What is evil/satan

To me, evil isn't a theological concept. Its source is not extraterrestrial or supernatural. Evil no more exists beyond the reaches of our planet than do our politics, our popular culture, the waxing and waning of our world crises, and the storms that blow ceaselessly over the rounded, grooved, and pocked face of our planet; it has no more currency than such kindred concepts as good, beauty, ugliness, and justice. These speak to purely and exclusively human preoccupations, subject to continual change and modification and (sometimes) reversal. Evil is the mote in the Other's eye, a passing wink or twinkle in our own, for which we protest that we are blameless--innocent.

Rest of link.....

www.bc.edu...

Any thoughts?

i guess it would depend whether you believe in god or not. if you do then evil does exsit and he exsists in the form of the devil and other bad deeds.

if you dont believe in god well evil is nothing. people dont do stuff cause they are bad but just cause they feel like it.

I believe "evil" and "Satan" are constructs of "fear."
Two emotions rule Man....love and fear.

regards
seekerof

More with respect to the perspective presented in the earlier link...

enlightenment.supersaturated.com...

In all fairness to our membership the alternative....

www.palmettochurchofchrist.org...

I agree with Seekerof's minimalistic statement on human motivations to a large extent, but in the big wide world out there the motivations that are used are FEAR and GREED.

Satan (who never existed) was actually pretty cool. It wasn't vanity that took hold of him, it was the ability to critically analyze and suggest means of doing things better that was frowned upon by authority. It was God who was guilty of vanity in casting him asunder. Satan wasn't even necessarily shown to be insubordinate.

Ever since, in the Abrahamic and Christian traditions, the Satan character has been useful - it has been possible to label one who is critical of those things 'cast in stone' as a heretic, or 'possessed by Satan' - to be scorned, derided, or seen with trepidation as evil and sinful.

There are evils far worse than wanting the corporeal world or heaven to be a better place.

I think those are substantiative evils. I think they can be measured. Generally the evils are much more maleficent the more power that is invested in an idiot.

Understanding fear and greed is important in improving the lot of homo sapiens. Using them to drive every agenda is evil.

"agree with Seekerof's minimalistic statement"
geez, we got it; you don't have to post it three times..kidding. I hope this won't interfere with your selection involving your future investigation group on 9/11.

Evil is all the things that shouldn't happen in the world. What those things are is anybodies guess. Breaking of the 10 commandments? Things that eventually end in a greater evil? things that immediately end in a greater evil?

I see that I am using the word evil in my defination of evil. Couldn't exactly find a way around it.

Evil and Satan are synonomous in my eyes.

The opposite of Truth. The opposite of Love. The opposite of Light.

MaskedAvatar...

Greed still springs out of Fear. Greed is caused by the thinking that there is not enough for all, so I must take all I can get...

Originally posted by Leveller
Evil and Satan are synonomous in my eyes.

The opposite of Truth. The opposite of Love. The opposite of Light.

The opposite of light is Evil? Why? How about this, could one say that darkness is the wombe in which lightness lives?. They work together as a team and there is much more darkness then light in the universe, so how is it that we can pin evil on darkness?. Is it because God represents light so dark must be evil? It it because God cast Satan into darkness so that must mean darkness is evil or that is where evil dwels?.

If I cast you off my boat into the water does that make the water Evil? I think not :-)

[Edited on 29-11-2002 by Skeptical Believer]

In my study of various religions & philosophies, I've found that the difference between "good" & "evil" to be mostly equivalent to the difference between "selflessness" & "selfishness".

Yeah.. It upsets the yin yang...

Originally posted by TheBandit795
MaskedAvatar...

Greed still springs out of Fear. Greed is caused by the thinking that there is not enough for all, so I must take all I can get...

Bandit

I'm inclined to agree.

Greed is the 'take' side of fear, while the more traditional view of fear is the 'avoid' side of fear.

Greed can be bred by excessive reinforcement of any behavior by parents of young minds... no matter what I do, I deserve more than you. Imprinting by stupid parents in stupid places.

Evil can be truth, and truth can be evil.
Evil is in the eye of the beholder, as is the truth.

400 years ago a little boy in a village in scotland runs around in his village talking to himself and invisble beings. During dinner he sits and fidgets with his food and cant seem to stay still. As he grows older these get worse and as time progresses he starts to look at everyone in a state of paranoia.
"Thier all staring at me, thier trying to read my mind", he says. He becomes a loner, and the village priests begin to wonder wether a demon has tooken over his soul.
So hes brought to the church exorcised, released and taken back to his family.
After a week, his condition is still the same.
The preist seeing this persists that this is not the work of a demon, but a demon itself.
The young man is burnt at the stake.

Stories like this are persistent through out history.
Im sure you have all heard of the "Salem Witch Trials"
It was abosulute paranoia, innocent people were killed, due to the fact that the preists percieved them as evil.

The story I mentioned is something that I just made up.
Today something like that is very common place.
This is what I believe was the true evil during those times.

How do we recognize people suffering from Schizophrenia ?


Some common symptoms :

Appearance:

Lack of personal hygiene, appearance may be unkept and untidy.

Behavior :
Stay in their own world, rarely, violent, muttering to himself or gestures to themselves, strange behavior.

Thinking :

Difficulty in in keeping their thoughts in proper state, jump from one topic to another, hearing voices, speaking to themselves, having peculiar ideas that seems strange or unrealistic.

Speech :

Difficult to understand, irrelevant talk, they may ask or say things which do not make sense.

Emotions :

They appear frightened or withdrawn showing unconcern about events around them. At times every sad or happy, inappropriate emotion to circumstances.

I wont be able to reply to this thread again, for some odd reason I can only reply once to every thread, and I cant even check my U2U's anymore, it says I have no permission.

This is one example of evil.
During this day an age, evil is like mentioned above, Greed.
When we as an individualy see something, someone we want in the possesion of another, We feel jelousy, which leads to lust and envy which leads to greed.

Greed has been the greatest evil since the dawn of mankind and will continue to be forever more.

Deep

Originally posted by Skeptical Believer

Originally posted by Leveller
Evil and Satan are synonomous in my eyes.



The opposite of light is Evil? Why?

Because you need light to see. Without light you are blind. I don't believe you would be able to see God in the true darkness.

Greed is the result of a fear or phobia that one day one will not have enough. To say the very least this is a socially accepted fear but a fear nonetheless.

From this context it can be defined not as evil but neurotic.

Originally posted by Leveller


Because you need light to see. Without light you are blind. I don't believe you would be able to see God in the true darkness.

What happens when one person has a source of light and keeps it to themself, then somebody else wants that light so kills the person who had the light and takes it for themself?
What makes God such a good guy? We have no proof other than 'his' word that 'he' created us and that 'he' is a nice 'guy'.
Nah, I feel more comfortable in the dark and I don't trust Yahweh should 'he' exist.