17 replies to this topic

[ali smack]

is there such a thing as good and evil?
does good and evil exist?
if they don't exist then how come some people contradict themselves by saying someone is good or evil? if they don't believe in good and evil.
if good and evil don't exist, does that mean that if someone kills someone, there not really doing anything wrong?
how does science explain good and evil

[and then]

ali smack, on 04 February 2013 - 01:05 PM, said:

is there such a thing as good and evil?
does good and evil exist?
if they don't exist then how come some people contradict themselves by saying someone is good or evil? if they don't believe in good and evil.
if good and evil don't exist, does that mean that if someone kills someone, there not really doing anything wrong?
how does science explain good and evil

Mother Teresa lived and did works in her life, so did Hitler.  Yes, I believe that good and evil exist, unless one seeks for a definition so tortured as to make an answer impossible.  Most people would want to be associated with one who would help and not harm them.

[Frank Merton]

What Hitler did he thought was the right thing to do for the long-term good of humanity. This is the nature of delusion.  Now, can we say that the deluded are evil?

[Frank Merton]

ali smack, on 04 February 2013 - 01:05 PM, said:

how does science explain good and evil

It doesn't.  This is quite out of its purview.

[Hasina]

No. They're made up concepts to make us feel better about our actions.

[Frank Merton]

For us to say that good and evil exist as real things it requires a standard by means of which things can be measured.  I know of two proposed standards -- the proposed perfection of God and the proposed essence of merit and its loss known as karma.

Other than these, it would seem that good and evil are just judgment words we attach to things that have meaning only in human context.

[wolfknight]

Good and Evil. Right and Wrong are the same

[Frank Merton]

wolfknight, on 04 February 2013 - 01:45 PM, said:

Good and Evil. Right and Wrong are the same

How about droit and gauche?

[redhen]

ali smack, on 04 February 2013 - 01:05 PM, said:

how does science explain good and evil

This is probably posted in the wrong place, it should go in the philosophy forum.

Science explains morality as a natural extension of the ethical behaviour we see in other species, especially other apes besides us.

You can read quite a bit for free in this google book preview on Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved

In more general terms, the field of evolutionary psychologyhas much to say about reciprocity and deceit. The field of Sociology addresses how we interact as groups, and clinical psychology deals with "fixing" those who act outside the bounds of society.

Our justice system revolves around the concepts of fairness and wrongdoing. Law is based on philosophy, which is also a science. Science has a lot to say about ethics and morality.

[Hasina]

Good and Evil, to me, are just the faceless secular God and Satan to place blame off of ourselves and onto something else. Why did that guy shoot up a school? Why, he was evil. Why did this guy donate his paycheck to orphan? Why, because he was good.

It's like the Voltaire song 'God Thinks':
'I hate people who blame the Devil for their own shortcomings and
I hate people who thank God when things go right'

It's the same with good and evil, there are reasons for why we do things, because these actions are 'good' or 'evil' is not one of them, though we can lie to ourselves and say they are reasons for actions, much like the Crusades in the name of God. God didn't do it, you did. Good or evil, you still killed someone. Self-protection or cold blood, someone's dead and you did it. Those are the facts, Jack, good and evil just muddy the waters.

[redhen]

OK, it's been while since I posted this video, I see it's time once again. It's a lecture by the psychology professor and clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson on the Nature of Evil.

http://ww3.tvo.org/v...jordan-peterson

[J. K.]

Good and evil obviously exist as concepts, else we would be unable to discuss them.

Acts performed by humans may be labelled as good and evil, so good and evil acts exist.

[Beckys_Mom]

Man is living proof of good and evil

I think Pringles are evil, once you eat one, it makes you eat more and more.. EVIL PRINGLES

[Frank Merton]

There are several of these judgment spectrums besides good and evil.

There is beautiful and ugly.
There is harmonious and disharmonious.
There is wise and foolish.
There is valuable and worthless.
There is important and trivial.
and, most important but perhaps not fitting in with the others, there is true and false.

[Hasina]

Frank Merton, on 04 February 2013 - 03:16 PM, said:

There are several of these judgment spectrums besides good and evil.

There is beautiful and ugly.
There is harmonious and disharmonious.
There is wise and foolish.
There is valuable and worthless.
There is important and trivial.
and, most important but perhaps not fitting in with the others, there is true and false.

Each one of those (other then true and false) are based around opinion, which can never be proven to be true or false. What is beautiful to some is ugly to others. What is good to some is evil to others. This is why they 'don't exist' because they only exist in our minds.