WHAT IS AN EVIL PERSON AND DO EVIL PERSONS EXIST?

What is an evil person?

For the purpose of argument we will assume that religion and philosophers are right that evil is not a power or thing but an absence of a good that should be there

We do evil but can never become evil so there is no will, free will or unfree will, to be evil.

It's a person who is responsible for becoming harmful as a person. Evil needs eradication so an evil person by definition needs that too. You may wait for them to change but that does not imply they don't need punishment or destruction. Evil goes with the idea of deserving or earning evil in return for the evil you have become.

We know that a person doing bad things is still more good than bad so we cannot think of them as evil. It is complex not evil. The right approach is to be good to them but firm because of what they do. We will not be good to them in spite of what they do for that is somehow reluctant. Our love is not deep then.

No matter how much pain I cause, I am not evil. I have a distorted sense of goodness. I am not a sinner.

I can do evil but not be evil. The harm I have done was simply good done in the wrong time and place. When I do wrong, I am really trying to do good in a mistaken way. I am not a sinner or an evil person. I am only a person who sometimes makes mistakes.

I cannot be evil no matter how hard I try.

I do something. It goes wrong. It does not follow that I made a mistake. I cannot control all the results of what I do.

Do not label. The painter may have left bubbles on your door. Don't call him a bad painter because of that. If he could go back in time, he would do it better. Don't label others and do not label yourself. Labelling is an over-simplification. If you label others, you will label yourself. Don't.

Don't say things like, "He makes me sick", or, "I'd rather die than do x,y,z". It’s too negative. They are extremely harmful for they are extreme. Nobody makes you sick. Nothing is that bad that you would rather die than do it. The things you say you dread are not all bad. When you feel that something will be a total disaster ask yourself what the worst outcome would be? Most of the time you will discover that the outcome will not be that bad. You will be able to work out a plan to help you overcome the worst. You will be able to defuse the fear. There is no Hell on earth or in the afterlife. There is no final failure. Never say, "I don't like that at all!" Everything one might call bad has some nice points.

When you say, "I don't like this at all", you know you do not really believe it. But if you say, "I didn't like that at all", as it is in the past it is more believable and therefore very dangerous.

Do not say, "I am stupid" or anything at all negative about yourself even if you are joking. If somebody comes to you and says, "You are an apple" you will not argue with them that you are not. If somebody comes to you and says, "You are pathetic" you may argue with them. Is it not a mistake to argue when you wouldn't if they called you an apple? Does it not show that you fear you are pathetic and need to argue? You are making a negative affirmation. You are affirming that you suspect or believe that you are pathetic.

Contrasting good and "evil" starkly is not very good for you

People are praised for doing good and condemned for doing evil. Strict belief in good and evil or good and bad is harmful. It is too sharp and black and white. There is a lot of good in what is called evil. There is nothing that is all bad. In human nature, any vice is just a good thing that is taken too far. We only do what is called evil because we see some good in it that attracts us. We never do evil because it is evil. We never do evil for its own sake. When we think we do evil for its own sake we will say we just did it to hurt people. But we had to do the good thing of fulfilling a desire we had to do it. So we were abusing good to do the wrong. We can't avoid having some good in all that we do.

We believe in good and near-good. This is more positive. Because evil is a lie and an error and a flaw it cannot last and proper good will replace it. Evil eats itself up.

If a person is poised to make a big mistake that may ruin their lives, talk to them and get them to say what they think. This helps them think and maybe they will not commit the mistake. Remember that the person who makes the mistake can still turn things around.

Seeing evil as some kind of real power when it is merely a lack of good leads to us blaming others. If I fear working again after a bad experience in employment I am exaggerating the bad and giving it power. It is really the bad in people I fear so I am being judgemental. We never do evil - we only do wrong because of the good in it. This can be difficult as we are taught to hate certain actions. But if we do that, we will never try to understand the person who commits the actions and so we end up adding to the problem.

The nearest one can get to creating what is evil in itself is by encouraging false belief. For example, if I had the power to send all life in the universe now to everlasting torment that would seem to be the nearest. No. My belief I ought to do this though it is bad is what is the supreme evil for I can't damn everybody unless I believe first and let myself believe.

If you want to believe evil is misplaced good then be atheist. The meaning of life and existence comes from the fact that evil is misplaced good meaning good is the real thing and the strongest even in seeming defeat.

Evil People do not Exist

Many people see evil as useless and abhorrent. Even persons who commit great crimes despise it. It is the good results of the evil they desire. It is those benefits they seek. The man who kills children because he hates them does so because he sees it as good to kill them. The children are evil to his mind.

Totally evil people do not exist. Suppose you met one? The person still has the potential to do good. If you hurt them, you are not acknowledging that potential or offering it nurture. No the opposite is true.

If people are negative around you, remind yourself and tell yourself that this negativity may be true for them but it is not true for you. That protects you.

Even the so-called bad, are in fact very good. What is called evil is simply a form of good that fails to be as good as it could be. There are many cases in which what is good is just simply as good as it is inferior-good.

Recognise your innate goodness. Even those who we call bad have goodness such as intelligence and friendliness. See how parents love babies because they see they are just good and this has nothing to do with anything the babies do. Love yourself like that. You do not have to prove your worth to yourself or others.

Do not hate anybody and see that to hate anybody is to hate yourself. See that if you hate another person, you are tormenting yourself and therefore hating yourself. Let the hate go, do it for yourself. Hating your enemy is actually the best thing you can do for your enemy. They enjoy seeing you suffer. 

Accept that sometimes the pain of the heart may never pass away - it is possible to love the pain as you learn to live with it.

Nobody is to be called an evil person. In truth, there are good people and people who choose the wrong good. So there are only good people. There is no other kind of person.

Does it offend you to know that Herod the Great was a good man despite all the murders and violence he was responsible for?

Why would it? If Herod knew how wonderful he was he would have felt so happy and when somebody is happy they are eager to reach out to everybody else as friends. Those people he killed would have lived and have been honoured to know him.

What the persons whom the world calls evil need is to understand that because of their attraction to good they could have done better. They are to be encouraged to choose better. They are not failures – they are people who need to start again. This is not to make little of the harm they have done. It is because the harm needs to be prevented that we refuse to harm them and seek to fill them with love.

Evil is parasitic on goodness. Evil is falling short of good. It is not a thing or power. It is something falling short of what it ought to be. Evil is just another name for good that is in the wrong place. In reality evil does not exist.

Free will (if it exists) then is not the power to choose between good and evil but the power to choose between good and less good.

Let us call it evil for the time being. The correct response to what is damned as evil is to understand that the person perpetuating it causes it but is not an evil person. Do not be angry about the evil. Do not detest it. Love the evil but work to correct the mistake that makes it. The person didn’t choose the evil the person chose the good but the wrong kind of good and the evil was a side-effect. Do not love the sinner and hate the sin. Love the wrongdoer and love the wrong too for it is misapplied good and love it to bring it to an improved level.

An act of wrongdoing is not an evil to be condemned but a misplaced good that needs to do better.

Someone has hurt those who commit crimes such as violence and murder. That helped make them become criminals. For us to hate them or do wrong to them in return is for us to become hypocrites. Why? Because we are doing to them what enticed them to illegal anti-social activity in the first place.

If you see a person who commits evil as evil then you will have to hate that person. If I do evil I am evil therefore I should be hated. All who hate make this mistake. The answer is to look upon the "sin" or "evil" with compassion and want to heal it.

Calling anybody unrighteous or evil or sinful is hate speech. And it is hypocritical for such a negative judgement is using the mistake to get at the person. If you

Meditate on the truth and the truth will set you free from the pain and burden that hatred is and brings.

 

Comments

 

Believing that evil is a real thing means you hate and fear it as a power.  So there is a power lurking around like an evil spell.  If people let this evil in to become it then they become evil hateful things.  We cannot argue that it is a good person corrupted and that we should see the good in the person while we try to help them cast out the rot.

 

Some say the only true evil has to be personal or in a person. So evil is not real unless there are persons to become evil.  This makes hate a duty as well and even more so than the last set up. 

 

Believing that evil is just a lack and there is nothing there makes out that there are just bad consequences.  This contradicts the Christian notion that morality is not merely about bad things happening as a result of doing something.  Christians say that morality is about the kind of person you are.  It says it is moral to be truthful and humble even if you end up murdered for it.  They say you cannot tell the person, "Its the consequences that matter.  You are a bad person if you don't give in to these people. You are bad for you are getting yourself killed."

 

These considerations show that religion, particularly Christianity and Islam, tell nothing but lies about evil. They do not really believe in it at all for they think it is just a gap where there should be good - a polite way of saying it is nonsense.  If evil is real then God is to blame for it for all definitions of evil themselves are evil.

 

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