What is the source of evil?

[Kalina S.]

All of us know people that we consider to be evil- whether it be Fidel Castro or Bin Laden or maybe a bully at school, but the question always comes to mind – were those people born evil? Are they purely bad people? Were they just raised the wrong way? Take Hitler for instance – he killed millions of innocent humans because of their Jewish heritage, an act that most people could never even conceive of doing. So what caused him to do it? Maybe it was his ego, and yet why – how- was his desire for control or egocentricity so immense that he was willing to kill millions of people? Was he born that way or did he grow into it? And how can we prevent people like Hitler from rising up and from becoming “evil”? Is the cyber-based world that we live in aiding the formation of bullies – of “evil” people? Is the media making people into superficial robots? What do you guys think causes people to be mean or do bad things or lack a sense of love for others? Is it a psychological issue, a familial issue, or maybe just a societal issue? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the causes of evil and how we can help prevent more of it from forming.

[Ttom Harrison]

It depends on what your definition of "evil" is.

For example, what Hitler did, as known by the vast majority of us, was evil. But not to him. He probably thought it was right. It comes from the brain - evil is an impression, more than anything. Same sort of thing with the school bully - what he might be doing would be good in his mind, because he might think it's good that the kids have a "boss" to put it that way. But, as we would think, it is an "evil" thing to do.

Evil is the impression that's given - not a thought, not a mindset, or even a personality, but an impression. :)

[Josh Braun]

Choices. The source of evil is in the choices we make. One choice may be good, and the other may be bad. J.K. Rowling puts it best. "We've all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are." And she also says,"It is our choices, Harry, that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities."

 

For someone to be inherently evil, you'd have to believe in no free will and that God planned out everyones destiny at the beginning. That way that person would have been evil since God decided to do it.

[Latch33570]

Some are born that way some are made. Most are some a mixture of both. They know from experiments with animals that aggresive and antisocial behavior is a lot genetic. I am all for neutering violent criminals and child molesters. To me they are evil.

[Josh Braun]

You have a sick fucking mind.

[Ash Phillips]

I've come to hope and believe Latch is a troll, it worries me that there are people who might actually think like that.

[Latch33570]

ASH what do you find offensive now. You seem to be intolerant of people who think differently from you.

[Ash Phillips]

Mainly the neutering people part. To quote Josh "You have a sick fucking mind."

[spiderboenz]

so then you are saying that you want child molesters to be able to have children... that they will molest?!

 

That sounds like the product of a "sick fucking mind" to me.

Freak.

[Michael Mulroy]

I don't believe that anyone that has ever existed believes that they are evil.  To every person, even Hitler, what they are doing is for the betterment of man.  In Hitler's case, he grew up in a society that looked down upon Judaism and the Jewish people were always scape-goated.  In Hitler's mind, he was trying to remove problems from his country, and help his people to live a greater life.  It is not excusable what he did, at least in the majority opinion of pretty much everyone, but he did not do those things because he was evil.  At least these are my views backed up by not a whole lot of fact.  So someone may correct me later, haha

[Abreo]

Hitler was crazy which is why he believed what he did, and everyone else was desperate as shit so they decided to trust whomever promised them a better life. 

 

Hitler didn't think he was evil but that doesn't mean no criminal does. People who are greedy will sometimes flat out admit they're evil and there are plenty of rapists and serial killers out there who don't claim to not be able to control themselves. The people who admit they're evil are the ones you would never want to mess with.  

[Abreo]

Evil is just a social construct and since it's not an actual tangible thing there's no clear definition of what evil is. Also since evil doesn't really exist you can't fight it, I mean Hitler was able to rise to power because of the way Germany was punished after The Great War, if he didn't rise up to power someone else would have. They may not have necessarily wanted to create the perfect Aryan race but they would have had some agenda.

 

I suppose with things like that in mind if you want to fight evil you should focus mostly on fighting whatever puts people into situations where they are forced/have the opportunity to hurt others. At least then you have a clear and concise goal, and granted you can never reach it but you can always try. 

 

There will always be crazy people though and they'll always have their crazy beliefs. You can't do a damn thing about that. 

[Latch33570]

Evil does really exist, even there is no good definition. A lot of things exist without a good definition such as love. You can play with words all you want but serial killers[EVIL], pedophiles [EVIL], Hitler {EVIL] ect. see it does exist.Its like indecency. You may not be able to articulate it but you know it when you see it.