Can something be 'evil' if it is non-existent?

Question

Before you answer - please know I do have my logic screws in place. LOL.

I did not ask: 'Does evil exist?'

Anybody who knows me knows what I believe.

I'm just wondering if there are people who feel threatened by, or have a strong loathing for something - something that they - paradoxically, may not (fully) believe exists.

Thanks for your answers. As usual, I mean no harm. I am here to know. And Happy Boxing Day.

Answer 1

Surely we only know something as 'evil' by the effects it has?

While I suppose intentions could be bad, they need to manifest as actions to be recognisably evil.

So something nonexistent cannot, in my view, be evil.

Happy (day after) Boxing Day!!

.

Answer 2

Non-existent things can be conventionally ascribed properties, as in the case of Unicorns having a single horn, or Medusa having the power to petrify.

I know when I was a child I didn't fully believe in ghosts, but at the same time felt a certain amount of fear that they might be around.

I don't think it is really correct to say that the property ('evil' in the case of your question) is truely a property of the thing (since we are at best ambivalent about the existence of that thing). But it is possible to have the feeling in response to something that evokes a thought or imagining of the thing in question.

On another level, a thing might be a personification or representation of a quality or aspect - like the 'Grim Reaper'. Not a literal figure but an effective way of representing a common feeling about the universal truth of death. Things like that have properties by convention and imputation.

So overall I'd say that non-existent things can evoke emotional responses like loathing (and desiring) and then we project our response onto our concept of the thing and treat it like a property.

Answer 3

It's all down to language and what we mean by it. It usually means that which is the opposite to good, there are many words -bad, malicious, slanderous harmful etc. Things can be described in an evil manner or an evil thing etc. In christian terms- evil personified means the Devil. We have to use some sort of language to try and explain things. Obviously it all depends what one believes.

Answer 4

Evil is, in my opinion, the absence of goodness. Therefore, something that doesn't exsist can still be evil, as if it doesn't exsist, it cannot be good, meaning it is evil :)
I fear things that I have no reasonable reason to fear. Fear and loathing are not logical things, and will not follow rules.

Answer 5

Evil is only a perspective.

The victims of the 'evil' deed have the perception that they 'suffered'. Historically these perceptions are those of the victor, who may have their own reasons for trying to justify their acts.

Bad things happen, the problem is it's people it happens to; their suffering or how we interpret it, is what gets referred to as 'evil'

Answer 6

In some standards yes.


Non existent things drive people mad to trying to figure them out, which you could say is evil in a way.

Answer 7

Something that is non-existent can not have any properties at all. Therefore, no, it can not be evil. I don't believe that Satan exists. Therefore, for me, Satan can not be evil. It just doesn't make sense to me to ascribe any values to something that is non-existent.

Answer 8

Of course not.

How can something be considered anything at all if it doesn't exist!

Happy boxing day to you, too.

Answer 9

you cannot believe something is evil unless you think it is there to begin with.You think the devil is evil,then you have to believe he exists to do so.Just an example!

Answer 10

It has to exist on some plain. For it to be evil. So in answer to your question if it does not exist it can not project good or evil period.................................................