Aren'y these just descriptions we use as humans? They don't actually exist, right?
I mean, was anything good or evil when dinosaurs roamed the earth? Before any life was on earth?
2007-09-28 08:07:19 · 17 answers · asked by Sheed 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
There is nothing good or bad under the sun, but thinking makes it so.
Shakespeare, I think.
2007-09-28 08:11:15 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Good and evil are descriptions of results of actions that have brought some degree of harm to the observer. A dead Shiite baby is an evil thing to its family and a good thing to the Sunni killer. There was no supernatural force involved here, just an abominable ignorance on both sides. The Shiite will do good in his mind by killing a Sunni baby in retaliation.
Conceivably dinosaurs had their own reactions to disasters that were the equivalent of suspecting evil forces at work, even if these were mechanical reactions rather than abstract assumptions. These reactions were the basis of what we now refer to as emotions.
But you are right that these reactions did not exist before there were any life forms in which they could evolve.
There is more to be said on this subject about how we try to regulate these matters and deal with the persistence of ignorance and other deformities in our natures, but no room here to say it, obviously.
Note the next answer is an example of how ignorant many of us are. How did he conclude that there is no right and wrong from a discussion of evil as relative to the circumstances? If evil is relative, why wouldn't wrong be relative as well? That doesn't mean we don't find many things wrong regardless of our cultural differences or perspectives.
From my perspective the way this person thinks is wrong and a contributor to evil means as well as evil ends.
2007-09-28 15:27:18 · answer #2 · answered by Grist 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
These questions get crazier as we go . As an example , you mention dinosaurs that were extinct for a million years, but in your question you use the word "do" , which indicated the present .
Next , you mention "when the dinosaurs roamed the earth - - before any life was on earth ". If there was no life , how did the dead dinosaurs roam ? You would think that they would just lay there and rot .
2007-09-28 15:18:54 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, life was good and death was evil. Pleasure was good and pain was evil. Food was good and poison was evil.
When you're talking about people, another dimension is added, because now people's *intentions* can be good or evil. People can *purposely intend* to cause good or cause evil, and can be rewarded for the one and punished for the other. Dinosaurs could not do this.
2007-09-28 15:16:40 · answer #4 · answered by Agellius CM 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It cracks me up when people make that assertion.
Would you try to tell me that Ted Bundy wasn't evil, he just had a different way of doing things? How about Hitler? Charles Manson? Stalin? Pol Pot? Timothy McVeigh? Hey, how about the hijackers who caused the deaths of over 3000 innocent people?
Obviously, some things are just evil. Molesting children, murder, stealing, rape...those things are WRONG and just plain evil. Anything that harms us or harms others pretty much is evil.
Anything that benefits us without causing harm to others is obviously good.
Soooo...good and evil DO exist.
2007-09-28 15:20:12 · answer #5 · answered by The_Cricket: Thinking Pink! 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think evil exists whenever someone is so selfish that they decide another person's rights are less important than their own needs.
Case in point: child molestation (mentioned above), the Holocaust, 9/11...
Likewise, good exists when someone does something for the good of another, even though it does not benefit them personally
i.e., anonymous philanthropy, giving blood, helping someone on the side of the road who has a flat tire...
2007-09-28 15:14:46 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
They do exist and they don't. let me explain how it is that I see it.
I think energy in itself is neutral and that what we print to it makes it good or evil according to the purpose and the consequence its uses have. Now, we must also bear in mind that these primitive and rather relative conceptions apply in dense dimensions such as the one we still inhabit. As far as I know there is no.one able to tell us what is good or bad; except from some obvious cases the rest are just relative.
2007-09-28 18:02:53 · answer #7 · answered by Der weiße Hexenmeister 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do you mean that all those crimes we heard, and all those people got murder are just descriptions of acts? And they just different way to say things? If that is the case, may I rob you and torture you since there is no right and wrong.
Existence of Dinosaurs do not mean there is no good or evil.
2007-09-28 15:28:37 · answer #8 · answered by Wahnote 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
You can't leave out the specific supreme value that is being supported by the good act or the evil act. Otherwise you are speaking about nothing. Actions and choices support something. What is it?
2007-09-28 15:11:18 · answer #9 · answered by Real Friend 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I on the strange end that no I don't believe anything is "good" or "evil". It simply is. And it usually is that way for a reason. I'm sure some thing will prove me wrong one day, but anything "evil" I've seen usually has a very un-evil explination.
2007-09-28 15:10:22 · answer #10 · answered by ~Heathen Princess~ 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Well, I know for a fact that nobody whose evil considers themselvs to be evil, they just think they are doing the wright thing for everyone.
2007-09-28 15:10:43 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋