Evil breeds evil and good breeds good so evil has no purpose, correct?

Question

Is it a big chain that when one commits an act of evil another will get mad or seek vengeance upon the evil person whether through revenge or the law putting him to death and its like a cycle, so good breeds good, correct? Evil is a terrible thing

anyone notice that when one does an evil act they always blame something or someone besides themselves?

Answer 1

Ahhhh...No. See, Evil isn't really the opposite of Good, it's more like the backside.

Imagine a wolf eating a rabbit. To the wolf this is good, to the rabbit it's evil. Something had to die for every meal you've eaten. But it's good to have food, right?

Now, we often join together for the common good. Our founding fathers did a great job of creating a tolerant country, where Europeans of different nations, religions and classes could work together to build farms and factories. Good breeding good, yes? We were so prosperous, there was plenty of food, manpower and weapons to take the rest of the country from the Indians. A great good for us, a great evil for the Indians.

Somewhere in America, a teacher with no intention of moving back to Europe is calling our founding fathers evil. This teacher is an idiot. Because Good & Evil are defined by your team. If the founding fathers are evil, you want team America to loose. But even the Indians have joined team America. So who does the teacher want to win?

Life is the flow of energy & Good/Evil is more or less the direction of the flow. You can't get rid of Evil or Good, you can only try to be on the right side of the flow.

(Want to know where the word Evil comes from? Spell it backwards.)

Answer 2

If only it were that simple. But it's not. Definitions change. They shouldn't, but let's be honest, there's pretty much no one who perpetrates evil who thinks of themselves as BEING evil. At heart, we all have the capacity for both, and it's not the actions of others that determine which we choose - nor is it the action of some great mythological figure in the sky (or underground) - we choose based on what seems like the right choice at the time. Sometimes those choices are what's best for us even when we know it hurts other people - those choices are what we call 'evil'. A person who's surrounded by 'good' can still make an evil choice in a tight spot, and vice-versa. Society only really starts propagating evil when we start excusing it based on who's doing it: "Oh, a CEO is making millions while laying off the employees who helped him make it? Well, that's OK." Of course, you wouldn't excuse that kind of selfishness if it was done at gunpoint, but when it's in the boardroom, we give morals a pass. "Look, a pedophile - but he's a Republican congressman and he's blaming his lapses on alcoholism, so that's OK."

Rev. Ted Haggard (hypocrisy to keep the collection plate going), Sen. Mark Foley (pedophile), Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling (just as examples) were supported by what a lot of people would call 'good', and certainly had the resources available where they never needed to do the things they did, yet all made evil choices just to benefit themselves. Clearly it's not as simple as 'good breeds good and evil breeds evil'.

Answer 3

Evil is indeed a terrible thing, but I would not say it has no purpose. If we leave off vengeance and address the evil directly we can bring about good. If the ground is dry, water it. If the plant diseased, prune and treat it. Good, on the other hand, only brings forth good. A fertile field will bear heavily. A good tree bears good fruit. Good needs to be tended and nurtured, but does not have to be treated by opposition as evil. Pain can be a teacher, if not seen as an end in itself.

It's funny, we only rationalize thngs that are totally unreasonable.

Answer 4

I am not Bob Dutko and I in no way have authorized Bob Dutko to think or speak for me. The Old Covenant allowed slavery in order to facilitate a greater good. Many thousands of slaves who would have been slave anyway enjoyed a much more humane and dignified existence as slaves in Israel than they ever would have as slaves to other peoples. The New Covenant was not about the things of this world but about the heavenly kingdom to come. There is no reason slavery would be addressed, or abortion, or many other things of this world. In fact Jesus only ever spoke of things of this world when challenged by the Priests. In the kingdom to come here is neither Greek no Jew, male nor female, bond nor free. No countries, no sexual discrimination, no slaves or masters but Christ is all and in all.

Answer 5

Newton said it best:
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction"
That includes evil in equal doeses as at the end of the day we all strive for homeostasis. The problem is who decides when good becomes evil?

Answer 6

Incorrect. Evil is necessary for good. For without evil, how can we judge what is good? For one to exist, you must have the other. Therefore evil does serve a purpose, even though it may not seem clear.

Answer 7

Everything should have a purpose. To my mind the only purpose for the evil in this world is to test humans strength and faith, and to split good - divine , from bad - diabolic.

Answer 8

Yeah, evil really sucks. But it's an intrinsic part of human nature so I'm afraid we're stuck with it. Luckily we have freewill & can choose to be good. Unfortunately we can't make others stop being evil. We can just lock them up in jail or punish them in some way. Or wait for them to burn in hell...

Answer 9

What?! Ok everything has a purpos. If there weere no evil thee would be no good and vise versa. It just comes down to having somthing to compare somthing to.

Answer 10

without evil one would not know the value of good. So we must be aware of both... right or wrong... the choice is ours.