What is evil?

Answer 1

There is nothing called evil it is just so called what we don't like.

Answer 2

What is it they say.... something like "Evil is as Evil Does."

The word EVIL means -
1. morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked: evil deeds; an evil life.
2. harmful; injurious: evil laws.
3. characterized or accompanied by misfortune or suffering; unfortunate; disastrous: to be fallen on evil days.
4. due to actual or imputed bad conduct or character: an evil reputation.
5. marked by anger, irritability, irascibility, etc.: He is known for his evil disposition.
6. that which is evil; evil quality, intention, or conduct: to choose the lesser of two evils.
7. the force in nature that governs and gives rise to wickedness and sin.
8. the wicked or immoral part of someone or something: The evil in his nature has destroyed the good.
9. harm; mischief; misfortune: to wish one evil.
10. anything causing injury or harm: Tobacco is considered by some to be an evil.
11. a harmful aspect, effect, or consequence: the evils of alcohol.
12. a disease, as king's evil.
13. in an evil manner; badly; ill: It went evil with him.
14. the evil one, the devil; Satan.


Albert Einstein said:
The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Cicero said:
The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

Molly Ivins said:
I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.

Most "religious" folk will just say "Evil is the work of the devil" or something like that! I don't think people (or animals) are born evil, I think people (or animals) end up that way because of the way they have been treated and from the life experiences they have. It doesn't excuse it, but it does go someway toward explaining it. If you have morality and live with the attitude of "treat everyone else with the respect and courtesy you would like to be given yourself" then you can't go far wrong.

Answer 3

Evil is intentionally doing something one believes to be wrong which is also generally acknowledged by one's community to be wrong in that community. It isn't actually necessarily worse than wrong, but tends to be. For instance, urinating in someone's face cream would probably be evil even though the practical result would be positive for the person's skin, because the person who does it is unlikely to know that it is beneficial, and would still be evil even if the person never knew, but it would not be evil if someone were to kill thousands of people by vaccinating them with a dangerous batch of vaccine if they didn't have any reason to suppose it didn't benefit them. Therefore, to an extent it doesn't matter whether something is evil or not.

Answer 4

a human concept that helps us stay busy, IE we have to fight the evil doers. evil is the opposite of good, good is what we should all aim to be (nearly all religions preach this and the religious leaders tell us how to do it) if your not good then you must be evil, (you seeing how religion controls you yet),
so evil was invented by ancient religious leaders as a way of controlling the masses without equal sized armed forces here's how the world is and evil place but it could be good do you wanna be good don't you here's how,

the reality is a whole lot simpler there is no good or evil just our own perception of what we believe to be good or evil
ie one persons terrorist is anothers freedom fighter

Answer 5

Evil is what we do not need to know, and therefore should not attempt to know. The body of human knowledge that should be singularly divine, as divine is deemed to be the same as Good of the God. Within that knowledge we never know Evil directly but always indirectly, conceived as all that is unholy, wicked, spiritually harmful, sinful dark and not life like, in comparison with holy, just, spiritually beneficial, virtuous Godly and life like.

We are not good merely by conception, but by the very essence, and then conception of knowledge should also be for the very purpose of what we essential, not even for the trivial purposes of curiosity or intrigue - there are purposes in existence unworthy and harmful to human soul.

In this sense all our knowledge is in fact the knowledge of the self, its relation to the God, and of origins of our soul. Therefore, to contemplate Evil in any shape or form may it be for the mere purpose of gaining knowledge, would be an attempt to become Evil, which since we cannot completely, therefore, would be an attempt to trespass against our own nature, against God, going off the course of righteous essential nature.

Whenever I pray I denounce Satan right from the outset, I turn face away from Evil and towards the God; I contemplate His mercy, His benevolent, His compassion and His Grace. The logic in my understanding is that since I have this life an opportunity and occasion to look at the sources of light, why should I choose to gaze into gasping darkness, why should we let my curiosity take better of me and lead me astray – if I have time to love why should I choose that time to hate.

Answer 6

Everybody sees Evil in a different way.....things I think are Evil, you may not.

Theres Danger Evil and Funny Evil, great question though x

Answer 7

Evil is anything that stops you achieving your aim in life, most people have not found their aim and are on an aimless journey through life thus perform what to others are unspeakable evils, thats why we must 'forgive them, they know not what they do'. To have an aim needs a personal philosophy on how best to perform this aim in life, to have a philosophy in life you need to find some sort of meaning to life and then follow your dream.

Answer 8

Distortion of Energy; energy-veiling, e-veiling, eviling. Kindly see "The Path of Christ or Antichrist," Mark Prophet; "Ethical ESP," Ann Ree Colton; "The Path of Virtue," Jonathan Murro; and "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," O. M. Aivanhov.

kind regards,

j.

Answer 9

Good and Evil depends on your point-of-view and many other factors.

Beyond Good and Evil
Prelude to a Future Philosophy
by
Friedrich Nietzsche
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/Nietzsche/beyondgoodandevil_tofc.htm

Answer 10

The definition of evil is as defined and perceived by the receiver of somebody's words,or actions if he/she consders them as bad and wicked and not determined by and sometimes even not dependent on the doer (as for example when sometimes we unintentionally does harm to others.)
That is why we call the world bad or people bad based on our experiences . Rarely we call ourselves evil.