Evil As An Explanation

PoliticalChic

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1. An essential element in recognizing evil, in the context I mean it, is that evil is often gratuitous.
There are gradations of evil, true enough, but usually we know the motivation: money, power, love....personal aggrandizement that leads the weak of character to murder, steal, injure, torture....to attain profits of some sort.


2. But....not just to gain power.....evil can be recognized in the use of power, as well.

"The late Roman emperors were good at this sort of thing ordering someone to be killed in the middle of a dinner party,...and expecting the other guests to laugh. ...trying to be ingenious and unpredictable.

Stalin used to gather cronies and henchmen...for all night dinner-and-drinking sessions; at dawn, for fun, one or two of the guests might be led away, in sodden terror,to be executed by the NKVD. No explanation- just the heavy whimsy of the Antichrist awardng a door prize at the end of his party."
Lance Morrow, "Evil: An Investigation," p. 23




3. But, what to say when the motive is elusive?

a. "Las Vegas shooting motive eludes investigators as new details emerge about gunman Stephen Paddock"
Las Vegas shooting motive eludes investigators as new details emerge about gunman Stephen Paddock


b. "Texas Church Shooting: More Than Two Dozen Parishioners Killed Federal officials said the motive for the shooting was unclear. " More than two dozen parishioners killed in rural Texas church shooting




4. There is, of course, a way to understand most crimes....even some that we claim as 'incomprehensible.'
Evil.
It is the motivation. It may be a force, or the personification...Lucifer himself.


Evil is personified as Lucifer, Satan....the angel who lost his battle with God.
So.....evil is associated with God, in at least some sense.

"When two snipers were terrorizing the Washington, D.C. area, in the fall of 2002, at one point they left a Tarot card, "I am God," in an empty shell casing at the scene of one of their murders. The snipers were a study in the dynamics of doing a certain sort of evil: the gratuitiousness of their predations , the secrecy, the terror, the (one gathers) satanic glee, the random quality of their shootings, the sense of power, the immense injustice of their inflictions, the people struck down dindiscriminantly, with no reason, no order, no rational, all at the whim of the destoyer: Evil is an imitation of God...."
Lance Morrow, Op.Cit., p. 36-37



I say that at some level, motiveless evil is the desire, the attempt to be God-like.....exactly the same motive as Lucifer.
 
It's a variance in cognitive ability, mental illness, maturity..rationality....and can be induced or influenced by many environmental factors such as drugs, abuse, developmental learning, greed or media propoganda.
 
It's a variance in cognitive ability, mental illness, maturity..rationality....and can be induced or influenced by many environmental factors such as drugs, abuse, developmental learning, greed or media propoganda.


Interesting.

Are you explaining why folks commit evil acts?

But.....what if they are not mentally ill, or under the influence of drugs.....

Then, who or what is responsible?
 
It's a variance in cognitive ability, mental illness, maturity..rationality....and can be induced or influenced by many environmental factors such as drugs, abuse, developmental learning, greed or media propoganda.


Interesting.

Are you explaining why folks commit evil acts?

But.....what if they are not mentally ill, or under the influence of drugs.....
Mental Illness isn't barely past its infancy, in study ~ so, I'd be hesitant at that diagnosis....

but past that ---- even hormone imbalances, left unchecked, cause erratic behavior.

Hell, paranoia causes delusions....and since the 24-hour news cycle and all which THAT implies, one could easily extrapolate that the world is in a bad place... whereas, statistically, the world is in a historically low period, in terms of violent crime.
 
God/the Bible says ''the love of money, is the root of all evil''

so not money alone or in and of itself,

but the LOVE of money
 
It's a variance in cognitive ability, mental illness, maturity..rationality....and can be induced or influenced by many environmental factors such as drugs, abuse, developmental learning, greed or media propoganda.


Interesting.

Are you explaining why folks commit evil acts?

But.....what if they are not mentally ill, or under the influence of drugs.....
Mental Illness isn't barely past its infancy, in study ~ so, I'd be hesitant at that diagnosis....

but past that ---- even hormone imbalances, left unchecked, cause erratic behavior.

Hell, paranoia causes delusions....and since the 24-hour news cycle and all which THAT implies, one could easily extrapolate that the world is in a bad place... whereas, statistically, the world is in a historically low period, in terms of violent crime.


Anything but 'evil,' huh?
 
God/the Bible says ''the love of money, is the root of all evil''

so not money alone or in and of itself,

but the LOVE of money


God/the Bible says ''the love of money, is the root of all evil''

so not money alone or in and of itself,

but the LOVE of money


From the OP:
An essential element in recognizing evil, in the context I mean it, is that evil is often gratuitous.
There are gradations of evil, true enough, but usually we know the motivation: money, power, love....personal aggrandizement that leads the weak of character to murder, steal, injure, torture....to attain profits of some sort.

Soooo.....what if we can't see any personal gain from an evil act?
 
It's a variance in cognitive ability, mental illness, maturity..rationality....and can be induced or influenced by many environmental factors such as drugs, abuse, developmental learning, greed or media propoganda.


Interesting.

Are you explaining why folks commit evil acts?

But.....what if they are not mentally ill, or under the influence of drugs.....
Mental Illness isn't barely past its infancy, in study ~ so, I'd be hesitant at that diagnosis....

but past that ---- even hormone imbalances, left unchecked, cause erratic behavior.

Hell, paranoia causes delusions....and since the 24-hour news cycle and all which THAT implies, one could easily extrapolate that the world is in a bad place... whereas, statistically, the world is in a historically low period, in terms of violent crime.


Anything but 'evil,' huh?
I believe that evil is a description of a behavior ~ or, if said behavior is what drives a person then evil is an adequate desctiption of that human itself...

I dont have any reason to believe that there are supernatural forces acting upon folks to make them "good" or "evil." I've not been given any rational argument which affirms that.....but instead I've seen a multitude of things right here in the non-spiritual realm act in changing human behavior.
 
God/the Bible says ''the love of money, is the root of all evil''

so not money alone or in and of itself,

but the LOVE of money


God/the Bible says ''the love of money, is the root of all evil''

so not money alone or in and of itself,

but the LOVE of money


From the OP:
An essential element in recognizing evil, in the context I mean it, is that evil is often gratuitous.
There are gradations of evil, true enough, but usually we know the motivation: money, power, love....personal aggrandizement that leads the weak of character to murder, steal, injure, torture....to attain profits of some sort.

Soooo.....what if we can't see any personal gain from an evil act?
then it is probably not true evil....

as example, if a mentally ill person kills for absolutely no reason...to us, it seems like nothing could be more evil than to kill for no reason, but I can assume, to God....well....He sees the WHOLE PICTURE and knows the mental illness was the real cause and not what we earthlings call and see as evil.
 
It's a variance in cognitive ability, mental illness, maturity..rationality....and can be induced or influenced by many environmental factors such as drugs, abuse, developmental learning, greed or media propoganda.


Interesting.

Are you explaining why folks commit evil acts?

But.....what if they are not mentally ill, or under the influence of drugs.....
Mental Illness isn't barely past its infancy, in study ~ so, I'd be hesitant at that diagnosis....

but past that ---- even hormone imbalances, left unchecked, cause erratic behavior.

Hell, paranoia causes delusions....and since the 24-hour news cycle and all which THAT implies, one could easily extrapolate that the world is in a bad place... whereas, statistically, the world is in a historically low period, in terms of violent crime.


Anything but 'evil,' huh?
I believe that evil is a description of a behavior ~ or, if said behavior is what drives a person then evil is an adequate desctiption of that human itself...

I dont have any reason to believe that there are supernatural forces acting upon folks to make them "good" or "evil." I've not been given any rational argument which affirms that.....but instead I've seen a multitude of things right here in the non-spiritual realm act in changing human behavior.


"I dont have any reason to believe that there are supernatural forces..."

Do you know the origin of the view you just stated?

It was under the auspices of what has produced every totalitarian revolution.

What do you make of that?
 
God/the Bible says ''the love of money, is the root of all evil''

so not money alone or in and of itself,

but the LOVE of money


God/the Bible says ''the love of money, is the root of all evil''

so not money alone or in and of itself,

but the LOVE of money


From the OP:
An essential element in recognizing evil, in the context I mean it, is that evil is often gratuitous.
There are gradations of evil, true enough, but usually we know the motivation: money, power, love....personal aggrandizement that leads the weak of character to murder, steal, injure, torture....to attain profits of some sort.

Soooo.....what if we can't see any personal gain from an evil act?
then it is probably not true evil....

as example, if a mentally ill person kills for absolutely no reason...to us, it seems like nothing could be more evil than to kill for no reason, but I can assume, to God....well....He sees the WHOLE PICTURE and knows the mental illness was the real cause and not what we earthlings call and see as evil.


What if they're not mentally ill?
 
It's a variance in cognitive ability, mental illness, maturity..rationality....and can be induced or influenced by many environmental factors such as drugs, abuse, developmental learning, greed or media propoganda.


Interesting.

Are you explaining why folks commit evil acts?

But.....what if they are not mentally ill, or under the influence of drugs.....
Mental Illness isn't barely past its infancy, in study ~ so, I'd be hesitant at that diagnosis....

but past that ---- even hormone imbalances, left unchecked, cause erratic behavior.

Hell, paranoia causes delusions....and since the 24-hour news cycle and all which THAT implies, one could easily extrapolate that the world is in a bad place... whereas, statistically, the world is in a historically low period, in terms of violent crime.


Anything but 'evil,' huh?
I believe that evil is a description of a behavior ~ or, if said behavior is what drives a person then evil is an adequate desctiption of that human itself...

I dont have any reason to believe that there are supernatural forces acting upon folks to make them "good" or "evil." I've not been given any rational argument which affirms that.....but instead I've seen a multitude of things right here in the non-spiritual realm act in changing human behavior.


"I dont have any reason to believe that there are supernatural forces..."

Do you know the origin of the view you just stated?

It was under the auspices of what has produced every totalitarian revolution.

What do you make of that?
That correlation does not imply causation, and to pigeonhole my comments like that, as opposed to offering alternatives and having a discussion....

Seems agenda driven, and weak.
 
5. Some, in fact claim God as the explanation for their evil acts.


2930.jpg


Mohamed Sifaoui, journalist and director of a documentary on the Merah family, testified on Canal+ television, "I heard with my own ears, Mohamed Merah's mother saying: 'in our religion it is permitted to kill Jewish children'".
France: Escalating Muslim Anti-Semitism



6. Let's clear this up immediately: at the heart of religion....and by religion I mean the Judeo-Christian faith.....
....is free will.
And that free will is animated by the gift of intelligence.


Have you seen the cloak on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...the cloak behind God?
It is a cerebrum.

creation.gif


Michel.sistine.psych.gif

The Brain on the sistine Chapel Ceiling


Free will along with intelligence, are God's gifts to mankind.
It is through the use of those gifts that we make decisions to perform good or evil acts.
Therefore....God cannot be blamed for evil acts.



On the other hand, Oscar Wilde put it this way: "There is no sin except stupidity."


 
Morals being objectively based upon a God ...



imposes an issue:

1. If said god is Omnipotent, they possess the ability to change.

2. If said god can change, Morals are then subject to change; therefore, not objective.....
but subjective based upon said god's whims.

3. If said god cannot change....said god is not, by definition, omnipotent.

The paradox of Objective Morality as it pertains to an Omnipotent being.
 
Morals being objectively based upon a God ...



imposes an issue:

1. If said god is Omnipotent, they possess the ability to change.

2. If said god can change, Morals are then subject to change; therefore, not objective.....
but subjective based upon said god's whims.

3. If said god cannot change....said god is not, by definition, omnipotent.

The paradox of Objective Morality as it pertains to an Omnipotent being.


"Morals"....as meaning what....the ability to judge an act evil or not?

True....you could demand a definition or evil....but, I'd respond as Justice Potter did when asked to define pornography.
 
7. Using the gift of free will to carry out random, gratuitous evil acts is, in effect, mocking the giver of those gifts.
It is Lucifer continuing his battle with the Creator.

And, I am certain, provides the actor with a sense of greatness beyond his actual existence: he has allied himself with a force far greater than he could ever be alone.



Yet we seek the rational explanation for acts such as those of Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas shooter, and Devin Patrick Kelley, the Texas Church assassin.
'Rational' meaning other than relying on some force, or even Lucifer.

Did they wish to ally themselves with some iteration of Lucifer? What did they believe they would be awarded by the Prince of Darkness?

Did Pol Pot or Mao actually get the reward that they wished for the millions they murdered?



8. Perhaps equally unfathomable are the apologists for evil.
There was the 'Wendy's Massacre' - "[John] Taylor and an accomplice, Craig Godineaux, lined up seven Wendy's workers in the basement of the Flushing eatery, blindfolded them and shot them in the head before stealing $2,400. Only two survived."
Wendy's massacre killer escapes execution

One might see the cash as motive.....yet "A writer on the World Socialist website...[claimed] the Wendy's murders were neither gratuitous nor evil,...but rather reflected the poverty, injustice, and frustration of American society..."
Lance Morrow, "Evil: An Investigation," p. 91-92

Seems there has always got to be some reason for evil that we can understand.



So, no act is gratuitous, able to be describes as 'evil'....but rationalization can find excuses for each and every one.


 
Morals being objectively based upon a God ...



imposes an issue:

1. If said god is Omnipotent, they possess the ability to change.

2. If said god can change, Morals are then subject to change; therefore, not objective.....
but subjective based upon said god's whims.

3. If said god cannot change....said god is not, by definition, omnipotent.

The paradox of Objective Morality as it pertains to an Omnipotent being.


"Morals"....as meaning what....the ability to judge an act evil or not?

True....you could demand a definition or evil....but, I'd respond as Justice Potter did when asked to define pornography.
I don't deny there is good and evil ~ I consider them a human description of behavior ..... but, not a force in and of themselves. They're descriptive, not prescriptive.
 
1. An essential element in recognizing evil, in the context I mean it, is that evil is often gratuitous.
There are gradations of evil, true enough, but usually we know the motivation: money, power, love....personal aggrandizement that leads the weak of character to murder, steal, injure, torture....to attain profits of some sort.


2. But....not just to gain power.....evil can be recognized in the use of power, as well.

"The late Roman emperors were good at this sort of thing ordering someone to be killed in the middle of a dinner party,...and expecting the other guests to laugh. ...trying to be ingenious and unpredictable.

Stalin used to gather cronies and henchmen...for all night dinner-and-drinking sessions; at dawn, for fun, one or two of the guests might be led away, in sodden terror,to be executed by the NKVD. No explanation- just the heavy whimsy of the Antichrist awardng a door prize at the end of his party."
Lance Morrow, "Evil: An Investigation," p. 23




3. But, what to say when the motive is elusive?

a. "Las Vegas shooting motive eludes investigators as new details emerge about gunman Stephen Paddock"
Las Vegas shooting motive eludes investigators as new details emerge about gunman Stephen Paddock


b. "Texas Church Shooting: More Than Two Dozen Parishioners Killed Federal officials said the motive for the shooting was unclear. " More than two dozen parishioners killed in rural Texas church shooting




4. There is, of course, a way to understand most crimes....even some that we claim as 'incomprehensible.'
Evil.
It is the motivation. It may be a force, or the personification...Lucifer himself.


Evil is personified as Lucifer, Satan....the angel who lost his battle with God.
So.....evil is associated with God, in at least some sense.

"When two snipers were terrorizing the Washington, D.C. area, in the fall of 2002, at one point they left a Tarot card, "I am God," in an empty shell casing at the scene of one of their murders. The snipers were a study in the dynamics of doing a certain sort of evil: the gratuitiousness of their predations , the secrecy, the terror, the (one gathers) satanic glee, the random quality of their shootings, the sense of power, the immense injustice of their inflictions, the people struck down dindiscriminantly, with no reason, no order, no rational, all at the whim of the destoyer: Evil is an imitation of God...."
Lance Morrow, Op.Cit., p. 36-37



I say that at some level, motiveless evil is the desire, the attempt to be God-like.....exactly the same motive as Lucifer.
This all sounds like trump!!!
 
1. An essential element in recognizing evil, in the context I mean it, is that evil is often gratuitous.
There are gradations of evil, true enough, but usually we know the motivation: money, power, love....personal aggrandizement that leads the weak of character to murder, steal, injure, torture....to attain profits of some sort.


2. But....not just to gain power.....evil can be recognized in the use of power, as well.

"The late Roman emperors were good at this sort of thing ordering someone to be killed in the middle of a dinner party,...and expecting the other guests to laugh. ...trying to be ingenious and unpredictable.

Stalin used to gather cronies and henchmen...for all night dinner-and-drinking sessions; at dawn, for fun, one or two of the guests might be led away, in sodden terror,to be executed by the NKVD. No explanation- just the heavy whimsy of the Antichrist awardng a door prize at the end of his party."
Lance Morrow, "Evil: An Investigation," p. 23




3. But, what to say when the motive is elusive?

a. "Las Vegas shooting motive eludes investigators as new details emerge about gunman Stephen Paddock"
Las Vegas shooting motive eludes investigators as new details emerge about gunman Stephen Paddock


b. "Texas Church Shooting: More Than Two Dozen Parishioners Killed Federal officials said the motive for the shooting was unclear. " More than two dozen parishioners killed in rural Texas church shooting




4. There is, of course, a way to understand most crimes....even some that we claim as 'incomprehensible.'
Evil.
It is the motivation. It may be a force, or the personification...Lucifer himself.


Evil is personified as Lucifer, Satan....the angel who lost his battle with God.
So.....evil is associated with God, in at least some sense.

"When two snipers were terrorizing the Washington, D.C. area, in the fall of 2002, at one point they left a Tarot card, "I am God," in an empty shell casing at the scene of one of their murders. The snipers were a study in the dynamics of doing a certain sort of evil: the gratuitiousness of their predations , the secrecy, the terror, the (one gathers) satanic glee, the random quality of their shootings, the sense of power, the immense injustice of their inflictions, the people struck down dindiscriminantly, with no reason, no order, no rational, all at the whim of the destoyer: Evil is an imitation of God...."
Lance Morrow, Op.Cit., p. 36-37



I say that at some level, motiveless evil is the desire, the attempt to be God-like.....exactly the same motive as Lucifer.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
 
Morals being objectively based upon a God ...



imposes an issue:

1. If said god is Omnipotent, they possess the ability to change.

2. If said god can change, Morals are then subject to change; therefore, not objective.....
but subjective based upon said god's whims.

3. If said god cannot change....said god is not, by definition, omnipotent.

The paradox of Objective Morality as it pertains to an Omnipotent being.


"Morals"....as meaning what....the ability to judge an act evil or not?

True....you could demand a definition or evil....but, I'd respond as Justice Potter did when asked to define pornography.
I don't deny there is good and evil ~ I consider them a human description of behavior ..... but, not a force in and of themselves. They're descriptive, not prescriptive.


" I consider them a human description of behavior ..... but, not a force in and of themselves."

There is as much proof of that as there is for Lucifer taking control of an individual's actions.
 

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