Posted on 09/03/2007 9:09:43 PM PDT by goldstategop
Decent people have sought to identify the roots of evil since the first indecent person inflicted cruelty on an innocent person. And people have come up with one or more of nine explanations, most of which are indeed valid.
1. The Devil (or whatever name the devil goes by in any given culture). I do not believe in a devil, but when one observes the seemingly inexplicable cruelty engaged in by some people, it is understandable that people have attributed it to some evil being that has taken over that person.
2. Genes. The contemporary term for devil is "genes." Just as with the devil, when we observe a person engaging in evil behavior for which we have no rational explanation, we speak of it as coming from the person's genes.
3. Parents. After genes, parents have become another popular explanation for much evil. "How was he raised?" we wonder when we read about evildoers, especially those who deliberately hurt children. There is no question that parental upbringing has both good and ill effects on children. But there are too many bad people raised in homes that did not abuse them, and too many good people who were raised in awful homes to allow us to make parents the primary explanation for evil.
4. Religion. Religion is a popular culprit these days. And it is undeniable that religion can be a source of evil -- it certainly is in the case of the true believing Islamic terrorist. And it was in the wars over theology that racked Europe for centuries. But two facts mitigate against regarding religion as the primary explanation for evil. One is that religion itself was often developed precisely in order to reduce human evil. Whatever evil individual Christians may have ever engaged in, it is hard to find advocacy of evil within Christian Scriptures. The other is that secular ideologies and regimes -- Nazism and Communism, for example -- have murdered and tortured far more people than any religion has.
5. Money. Money and greed are so widely regarded as causes of evil that the phrase "Money is the root of all evil" has become a cliche. And there is no doubt that people seeking what money can buy -- luxury, status, women and excitement, to name but a few things -- have engaged in much evil. But flawed human nature and a lack of self-control, not money per se, are the causes of evil in these instances.
6. Power. Like money, many who seek power will do anything, no matter how evil, to attain power. However, it is a relatively small number of people that seeks such power and commits evil in its pursuit.
7. Pursuit of the good. The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions. One should never underestimate the amount of evil caused by people thinking they were doing good. Far more evil has been perpetrated by idealistic people than by cynical criminals.
8. Sadism. There are people who simply enjoy seeing others in pain and inflicting it on them. But sadism accounts for few, if any, large-scale evils. It accounts for many individual acts of cruelty.
9. Boredom. Boredom is widely underrated as a source of evil. Yet, it most certainly is. Lack of purpose, not a lack of things to do, is the source of nearly all boredom. People need meaning in their lives. And if they don't, they will pursue visceral excitement instead of meaning or seek meaning in evil causes.
I believe there is a tenth explanation that is greater than all the others and is particularly widespread today.
10. Victimhood. A lifelong study of good and evil has led to me conclude that the greatest single cause of evil is people perceiving of themselves or their group as victims. Nazism arose from Germans' sense of victimhood -- as a result of the Versailles Treaty, of the "stab in the back" that led to Germany's loss in World War I and of a world Jewish conspiracy. Communism was predicated on workers regarding themselves as victims of the bourgeoisie. Much of Islamic evil today emanates from a belief that the Muslim world has been victimized by Christians and Jews. Many prisoners, including those imprisoned for horrible crimes, regard themselves as victims of society or of their upbringing. The list of those attributing their evil acts to their being victims is as long as the list of evildoers.
This is also true in the micro realm. Family members whose primary identity is that of victim usually feel entirely free to hurt others in the family. That is why psychotherapists who regularly reinforce the victim status of their patients do the patient and society great harm.
If my belief is even partially correct, the preoccupation of much of America with telling whole groups that they are victims -- of racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and classism, among other American sins -- can only increase cruelty and evil in America.
I think victimhood can create evil but it is also used as a tool for evil. Many people fake victimhood to get what they want or hurt others.
Have you read the Phaedo ?
Yes it is. In fact almost all cultures subscribe in one form or another the moral calculus of a necessary evil. The difference between Al Qaida and the Christian is that the Christian has a more refined moral calculus. Militant Islam simply sees all outsiders as evil and therefore they must be converted or killed. It is the same simple logic of anthrax.
But a Christian sees that destroying evil does not always result a greater good. The Christian knows that adultery is a sin but it does not serve the greater good to kill all adulterers. It does not serve the greater good to kill Jews just because they are not Christian.
It was written by Socrates. I don’t read much in the way of philosophy - mainly history and science.
Is it about the nature of good and evil?
Exodus 20:
4: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6: And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Exodus 34:
5: And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
6: And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
7: Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
8: And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
“Socrates made no reply to this question, but after a little while he stirred, and when the man uncovered him, his eyes were fixed.”
It could also be argued that Satan tempted Adam with lies that made Adam appear to be the victim of God’s withholding a specific fruit from him, thus denying him knowledge, power and status.
Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Acedia, Ira, Invidia, and Superbia.
I believe you are right on the money except I would substitute the word "pride" for "weakness".
Satan tempted Eve.
I think Prager should have added that defective brain chemistry and genes can also cause people to do evil acts. When a man murders his mother because he really hears voices in his head telling him to do it there’s something wrong with his brain.
Oh! Prager did mention genes. Never mind.
Aside from all the discussions on this thread, I do appreciate Prager’s contention that the idea of victimhood has led to much evil. People like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have hurt Blacks and America in such a huge way that will never be acknowledged. On an individual basis, I have seen “victims” easily justify their evil actions, and I have sometimes been guilty of doing it myself. It is sinful and wrong, whether on an individual or group basis.
That's especially true for intelligent life to develop. Without murder and tribal warfare we would not have had the need to develop intelligence far in excess of that needed to find food. Most human traits can be traced back to their usefulness in war making. Both good and evil come from war, good for team playing skills and tribe loyalty, bad for forcing evolution to happen much quicker than occurs naturally.
Good and evil, and the 7 deadly sins, are likely normal byproducts for intelligent life to form throughout the universe. This also explains why we can't find anyone out there. They are hiding.
We might want to rethink sending out intelligent radio signals into deep space. There are digital radio techniques that make a signal appear to be statistical white noise. Most of the universe has probably adopted this.
Conscience is nothing more than habit patterns and beliefs of good and evil. Therefore it’s going to be different with every person.
Your post reminded me of this poem by Robinson Jeffers, written as World War II was beginning:
The Bloody Sire
It is not bad. Let them play.
Let the guns bark and the bombing-plane
Speak his prodigious blasphemies.
It is not bad, it is high time,
Stark violence is still the sire of all the world’s values.
What but the wolf’s tooth whittled so fine
The fleet limbs of the antelope?
What but fear winged the birds, and hunger
Jewelled with such eyes the great goshawk’s head?
Violence has been the sire of all the world’s values.
Who would remember Helen’s face
Lacking the terrible halo of spears?
Who formed Christ but Herod and Caesar,
The cruel and bloody victories of Caesar?
Violence, the bloody sire of all the world’s values.
Never weep, let them play,
Old violence is not too old to beget new values.
So he would believe that man was created with evil in him. Otherwise, where does evil come from?
“If a shark or a bear can rip you limb from limb without compunction, why not another human? It is not evil that requires ....”
There are two definitions of Evil: ours and Gods’. Actually there is only One but I am speaking here in terms of the way the world functions. ACTS (by a reasoning, thinking human as opposed to an animal)may be EXPRESSIONS of that persons evil but the evil exists BEFORE the act is done or even contemplated. That brings us to the One definition of Evil: That of God, and it is simply this- “I, a man, am the moral center of the universe and as such I define ‘right’ and ‘wrong’”.
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