Discussion on evil and it's use in the way... It ties in.

[fwacho]

if Rhue had a shadow sword then why would it posess him to destroy another shadow sword.....don't you think it would have made him try to get the sword?

With this in mind I pose another few questions (I'm a philosophy major so bear with me... but this should make sense or at least provoke thought)

1. Is any one purposely evil just to be evil, or

2. do they have a cetain good in mind that they intend to achieve when they act? (evil can be described as settling for a lesser good.)

3. Does anyone think that they are being evil when they do things or do they have a "valid" (at least to themselves) reason for doing for something?

4 (finally getting to dealing with the quote) Can one evil person see another person as evil (using the I'm not as bad as him philosophy)?

5. Do these evil people feel they are doing the "right thing" by destroying an evil person? (thus validating their own selves and justifing thier actions)

6. Is it evil to kill an evil person? (with or without due process or authority)

7. What/Who grants someone the right to decide whether someone should live or die?

8. or can that right not be granted at all?

9. At what point does mercy override justice? should it?

10. and finally to sum it all up... What is justice and can it be applied?



I'm going to give this it's own post on the scratchwall so answer there.

[Strayed Wanderer]

There is no evil, just those who slaughter and those who are slaughtered.

[Pidgeon]

Were all evil except us Pidgeons are worse

[Chip]

1. Is any one purposely evil just to be evil, or

I believe there are such people. Some people kill other people for the pleasure of event, or the smell of blood, or the taste of bitter red liquid ( ). The world is full of messed up people.

2. do they have a cetain good in mind that they intend to achieve when they act? (evil can be described as settling for a lesser good.)

When you see someone, for example, on the side of the street with a broken down car that they are trying to work on, you can do the right thing and stop to help them. When you pull over to assist, you usually have something in your mind telling you that what you are doing is the right/good thing to do.

3. Does anyone think that they are being evil when they do things or do they have a "valid" (at least to themselves) reason for doing for something?

Depends...If you are evil, and you know you are being evil, then your valid reason could be "I want to conquer the world and take all the creme feeling out of the Hostess snack foods". That is a "valid" reason.

4 (finally getting to dealing with the quote) Can one evil person see another person as evil (using the I'm not as bad as him philosophy)?

I'm sure they can. If you want to blow up a school, and you meet up with a mass murderer, you can most possibly detect the evil he has within by talking to him. But, like Kygar and Cetsa, you can team up together, being evil as a partnership.


I'll answer the rest later.

[silent_empath]

Humans as a species don't really have the ability to "sense" the evil inside someone... but, after having discussion with them,, you can (acording to the way you were raised) percieve the evil that one intends.

Where as in physics, a positively charged atom will repell a positively charged atom and attract a negatively charged one...this is because atoms(like people) seek harmony or balance.

Those that are inherantly evil are more like a genetic mutation. an abnormality in the natural flow of "The Way" of things. thus their positive/negative(ly) charged atoms become more like the nucleus of said atom where as they don't attract or repell the needed proton or neutron.

They don't care whether you are good or evil they will use you to their best advantage until you are no longer needed and then dispose of you
(hence the genetic mutation bit)
now the shadow/illuminatti swords i believe are tabula rasa (clean slate)
and have no preference untill an outside aura imposes it's self upon them....and seeing as Rhue's sword is equally powerful with both shadow and illuminatti auras I don't believe that he is inherantly evil........but the PS is.

[fwacho]

1. Is any one purposely evil just to be evil, or

I believe there are such people. Some people kill other people for the pleasure of event, or the smell of blood, or the taste of bitter red liquid ( ). The world is full of messed up people.

Those above things mentioned are a certain good that they have achieved not being evil to just be evil. They are getting a payback of somekind... a "good" for themselves right? These wackos are doing what they do for a pleasure in the above mentioned scenarios, not (once again) to be evil.

3. Does anyone think that they are being evil when they do things or do they have a "valid" (at least to themselves) reason for doing for something?

Depends...If you are evil, and you know you are being evil, then your valid reason could be "I want to conquer the world and take all the creme feeling out of the Hostess snack foods". That is a "valid" reason.

So here, we're pretty close to agreement except teh question of conscience is raised... Why should someone's conscience bother them? and what authority does a conscience have? If one is willing to kill someone for a "good" then they must see that final "good" or "payoff" as worth the effort involved in the untimely (or timely depending on your view) demise of an unfortunate pawn or ideal for that matter. In short the "good" is percieved greater than the cost (read "evil act" as perceived by you the reader) . So, in their mind what they are doing is right? Right?

Example: the guided see the settlers as more evil than themselves even though the guided have killed/murdered many settlers/people.

4 (finally getting to dealing with the quote) Can one evil person see another person as evil (using the I'm not as bad as him philosophy)?

I'm sure they can. If you want to blow up a school, and you meet up with a mass murderer, you can most possibly detect the evil he has within by talking to him. But, like Kygar and Cetsa, you can team up together, being evil as a partnership.

Let me restate this for better undstanding... Can someone who I percieve as evil (not acting in the moral code I believe should be held to) percieve another person as more evil than themselves... I.E? "I'm only a thief... that man is a murderer, so I'm more right than he is, or at least not as evil as that murderer".
(aka "Holier than thou" syndrom) and I think I asked if this was a valid reason to "execute" judement on the other. in short is the theif right in judging teh murderer or vice-versa (what if the "muderer" is simply an executioner who executed the thief's thieving friend after due course of law as part of his job? play with this idea. does not Strata percieve Rhue as a murderer of Lyrra? And is he just in trying to kill (murder) Rhue. )

I think Kygar and Cetsa are better described not as evil seeing evil in the other by another evil person but rather seeing a common goal/good with willingness to use certain means to acheive it (sacraficing lesser goods: ie another's life, love, or freedom).

[Telephalsion]

XAnqui at gamingw said something good.. it was thet the so called "evil" person usually (unless hes mad) thinks of his own deeds as good... and the so called hero is considered evil by those he attack... it goes gboth ways


Btw you are only as evil as the good things you refuse to do!

[silent_empath]

this theological conversation is all based upon perception.....evil and good are names that we as a society agree upon for things that, again we as a society agree, are morally right or wrong.....

if you are brought up with a different way of understanding things.....ie.

Jeffrey Dalmer

then you have different views and perceptions at to what is and isn't morally acceptable.

thus making the words good and evil, nill and void.

[Greatchickenman]

well, in truth, no one thinks that he or she is evil. Did Hitler think that what he was doing was wrong? I think not! He figured, I'm gonna take over the world and then there will be peace, but first, everyone other than white non semitic people would have to be killed. No, he didn't think he was wrong. Did slaveowners think that they were wrong when the tortured slaves who remained idle when it was time to work? Of course not. There are tons of people in history that are heralded has being evil but they never thought what they did was morally wrong, unless it was for a greater good or lesser evil.

[Telephalsion]

well, in truth, no one thinks that he or she is evil. Did Hitler think that what he was doing was wrong? I think not! He figured, I'm gonna take over the world and then there will be peace, but first, everyone other than white non semitic people would have to be killed. No, he didn't think he was wrong. Did slaveowners think that they were wrong when the tortured slaves who remained idle when it was time to work? Of course not. There are tons of people in history that are heralded has being evil but they never thought what they did was morally wrong, unless it was for a greater good or lesser evil.

my point exactly

[Chip]

Exactly. Those whom are evil do not think of themselves as such. They believe that by murdering this certain person, they will be justified in doing so. Yet, those who witness the horrific killing view the entire event as "satanic" and evil, when in truth they don't know the entire story.

[Telephalsion]

this entire thing ruins my plan of becoming an evil person...

[Chip]

*pulls out chainsaw and puts on mask made of human skin*

Not mine.

[fwacho]

SO we roughly agree that nothing is inherantly evil... It is only percieved as evil?


Of course as one person noted (and I'll twist his words a bit into my own translation of what He said.) evil can best be descibed as not obtaining the greatest good.

Next question... Does anyone have a right to execute judgment on anybody else? (keep in mind how this ties into civil laws and the war in Iraq). If so ... why?

[silent_empath]

if you are asking if we are justified in our war in Iraq then i say no.....if i remember correctly then the United States believes that all men were created equal....therefore no one is above anyone else thus we cannot pass judgement on anyone else......even if we believe, with every fiber of our being, that what they are doing is wrong.