which is worse?

Question

thinking about a bad deed but not doing it or doing a bad deed without thinking?

Answer 1

well we all think of things all the time & our concience is what keeps us from acting on them.

If you obviously do the deed that is worse you acted on it.

Answer 2

Doing a bad deed without thinking is worse. Thinking about a bad deed doesn't leave a mess to be cleaned up later.

Answer 3

Worse for whom? From the point of view of the doer, thinking about any negative thought is worse. Usually what we call a bad deed affects others. From their point of view obviously the bad deed done to them is worse than the fact that someone has thought about doing it to them. Sometimes what is referred to as a bad deed, especially by religion, is actually not really a bad deed and in that case the guilt brought about on the doer is the real problem and damage. Time is a factor. The longer a negative thought stays with the thinker, the more damage is done. Negative thoughts and/or feelings can range from boredom and pessimism all the way to grief, despair, and powerlessness. They also include thoughts and feeling that are imaginary.
This makes negative imagination a powerful culprit since we tend to think that if it only imaginary it can do no harm, but not so. For a happy and joyful life, one must learn to spot the harmful thoughts or feelings and transform them to positive ones, and the sooner the better. The best approach for doing this is to pay attention to how we feel. If we notice that our mood is starting to dip, then ask ourselves what is going on with our mind. Keeping track of thoughts directly is usually too difficult and this would effectively prevent one from living one`s life.
The reverse applies to good deeds done or thought about.

Answer 4

The first -- thinking about a bad deed but not doing it -- actually is a GOOD thing, some philosophers would say (e.g., Plato, Aristotle, etc.).

Think about it this way: who is more courageous...the man who rushes into a battle without fear, or the man who is afraid but fights anyway? The first person isn't doing anything special, nothing he wouldn't normally do; he isn't putting in any extra effort. But the second man is: he wrestled with his inner demons, overcame fear/temptation, and won.

In the case of your question, a person who is tempted but nonetheless does the right thing is the one who should be morally commended, not the person who is never tempted and does the right thing naturally (there's no special effort about that).

So keep on truckin'!

Answer 5

I think that it is worse to do a bad deed without thinking...though it is not nice to think of doing a bad deed...so the three little monkeys are right: "Speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil"...

Answer 6

Sometimes just thinking about something has the same effect on your mind as actually doing it.

The benefit of not actually doing a bad deed is that it has minimal impact on the external world, however, it does have an effect on you and so indirectly does affect the world as a whole.

Answer 7

We all think about doing something bad. It's human nature to not always be your best. Doing something with out thinking is worse, because there is that quick moments before doing something that, even for a split second, it does go through your mind. You never really act without thinking, we just tell ourselves that to make what we have done seem more logical.

Answer 8

doing a bad deed without thinking. the thing that makes us human is our ability to think. we all have had bad thoughts, but our conscience prevents us from doing it.

Answer 9

Thinking that there are bad deeds, is about the worst thing that you can do.

love and blessings Don

Answer 10

the worse is hirting the liberty of other people in general ..this is a big and philosophic topic or an endless subject cause of the struggle of goodness and badness of life of all creatures on our earth.....