Kevin's Watch

true dat!

we should re-name this thread.

And Av says we can't stay on topic....

-B

we are trying to keep society from going to hell by outreach. at least this corner of society.

I think that if it is going there, then it will regardless of our attempts.

But what some consider hell, perhaps we can see as the normal growing pains of any society.

Conflict prompts change.

--A

conflict? it's good vs evil. i think you are way underselling the problems.

And I that you overstate them.

Not that they aren't bad, they obviously are, but evil? What is evil anyway?

--A

Avatar wrote: What is evil anyway?

OhMyGodOhMyGOdOhMyGod! Here we go again!

*Runs, and hides.... Well!*

This could be fun.

I do believe there is evil, and that there is a war of good and evil going on bigtime right now. I see it personified now as one radical faction against the rest of the entire world. But as I can't argue this much better than George W. can speak, I'll just leave it at that. I think we get into trouble when we close our eyes to evil or think it doesn't exist.

(Talking about Texas was fun, though... awwww... )

Guys... I am furniture. I'm a chair in the corner saying, "Hello, I am a chair, don't mind me."

SoulQuest1970 wrote:Guys... I am furniture. I'm a chair in the corner saying, "Hello, I am a chair, don't mind me."

Everyone knows chairs can't speak, you silly couch.

I knew guy named james Couch and he could speak.

oh, evil? a child molester is a good start.

sgtnull wrote:I knew guy named james Couch and he could speak.

oh, evil? a child molester is a good start.

I agree. But let's play The Cheney's advocate here. Can an ACT be evil and be performed by someone sick, but not evil?


Remeber Evil spelled backwards is LIVE...and we all want to do that. 10 Trivia points for you if you can come up with the source of that quote!

how many evil acts can you commit and still be seperate from those acts?

no idea on the quote.

Saying "a child molester is evil" doesn't work. Not in as far as defining evil anyway.

There must be certain shared criteria, possesing all of which will make something evil, and lacking any of which will make something not evil.

Now, don't get me wrong...I'm not saying that terrible things aren't done by very unpleasant people. But "evil" is such a broad, sweeping term. It implies so many things, but explains none of them.

And of course, Gunslinger suggests even further division...can certain acts be evil? (If so, what are the shared criteria of those acts?) And is it possible to commit those acts without being evil? And of course, the issue of motivation...were the intentions evil?

It's an interesting question folks. It's a word we use all the time...but even the people who use it most usually can't say what exactly they mean by it.

Is evil a "thing"? Is it something that is always the same? An absolute? Or is evil a matter of perspective?

--A

I have only met one person I think is truely evil. It was not my abuser. That man is sick, depraved, but not "evil."

Evil is this...

A man leaves his 13 month old daughter alone in the tub for "2 minutes" (coroner said 2 hours and the apartment was flooded). Then tries to blame the death on his 2 year old daughter saying she must have turned the tap on. THEN puts the guilt on his wife about the statistics of divorce following such a tragedy. THEN he gets rid of all traces of the dead child. THEN puts framed signs all over the house saying, "Thou shalt put thy spouse above thy children." THEN not having a couch in the house, but one arm chair that is his and his only. His wife sits on the floor. The older daughter grows up not being able to mention her sister to her mom unless it is in secret.

That dead child is my neice. And if I believe the dreams and Alex when she was 2 and a half, Calli is that child reborn. That mother is my ex husband's sister who feels she deserves to be punished for existing. That evil man is her husband that I mentioned elsewhere. This is the man that claims "christianity", but is a freakin demon. He hates everyone and is mean to everyone except to his kids. Oh yeah, they have a son now... Josh Jr.

This is the ONLY person I come close to feeling hate for. He is evil incarnate.

My Tori died July 5, 1996. Alex had an invisible playmate by 18mos named "Ori." I had dreams for a year before she died that a baby would die involving water and something involving my husbands family would happen on July 5th. I was sure it was Alex. It felt like my child. I didn't see it coming until she had already died. I had dreams for the next 2 years of Tori asking me to be her mother. My husband had dreams too of his sister chasing a white rabbit, finally catching it and asking him to care for like his own. He promised he would. As he told me his dream, Alex woke screaming like we had never heard before, then she couldn't breathe. She finally took a deep breath and said she was in the water swimming, but she couldn't swim. Then she got excited and smiled real big and said, "She's coming, mama. Tori's coming!" She was 2 and a half. Calli arrived 7 months later. We lived next door to his sister and the evil man. Calli stared at her and never smiled. She stopped everything she was doing to stare at her with an intent expression. One time her aunt was there when she woke and she began screaming. This was not usual for Calli. Calli didn't settle down until we moved 2 mos later. After my husband left us, Calli treats him coldly. He is not "daddy." He is Sias (his name). He betrayed her. Her middle name is Anastasia because it means "she will rise again."

Oh SoulQuest. Whenever I think we can no longer be surprised by man's casual inhumanity, I learn otherwise.

Much as I want to agree with you that this is evil, (in fact, much as I do agree with you), it still doesn't help us to define it for everyone?

Even if we use it, we're still left with evil as an adjective. We can compile a long list of actions that can be described as evil...sadly a very long list.

But I still can't see evil as something seperate from actions. As a force of some sort.

--A

so you agree that the person is evil?

Hmmm, for a given value of evil. I agree that what he does can be described as evil, which is not exactly the same thing I suppose.

--A

If you had the displeasure of meeting him, I think you might find he radiates what I call "the heebie geebies." You know how you sometimes get this feeling in your stomach that makes you want to run? I have not yet met one person who did not feel this way around him. Without meeting him, you could not know for yourself. Evil is something you feel from an evil person. I've known many disturbed people, people who make some really bad choices and those who've done terrible things, but that do not FEEL evil. When you meet an evil person, you can feel it.

I certainly agree that people sometimes give off "vibes" that are unpleasant or not to some degree.

This is still not what I'm talking about though. I'm sorta heading towards "if everybody who does this sort of thing is evil, then nobody who doesn't can be."

Which is obviously not true. So we have to push the definition out a little further...

--A