Do you believe that there are bad people.?

Question

Several years ago I decided that the idea of bad people was nonsense. I was wondering if anyone else felt the same way.

Love and blessings Don.

Answer 1

I think that there are some people who keep choosing to make bad choices over and over again in there lives. But if one were to look long enough & hard enough most people will have at least one positive thing that can be said about them. Although it may be pretty well hidden.

Answer 2

Yes, there is. And it has nothing to do with imaginary Gods. Perhaps you think of it as nonsense because you don't believe in good or evil.

You may think that since good and evil only exist in our minds it is not real. So tell me Don, why is it that you can accept scientific facts but not Ethical ones? I recall when you told that atoms are made up of 99 percent empty space therefore there is no such thing as solidity. That it is a construct of our minds which makes these ghostly images appear solid. Let me ask you a question. Does that make it any less real? No it does not. Everyday objects undoubtedly appear and feel solid to human beings within the construct of our minds.

Good and evil is apart of our evolutionary progression. We have too many neurons in our brain not distinguish that which is admirable, and that which is to be loath. Sure I don`t think that hominids or neanderthals called things good or evil. But if you think that calling people bad is just nonsense perhaps you are a hominid?

I do think that calling farm or zoo animals good and evil is nonsense. So why do I classify human animals as bad people? Because we are human, it is apart of who we are. Don if you were not a human being then I could understand why you think calling people bad is just nonsense. As long as you are human recognizing and distinguishing between what is right and what is wrong is apart of who you are.

Answer 3

In many cases bad behavior is rewarded and reinforced by life experiences. A cursory glance at the lifestyles of the rich and famous will support this view. To some degree bad people are just stupid people doing what comes naturally.

Beyond this there is a certain sickness where the pleasure centers of the brain (particularly those associated with sexual pleasure) get wired up such that they are stimulated by evil/cruel acts, or the thoughts of evil/cruel acts and the depictions of such acts. For these people the more disgusting and heinous an act or depiction (think snuff movies here) the more exciting and pleasurable it is. This is a progressive disease and as an individual seeks out and indulges in satisfying the desire for more pleasure and excitement in this fashion he/she does become truly evil.

The opportunities to indulge in this sort of thinking abound with "snuff movies", gratuitously violent video games and movies, sexually degrading porn, "blood sports" and the old standby of your own imagination.

Now you know how Abu Ghraib happened.

Answer 4

I don't believe there are bad people. They are called people because of the differentiation between what is good and bad. This bad and good are purely subjective.

Bad and good are prejudices which the eternality reality cannot recognize. It is right that the world should illustrate the full nature of the infinite, and not merely the particular ideals of man. And as with good and bad, so with the ugly and the beautiful. These too are subjective and personal terms, which, flung at the universe, will be returned to the sender unhonored.

Very interesting question, Don. Thanks for asking. Have a great day!

Answer 5

Hi Don, well are there good people. Which is it?? God gave us the option to be one or the other.Your certainly not born bad or evil, unfortunately the world we live in, the system and the behaviour of others give the human race the choice of whether we want to become bad evil or other wise.

It's not for me to say who and what, we are what we are.
Human beings are easily lead,it's the animal in us.Its a risk factor, unfortunately we tend to take that extra mile, and trouble is not far behind. So what we call bad, are not entirely bad but hurtful to others and oneself.
However there are those who take it to the extreme, to my mind, that's not bad, that is evil and there are many.

Answer 6

I don't think that most people whom society might class as bad, due to their behaviour which goes against societal norms and laws actually see themselves as bad. I believe that within ourselves we can justify just about any behaviour.

People who feel they have been treated unjustly or abused in some way might feel that they have "good reasons" for their bad behaviour. From their perspective though, most of these people probably still consider themselves "good" people, despite doing hurtful things to others. I think it's all a matter of perspective.

I think there are people who do bad things but are they "bad" at heart? I don't necessarily know the answer to that. I am of the opinion that the world around us is a projection of our inner consciousness, so if we're seeing bad people, it can often be a projection of something within us.

Reading the Conversations with God series really changed my perspective on the world and gave me a lot more hope than I had for most of my life and that series touches on this very topic.

Great question Don. Very thought provoking.

Answer 7

I feel that the ideas is both sensible and non-sense. Saddam Hussien can be interpreted as being a bad person and their is videos of horrible acts carried out by his regime. So the U.S.A. went to war and took him out, therefore meaning that people believe other people are bad making the idea sensible. It is non-sense as well because the U.S.A. regime has committed horrible acts in Iraq such as throwing candies around the convoys and running over children as they try to pick it up. But it's no so bad when the Americans do it to them.
In peoples mind they have their opinions of the happenings of life which are neutral. If we see both sides, not to say siding and saying there are bad people but realizing that the people that live in our world do hold these opinions. As well as holding our own opinion of how ignorant it is to choose an opinion creates divide. Try to unite the common threads in Ideas, then we stand united and our thoughts remain practicle.

My writings are not my original creation but they are the accumulation of what I have "realized" and allowed to be expressed through me.

Answer 8

So you ask for an opinion. An idea about an idea. I would be interested to know why you decided that the idea of bad people was nonsense, that is interesting.
"to decide" is the key I guess. Is there any definition about "good people " and "bad people" when everybody has is own opinion about what are "bad people" ?
Instead, I hope that there is an absolute "Good", a constant that would not be modified by opinion o by the idea that man make oneself about it. For me the real question is to find It.

Answer 9

I agree with you. I think our society's "black and white" ways of thinking are what make people continually choose to commit anti societal, illegal and immoral acts.

Saying one can be a "bad person" is saying we all have to choose one or the other and once we have chosen we cannot switch sides... or that no matter what we do and what different choices we make we'll always be either a "bad person" or a "good person".

Real life isn't so cut and dry. People are just people and the choices we make show others how we think. We can only try to make choices that do not harm others, but everyone makes bad decisions.... and that shouldn't make a person feel guilty for the rest of their lifetime. It shouldn't make a young kid feel like they have ruined everything because they made a choice that they may regret later in life.... it was a choice made by who they were at that time and maybe in a different situation the very same person would have made a different decision so we can't really label them as being "bad".

I've seen it happen many times. A person does one thing wrong and then they beat themselves up so badly that they think they are now considered a "bad person" so they go ahead a continue to make bad choices because their "type" of person is expected to act that way. They think there is no going back. Their perception of what society thinks of them is a self-fulfilling prophecy... like Charles Manson said "society made me". He felt that being evil was who he was because people shunned him for bad choices he made earlier in his life instead of helping him to learn and change so he got worse and worse.

I've also seen people who put so much pressure on themselves to be "good" that they don't allow themselves to make mistakes. These people wind up snapping, at some point, and seriously hurting themselves or someone else. Comparison on a completely black and white scale is never good for anyone.

I know there are plenty of people with mental health issues (I have a few myself) and others who are predisposed to violence either because of the way they were raised or from some ill treatment as a child. I can tell you from personal experience that allowing things to be seen of a sliding gray scale of behavior, according to one's intent and alternative choices at the time, rather than "bad" or "good" is a much easier situation for a mentally ill person to accept.... they won't drive themselves into a spiral of repeating certain behaviors because they can see that there is a way out.

I think that everyone has a choice everyday, at each moment, to make their lives what they want them to be.

If we teach everyone in our society that it is OK to make mistakes and you CAN change how people see you by the choices you make today, not the ones you made before, we can help people to understand that they are not doomed to be either "bad people" or "good people".

Answer 10

There is good and bad qualities in everyone and everything...Adolf Hitler, though considered a very bad man because of his atrocities towards Jewish folk, did many great things for the country of Germany that are still a main source of export income and helping many people as we speak. I am not saying that I am a supporter of Hitler in any way, or his beliefs in God, but Volkswagen is only one of the many contributions he left behind before his supposed death.....Farfegnugen

Answer 11

If you are looking at the idea of someone being totally bad then no that's not possible because everyone has something positive about them no matter how small it may be. There are bad people in the world who molest kids or murder people without thinking twice about it. Some even think it's their right to do so and that the world should just let them. I would reference Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy just for starters.