If Satan doesnt exist, where does evil come from?

Question

Im agnostic myself but sway from side to side, occasionally brushing the edges of athieism and christianity.

Serious anwsers only pls, and the most detailed and intelligent answerer gets the ten.

ycats, good answer, but where did the cycle all start?

Answer 1

Evil is the absence of good, period. Evil comes from inside of us, just like goodness does. We make the choice to act in a way that is good or in a way that is evil.

Answer 2

Evil comes from people. How they have been brought up I think is sometimes a factor, yet some people would rather cause trouble than be nice to people. They get a thrill out of their actions on others. So this feeds their evil nature.
Satan is a concept invented by the writers of the bible, which is just a book of collected myths and legends. You have to believe all the stories in the bible are true to believe in the concept of satan.
The other way to look at evil is that in some countries there are practised that would be counted as barbaric and evil in other countries. So I would say evil is a sociological concept outlined by the people making up the relevant society, and what passes for evil in one society does not necessarily pass for evil in another.

Answer 3

We all feel hot and cold. However, if you ask scientists, they would say there is no such thing as "cold," there is only lack of heat.

When it comes to human goodness and evil, can we say that there is not evil, but just lack of goodness?

Have you ever seen a cat play with a mouse, bat it around, kill it, and walk away without eating it? (Sorry, I lived in the country and this happened all the time with my three cats).

Would you call a cat evil that acted in this way? Probably not.

Would you call a human evil that acted in the same way, even if it was just a mouse? Most people would. If you would, why?

Is it fair to say that goodness takes effort (or energy) like heat takes energy?

By the way, I am agnostic too. Explains all the questions without many answers.

Answer 4

Evil exists because human beings have tried continuously to define "right" and "wrong" by religious terms. Evil, in essence, is the failure of people to see that if there was a god(s/ess) who created the world and if the deity is a ultimately benevolent and merciful, then the idea of separate people is absurd.

Evil comes because we try to keep others away from resources and tell them they are wrong, many times over arbitrary things, instead of learning to accept differences and work with each others.

Evil comes because we "WANT" something and we are not willing to share.

As per my sources, I am not an adamant anything, but I have been struggling, over many years to find a more compassionate approach to life. It is not easy.

Answer 5

Evil is a perceptual phenomenon, in that it is not something that can be definitively pinned down, measured and weighed. So, in that way, like god, evil does not exist; but rather it is distinguished from good only from the cultural bias of the observer. Is this good or bad for the person being affected by it? The degree of how horrible things are for people from their own perspectives influences whether or not they are viewed as evil. From a different perspective, the same actions may be viewed as benevolent.

Answer 6

As long as we continue to seperate ourselves from nature, answers like these will continue to elude us. I describe goodness and evil as a biological paradox. On one hand the good traits if you will allowed organisms to co-exist peacfully. These organisms played an intricate part in the group whole - they shared, hunted for others, and protected the pack, which is why this trait has been deemed favorable and was retained. On the other hand the bad traits if you will survived through brute force. They took what they wanted, and attacked anyone in the way. Violence can be attributed to our animalistic nature. Survival of the fittest. The reason why it is still around today is because dumb *** humans have failed to reason their way out it. However hate, torture, rape, criminally insane ... etc..etc.. Can be attributed to these bad traits that survived by brute force, or through genetic drifts popping up now and again from generation to generation. Thats where evil came from. As to why evil has survived in modern times
(Somewhat b4 Ancient Greece to present) is a seperate question. Our mental capabilites had already exploded and we have been through many ages of reason. It would be dismal to attribute evil nowadays to genetic mutations with a few exceptions (Criminally Insane). One of the reasons I think evil exist today is because of our complex social structure. Society sets the "Norm". Anyone who exceeds the norm is admired, those who fall below our outcast. The human desire to identify with something sometimes causes these outcasts, to find solace in evil. Then there is our tolerance of evil I.E. First offender child molesters do not receive life sentences. There are several more reasons why evil exist today, but I think much of it can be attributed to our social structures. Government, Money, Division amongst nations, Thrist for power, Us vs. You etc.
Satan is a mythological concept humans use to describe the evil within themselves.

Answer 7

Satan not exists .Human being is the evil .In first place ,if one believes in God ,as all religion affirms ,one must deem in God as Almighty and All -Good entity . Thus evil or Satan has no place to existed . It is ill-logic to say that Absolute Good ;Love and Almighty can permitted that anything evil can escape from Its hand or goes against It ,especially if It is All love . In the second place ,If Satan exist it can be God because the evil is every where committed untimely throughout the course of history . so how can a All Good let to occurred such evil . and in the third place we are wrong to believe that such danger accident ,death ,...etc as evil .For instance the nature of law one must know why occurs failure which can cause many catastrophe .For instance a Meteoroid when it finish to exist or when it collided with another meteoroid there be caused a grandiose disaster . This is not evil ,but naturee of law failure . Another we die because it is the cycle of life ,not evil but natur of law .
But human created ,only to cover up its no good action as escape-goat SATAN . But human is responsible for the evil action .

Answer 8

As we carry out lives we have the capacity for actions. Our actions can either be benifical to ourselves/others or harmful to ourselves/others. When ones actions are intentionally harmful to others we deem it evil. Satan may well exist but as be a direct result of the evil that men do, not some malicous entity that causes men to do evil. As such Evil comes from the hearts of men. Too often people try to pass the blame for their own actions onto somthing else like Satan which "made" them do it.

Answer 9

Wolf good is rabbit evil.

Good and Evil are not separate things; they are in essence a description of which way energy is flowing.

Life competes for available resources. When you get what you want, that's good. If someone takes resources from you, that's evil.

Society complicates the issue. We join together for the common good. But sometimes we cheat the social good for personal good. Which is the origin of the battle between (personal) good and (social) evil. Social evil is the only evil we are tempted toward, because it is personal good.

Satan is the personification of this struggle. Religion, through mythology, manages personal desire to the end of maintaining society, and its consequent advantages.

Those who realize this frequently try to use Religion to manage the desires of others to the end of satisfying their own desires.

Rejecting Religion and personal desire (aka Marxism) doesn't solve anything because personal desire is the motivation to form society, and the loss of religious regulation tends to destabilize it.

The primal struggle of life is to produce offspring. Men want the children they support to be their own. So it's socially evil to seduce your neighbor's wife. Ah, but having your neighbor working to raise your kids, is just a whole bunch of personal good, right?

Evil does not require a Devil.

But, it sure FEELS like there's a supernatural lecherous hump in your head telling you the neighbor's wife is hot.

Answer 10

Evil is a sickneness and there is no Satan. Fundamentally man is born good, but there are defects and no one who could help it would cause evil. Evil is a defect and nothing to do with the myths of Adam and Eve. No such thingh as a fallen angel and internal sin.

Answer 11

OK, lets assume for the sake of discussion that the devil doesn't exist. Evil would be a human construct that represents the degradation of the human species, cultures, and societies. It would be the acts of violence and maliciousness that harms people on the short term and long term. That being said I would submit to you that the greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist.