Rose White
VIP Member
Is evil a concept that is important or helpful to you? If it is a relevant concept can you share your views on what it means, either from an ethical or religious perspective or??
Here Are some ideas I have.
Religious:
Absence of, or turning away from God
Cosmic force locked in a battle with Good which will end in something messianic and apocalyptic
Ethical:
That which opposes qualities held in high regard by a cultural society
Religious to me has a kind of deterministic, fatalistic, empirical form (some people are evil)
Ethical has a relativistic, cultural framework, performative form (some people do evil things from a historic-cultural perspective)
For this discussion I would like to start from the premise that evil is a useful concept (so if it’s not useful for you then let’s save that discussion for another thread). How the concept is useful—from your perspective— is what I am curious to explore. I don’t want to limit it’s usefulness to my concepts, those are just a conversation starter.
Here Are some ideas I have.
Religious:
Absence of, or turning away from God
Cosmic force locked in a battle with Good which will end in something messianic and apocalyptic
Ethical:
That which opposes qualities held in high regard by a cultural society
Religious to me has a kind of deterministic, fatalistic, empirical form (some people are evil)
Ethical has a relativistic, cultural framework, performative form (some people do evil things from a historic-cultural perspective)
For this discussion I would like to start from the premise that evil is a useful concept (so if it’s not useful for you then let’s save that discussion for another thread). How the concept is useful—from your perspective— is what I am curious to explore. I don’t want to limit it’s usefulness to my concepts, those are just a conversation starter.