• Philosophy and Spirituality
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Threads of Note Socialize
  • P&S Moderators: JackARoe | Cheshire_Kat

Is evil real, or merely the absence of good

R

RedRum OG

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 18, 2009
Messages
3,693
Location
MN
Title basically says it all. I was watching a documentary and a guy said something like "you can compare goodness to light, in that you can measure it being there or not. But you cannot measure darkness as it is merely the absence of light"

So are there truly evil people? Or are there merely people who just have absolutely no good in them?
 
If you want to read up on some classical answer in the history of philosophy:

check/google for example: Thomas Aquinas, privatio bonum.
 
You can have the desire to do things, but both originate from passion.
The desire to do good, like when you're in love.
The desire to do bad, like when you've been wronged or hate someone.

If you can have the desire to do something, thinking it is a bad act, is that not evil?
Now, if you do something you don't think is bad, but someone else deems bad, you're evil to them but not yourself.
At the end of the day, you're the one you have to answer to.


THROW AWAY YOUR MORALS ;)
 
For any conceptual dichotomy, is only one side 'real', or do both have weight? I find the premises underlying this very question flawed, as it is assumed that concepts have some 'reality' outside of human activity. I contend that concepts instead emerge as tools embedded in our inquiry-driven organism-environment interaction. They become 'real', and indeed take on an 'objective' character, insofar as we use concepts to transform our environment. Thus, the inter-conceptual relations of any dichotomy will depend on how the entailed concepts are used and experienced.

ebola
 
Evil implies an inherent immoral connotation. Can an object be evil? i.e. a rock? By extension can a person therefore be evil? I'd think not. I agree with ebola, when it comes down to it evil is just a concept that only gains meaning from our use of it. Thus evil is real because people believe it to be but in my opinion that is the extent of its existence. Additionally I'd argue that the entire idea of good and evil is illegitimate. The whole concept can be viewed from two perspectives; a spiritual/higher power one where something defined as good or evil has ramification outside of our current reality i.e. judgement in the afterlife or a more simple cause/effect perspective with no additional resonance beyond the positive or negative change an action creates. In the latter perspective it is simply a synonym for positive and negative and therefore untrue to the implied nature of the words good and evil(having an inherent moral/immoral attribute). The former perspective is dependent on the existence of some higher power or law that would give an action/object/thought its inherent morality or lack there of. With(in my opinion) no real evidence for such a thing existing the first perspective is invalid from the start. Therefore with no discernible objective process of comparison, good and evil are reduced to conceptual labels derived from the subjective consensus of the majority power which in turn does not match their original definition rendering them logical fallacies.
 
We all possess both 'evil' and 'good' within us. It is whether or not we choose to let one overshadow the other to the point of extreme severity that seperates us from one another.
 
Title basically says it all. I was watching a
documentary and a guy said something
like "you can compare goodness to light,
in that you can measure it being there or
not. But you cannot measure darkness as
it is merely the absence of light"
Click to expand...

I'm not sure the thing about being unable to measure darkness is a meaningful statement.
a) It's unphysical to conceive of an environment absent any photons. Between the Cosmic Microwave Background permeating free space, and black body emissions from the walls of any box you could make, there's always going to be some. B) The total energy, and by extension, mass of a system is an observable of that system. Regardless of the magnitude of those observables, they exist. Even in an idealized case where a system has no mass/energy, in order to describe that system you will need to state the spectrum of the Hamiltonion operator for that system, in this (highly unphysical) case, you need to specify that the system has zero kinetic and zero potential energy. Thus you have still measured darkness.
 
rangrz said:
I'm not sure the thing about being unable to measure darkness is a meaningful statement.
a) It's unphysical to conceive of an environment absent any photons. Between the Cosmic Microwave Background permeating free space, and black body emissions from the walls of any box you could make, there's always going to be some. B) The total energy, and by extension, mass of a system is an observable of that system. Regardless of the magnitude of those observables, they exist. Even in an idealized case where a system has no mass/energy, in order to describe that system you will need to state the spectrum of the Hamiltonion operator for that system, in this (highly unphysical) case, you need to specify that the system has zero kinetic and zero potential energy. Thus you have still measured darkness.
Click to expand...
Are you maybe a bit autistic and cannot figure out that the OP was using a metaphor, or do you just want to show off your knowledge of physics in every possible discussion, even though (as you perfectly know) 95% of the readers has no background in theoretical physics whatsoever?
 
I don't think that there are truly evil people, only people who perform actions to complete a cause, and for some reason the intended consequence of that action was to cause harm. Our actions; morals, emotions, mental, and state of psychical wellness is greatly e/affected by that of the society inhabited. The 'subconscious social ethics' is the invisible entity of "evil", or, counter-wise a "blessing".
 
I was trying to making a subtle point by expanding on the analogy. Which is to say that a) Something seemingly universal, be it light, or "good" is always going to be present in some sense. b) That even a measure of 0 is still a measure of a quantity. If I have a bank account balance of $0.00, it's still an account balance. Finally, a bit subtler still, is that following from the above points, "good" and "evil", even modeled as evil being a lack of good, is going to be a gauge measurement in that absolute lack of goodness does not exist. (Just like the absolute lack of thermal photons in any real system fails to be true) and on the converse, and absolute maximum of "good" does not exist, much like an absolute "bright" does not in the real world exist (Although one can solve for it in a sense that is well beyond this thread.)...aka, it's shades of grey.
 
RedRum OG said:
Title basically says it all. I was watching a documentary and a guy said something like "you can compare goodness to light, in that you can measure it being there or not. But you cannot measure darkness as it is merely the absence of light"

So are there truly evil people? Or are there merely people who just have absolutely no good in them?
Click to expand...

Of course there is evil people. Some are much more evil than others. You can detect it in ones aura, even in their eyes.

As they have little care for others, they tend to be more drawn to egoism and pride and material wealth.

And they are great at charming good people. In films we always oppose the evil ones, in history we slate the evil ones... but in real life, they are charming you, getting away with their evil, and becoming really popular
 
Last edited:
I would say it's very clearly visible when it's a strong energy. While other times it feels more like an abscence of positivity or good. Also depends on what's normal for the person and how strong the personal energy they have is. Negative feelings feel much darker and heavier while positive feelings feel more subtle and light. Or higher/lower.
 
raas_2012 said:
And they are great at charming good people. In films we always oppose the evil ones, in history we slate the evil ones... but in real life, they are charming you, getting away with their evil, and becoming really popular
Click to expand...

Not always, all forms of negative energy is basically uncomfortable to be around. But it also depends on other things like physical shape and blend of positive energy into the mixture. Some can for instance have a high sense of self-worth or wellbeing which is pleasant for others to be around and are only really unpleasent when they let their bad side shine through. Social strength and power can also be very attractive. Like feel like good protectors or feel like they raise your self-worth or status. I've met some people having a really weird blend of positive and negative qualities (like psychopaths). While some are more consistent and only exceptionally give off a different vibe.
 
Anything u want to be real is real...you pretty much create ur own life and how you view things.
also things arent good or bad the simple truth is they simply are. Your experiences in life determine how you look at everything in your life, what one person sees as good another sees as bad.
There is no good without bad and vice versa..i hate it when ppl try to live by doing good things and avoicing bad things...because if there were no "bad" things then you couldnt say anything was good.
Stuff needs not to be labeled, life dosent need labels everywhere, it simply is and people have to learn to just be aware of things more instead of constanclty trying to think about them or judge them.

Everything i say is not too be right. its simply how i feel from my heart isnide. a man named osho gave me everything i need to know about life, in fact not know because you need know things. simply observe thema ndbe aware of evetyjing. dont be a robot and go on living assleeeeep.
 
RedRum OG said:
So are there truly evil people? Or are there merely people who just have absolutely no good in them?
Click to expand...

It definetely depends on what you call it. They certainly feel very difference. I feel it's more about a choice of words than a perception. It's one of the things that feel very mysterious to you as a child. Like wonder if you feel scared or uncomfortable about someone, for excistence. But normally affects the way you respond to someone very differently. You either have to be very strong in yourself, or insensitive, by responding to everyone all ways.
 
Thanks for all the replies, gives me a lot to think about

Obviously evil/good all depends on your viewpoint, and maybe they don't even exist at all. And I wasn't trying to imply there is an "absolute" good or evil, obviously these things could be infinite, and yes it's mostly a grey area

Interesting mindfuck
 
RedRum OG said:
Thanks for all the replies, gives me a lot to think about

Obviously evil/good all depends on your viewpoint, and maybe they don't even exist at all. And I wasn't trying to imply there is an "absolute" good or evil, obviously these things could be infinite, and yes it's mostly a grey area

Interesting mindfuck
Click to expand...

Not at all.

Good - concerned for well being of others. Pursuing moments of compassion and care between people.
Evil - Concerned for the self. Interested in manipulating others, lying, being sly to get what they want.

I would say most people have good and evil sides to them, but eventually they'll drift in one direction or the other.



Not always, all forms of negative energy is basically uncomfortable to be around. But it also depends on other things like physical shape and blend of positive energy into the mixture. Some can for instance have a high sense of self-worth or wellbeing which is pleasant for others to be around and are only really unpleasent when they let their bad side shine through. Social strength and power can also be very attractive. Like feel like good protectors or feel like they raise your self-worth or status. I've met some people having a really weird blend of positive and negative qualities (like psychopaths). While some are more consistent and only exceptionally give off a different vibe.
Click to expand...

I've seen it my whole life. Bad people are great at charming the good, looking for weaknesses and manipulating them. the girls are suckers to bad guys, and the guys are suckers to bad girls. It's the "twats" who got all the popularity at school... Everyones scared to oppose the bad ones. Only takes a few unique individuals and a few years experience to rise above them and learn how to deal with them.
 
There is true evil. Trust me. You'll see it one day, and you'lll know what it is... plain and simple unabashed evil. Its a neccesary reality to our existense
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top