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Kracus wrote:Of course it is. Perhaps there might be a genetic trait that triggers our brains not to have empathy towards other people, who knows.

Actualy, now that I think about it there's this mental illness some children are born with (obviously they grow up) and I forget it's name... robertson disease or roberts disease damn I forget right this minute.

Anyway, the person affected by this illness, and you might very well have known someone, doesn't view other people as people but rather as objects. It's like they hold no importance to anything. When you speak to someone who suffers from this you can kinda tell there's something wrong with them. It's subtle but you can tell not all the wheels are turning in there. I knew a kid who had it when I was in college. He was this friends brother. Loved videogames and seemed like a regular kid if a little bit slow (he was probably 17 years old) but you never wanted to piss him off or he'd kill you.

He had already tried to kill someone when he was younger, I beleive his sister (my friend) because of it and was diagnosed with this illness, took therapy. I'm pretty sure it's a genetic disease.

4days wrote:

Kracus wrote:I'm trying to make sense of all your comments (I was out for lunch ) but I'll start with this one.

You're correct on the fact that one morality might not be any better than another but any action inherently viewed as evil is what I'm talking about. You can argue the semantics of what is concidered an evil act all you want but at core you as well as anyone else civilized enough can usualy detect it just at face value. To kill someone in cold blood. To steal something of value to someone. To hurt someone, whether physicaly or emotionaly without provocation.

It's all acts done because of the fact someone doesn't emphasize with someone else. The fact a bible states you can't do these things is irrelevant. In both cases the perpertrator does not feel what his victim feels. It's not a matter of the perpertrator not feeling anything, it's about them understanding what their victim feels. Empathy.

If I steal from someone it is because I don't care what they will feel afterwards. Perhaps I'll feel a bit guilty later on, things change, but at the time when I took it I certainly did not feel that way.

i'd be a bit wary of looking at it from a religious perspective too, but what you're describing sounds like belligerence rather than 'evil'. not a philosopher, and i try to avoid thinking about religion - but would've thought that to be being evil, you'd have to be aware of some morality that defined what you were doing as evil - otherwise you'd just be ignorant, like driving over someone's cat without ever knowing that you'd done it.

is a very old term describing that which is morally bad, corrupt, wantonly destructive, selfish, and wicked. It is one half of the duality of good and evil expressed, in some form or another, by many cultures. It describes a hierarchy of moral standards with regard to human behaviour; evil being the least desired, while love is usually the most praised. In a casual or derogatory use, the word "evil" can characterize people and behaviours that are painful, ruinous, or disastrous.

Kracus wrote:I would describe something evil as doing something against someone elses will that hurts them in any way. Evil is a strong word, so for this exercise I will admit that there are different variations of evil but that an evil deed is nonetheless an evil deed. From stealing coins from a wishing fountain to killing an innocent baby.

Kracus wrote:who's talking about souls? :icon19:

bikkeldesnikkel wrote:

Kracus wrote:Of course it is. Perhaps there might be a genetic trait that triggers our brains not to have empathy towards other people, who knows.

Actualy, now that I think about it there's this mental illness some children are born with (obviously they grow up) and I forget it's name... robertson disease or roberts disease damn I forget right this minute.

Anyway, the person affected by this illness, and you might very well have known someone, doesn't view other people as people but rather as objects. It's like they hold no importance to anything. When you speak to someone who suffers from this you can kinda tell there's something wrong with them. It's subtle but you can tell not all the wheels are turning in there. I knew a kid who had it when I was in college. He was this friends brother. Loved videogames and seemed like a regular kid if a little bit slow (he was probably 17 years old) but you never wanted to piss him off or he'd kill you.

He had already tried to kill someone when he was younger, I beleive his sister (my friend) because of it and was diagnosed with this illness, took therapy. I'm pretty sure it's a genetic disease.

no dude, i meant its NOT stored in genes. evil/good is what people make of it.

^misantropia^ wrote:

Kracus wrote:who's talking about souls? :icon19:

As a figure of speech, of course. The point remains, though: most people don't consider the consequences of their actions. That doesn't make them inherently evil, just stupid.

Kracus wrote: I'm not saying it's an evil gene buddy I'm just saying there's a disease out there that makes people unemphatic to otehr people.

4days wrote:

Kracus wrote:I would describe something evil as doing something against someone elses will that hurts them in any way. Evil is a strong word, so for this exercise I will admit that there are different variations of evil but that an evil deed is nonetheless an evil deed. From stealing coins from a wishing fountain to killing an innocent baby.

so if someone gave you a box with a button on it and you pushed it a bunch of times, without knowing that by pushing that button you were controlling a device that loaded dozens of babies into a trebuchet and flung them against a wall, you would be evil?

Kracus wrote:So? Stupidity is ignorance and ignorance has often been a percursor to great evil. KKK would be a good example.

Kracus wrote:That has nothign to do with what we're talking about.

bikkeldesnikkel wrote:

Kracus wrote: I'm not saying it's an evil gene buddy I'm just saying there's a disease out there that makes people unemphatic to otehr people.

yeah there could be, but those are rare cases, it's not what the stereotypical "evil" person has.

Kracus wrote:The reason they are dangerous is because they have a tendancy to physicly attack people and even kill them because of the fact they can't feel any empathy towards them.

Ryoki wrote:

Kracus wrote:The reason they are dangerous is because they have a tendancy to physicly attack people and even kill them because of the fact they can't feel any empathy towards them.

Which basically makes that person innocent, right? In need of some serious downers, a padded room and a straightjacket, but shit he couldn't really help it he doesn't know any better...

Kracus wrote:Just because something evolves doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Kracus wrote:Not at all. However, my point was that this lack of empathy is why people commit evil crimes and as it so happens people that suffer from this illness are concidered dangerous. The reason they are dangerous is because they have a tendancy to physicly attack people and even kill them because of the fact they can't feel any empathy towards them.

Kracus wrote:

Ryoki wrote:

Kracus wrote:The reason they are dangerous is because they have a tendancy to physicly attack people and even kill them because of the fact they can't feel any empathy towards them.

Which basically makes that person innocent, right? In need of some serious downers, a padded room and a straightjacket, but shit he couldn't really help it he doesn't know any better...

Yeah basicly. They are usualy kept in mental hospitals.

Ryoki wrote:morals change drastically over time.

bikkeldesnikkel wrote:

Kracus wrote:

Ryoki wrote: Which basically makes that person innocent, right? In need of some serious downers, a padded room and a straightjacket, but shit he couldn't really help it he doesn't know any better...

Yeah basicly. They are usualy kept in mental hospitals.

so you're saying they're NOT evil? then what was your point with the whole gene thang?

bikkeldesnikkel wrote:

Kracus wrote:Not at all. However, my point was that this lack of empathy is why people commit evil crimes and as it so happens people that suffer from this illness are concidered dangerous. The reason they are dangerous is because they have a tendancy to physicly attack people and even kill them because of the fact they can't feel any empathy towards them.

look it all comes down to the brain. the brain could either malfunction, or people could have unnormal thoughtpatterns, caused by whatever trauma, or "not normal" childhood.

still i don't see a clear point in any of your posts, what are you talking about? okay, empathy... empathy being the cause of all evil.. if you talk in these terms, you cant discuss it. empathy and evil are opinions.