Evil
 

What is evil? Is it a "pure" concept, something you can explain, try to defeat, or, if you're that way inclined, revel in? Or is it merely an excuse for men and women to do horrible things? Are certain people born evil, without any chance of redemption, unable to change their ways, or do people react to their circumstances and environment, and "become" evil? Is there evil in is all? Is Man innately evil, and do we just resist or submerge the evil within us? Does "good" exist, and if it does, and can be quantified, is it the natural enemy of evil, or is this too pat a description? Does it make it too easy to call people who do things we abhor evil, rather than trying to understand their motives?

Or does evil truly exist? Do you believe in the Devil? Are there such things as completely evil people, or is redemption possible for everyone if they want it? Do we need evil, in order to have something to struggle against, and, looked at from someone else's, completely different or even opposite point of view, can we ourselves be regarded, or seen as evil?

Would you like to live in a world totally free of evil, if such a thing were possible? And conversely, what would it be like, do you think, to live in a world where there was only evil, where what we see as evil was the norm? Would it even be evil, if it was the status quo? And if the last sentence is true, can we then say that the nature of evil is fluid, dependent on what we think it is, and that it and good can even be, in certain circumstances, interchangeable?

I just made a call to the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four because this thread is true evil.

I just wonder - and I'm just asking here - is it even possible that one day you might actually take one of my serious threads ****ing seriously instead of making your goddamn braindead comments all the time? It's really bloody annoying. If you don't want to have a serious discussion, fine, but try to keep your childish "jokes" to yourself, huh? I'm not even trolling here. Just grow the hell up maybe.

Yeah. And call Plasticman!

He can stretch really far.

Yes I believe that evil exists. Next!

I didn't realize this was a serious thread about a childish concept. I figured I'd be par for course. Don't worry, I'm sure someone else will take a thread about "EEEEEVVVVVIIIIILLLLL!!!!!" seriously.

It’s a worthwhile philosophical question

I don't use that word about the real world very often. Usually there's either mental illness or some kind of misguided intent behind "evil" actions. Breivik, for example, imagined himself to kill all of those young people for the sake of his country.

Maybe I'm thinking of real evil as requiring a high level of sadism. But then again, evil is not synonymous with cruelty, so I'm not sure how I'd say what evil is to me.

Like I said, I rarely use the word about anything real-world applicable. I guess I think of "evil" as more of a cackling movie villain thing, as well as a thing that's often closely tied to religious descriptions of the world.

*plays dissonant chord on pipe organ*