want to or that it in someway satisfies you.

Answer 8

"Then this is all connected to that line of truth the book reveals about the nature of human evil. What is humanity like in its basic character? As we have gone through this book, we have seen how these friends speak to Job about various wicked people and almost always they speak in terms of murderers, thieves, rapists, fornicators, cruel tyrants, unjust, wretched people. These are the wicked, as these friends see them, but as we pursue the book and the argument of it, it becomes clear that these things that they point out as wickedness are really only the fruit of something deeper in human nature. They are coming from a deep-seated root of pride in fallen humanity, pride that expresses itself as independence, self-sufficiency, "I've got what it takes, I can run my own life, I don't need help from anybody."

We are determined to always have our own way and to manipulate things so that we get what we want. That is the root. Jesus said it: "Out of the heart of man proceed murders and adulteries and fornication and hostility and anger," (Matthew 15:19, Mark 7:21). All the evil things of life come from the root of pride. What we learned in this book is that that pride, in its terrible, vicious character, is equally expressed not only in terms of murder, thievery and robbery, but also it can come out, as we have seen in the three friends and even in Job himself, as bigotry and pompousness, as self-righteous legalism, as critical, judgmental attitudes and condemnation of others, as harsh, sarcastic words and vengeful, vindictive actions against someone else. That is wickedness, just as much. So we learn that human evil is not something confined to the criminals of the land. It is present in every heart, without exception, and it takes various forms. We are only deceiving ourselves when we say that their form is wrong and ours is right. Pride is the root of all sin, and it can express itself in these various ways."

Answer 9

Sho-nuff

Answer 10

there is no such thing as evil--only harm