Darn wheel! No, I think greed stands alone. Ignorance after all isn't one of the deadly sins is it? And then there's the Old Greek that's still dead is supposed to have said "it is better to know useless things than nothing at all". I wish I didn't remember that. Darn wheel!
Instead of trying to consider what is 'evil', think more on terms of what prevents the growth of our species. Ignorance does have quite the impact on our progress. From my observations, Winnipeg is roughly filled with 15% uneducated, uninformed individuals. 45% are simply uninformed, the remaining 40% are educated, and informed, but some show other qualities that make these people just as bad as the first 60% (Though, all have the possibility to show signs of these qualities). These 'other qualities' include greed, apathy, cynacism, fear of the unknown (there are probably more but I cannot think of any at the moment) etc... Each are dangerous alone to humankinds progression. Ignorance by what I have said seems like the major factor with the 'others' below it, but it too can be added to the list with its own list of boons. We are a mighty messed up species, and I hope we can get out of the rut.
Instead of trying to consider what is 'evil', think more on terms of what prevents the growth of our species. Ignorance does have quite the impact on our progress. From my observations, Winnipeg is roughly filled with 15% uneducated, uninformed individuals. 45% are simply uninformed, the remaining 40% are educated, and informed, but some show other qualities that make these people just as bad as the first 60% (Though, all have the possibility to show signs of these qualities). These 'other qualities' include greed, apathy, cynacism, fear of the unknown (there are probably more but I cannot think of any at the moment) etc... Each are dangerous alone to humankinds progression. Ignorance by what I have said seems like the major factor with the 'others' below it, but it too can be added to the list with its own list of boons. We are a mighty messed up species, and I hope we can get out of the rut.
Be wary of calling some trait evil or dangerous. Most if not all of human and animal drives, regardless of how much we discourate them, exist for some important purpose. Fear is a good example. We could not survive without it. Interpretation of qualities is purely subjective.
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If god existed then science would be meaningless
Be wary of calling some trait evil or dangerous. Most if not all of human and animal drives, regardless of how much we discourate them, exist for some important purpose. Fear is a good example. We could not survive without it. Interpretation of qualities is purely subjective.
I agree. The root of all evil is our "knowledge of good and evil." In the rest of the natural world, murder, rape, stealing, (and other deadly sins) have a different name: survival traits.
Also, think of all of the highly educated and thoroughly evil people we see on the news every day. Or so we say, from our own little moral perspective...
And one more caution -- you and I and this whole site would have been burned at the stake four hundred years ago for even having this discussion. As evil ones. Only those on a first-name basis with Satan himself would say such dangerous things. Evil, like all else, evolves.
Perhaps potentialy dangerous would have been a better word to use. While most of our faults can been seen as incorrect, they can have their merits as you said linda. I was also incorrect in thinking that said attributes are preventing growth, but they are making things difficult.
Perhaps potentialy dangerous would have been a better word to use. While most of our faults can been seen as incorrect, they can have their merits as you said linda. I was also incorrect in thinking that said attributes are preventing growth, but they are making things difficult.
Considering our birth rate as a planet, growth has its own dimension of evil. See? Anything is evil to someone. Eye of the beholder, plus the context of the situation. Relative. Not fixed.
By this, I'm not saying that there is no evil. And two people who see exactly opposite from one another on an issue, say, mercy killing, would probably agree on a DEFINITION of evil ("dangerous idea", "slippery slope","outright immorality","intentional harm"...). That makes this more interesting -- because we can agree on what EVIL is, but not on WHAT is EVIL?
