Why does moral evil exist?
Evil is all around and inside of us, yet you don’t feel like you are contributing to that evil, it feels like you take the proper action. While it may feel that way, even the most morally rigid people are capable of doing wrong. Jeremiah 17:9 states “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” Each and every one of us sin and do evil. Aforementioned, it doesn’t feel this way, additionally, you wouldn’t do something that you knew was evil or wrong, that simply wouldn’t make sense. So if we know to not do evil or wrong actions, why does evil exist so commonly?
The clarity to this illusion of well doing is the neutralization of your virtues. You may still live by a moral code, however, it is possible to do evil through discarding this code. There are a few ways of doing this, which are: the denial of responsibility, denial of harm, claim of need, and postponement.
Denial of responsibility is thinking you are not responsible for the action. For example “Everyone else would act like this” or “Someone told me to torture him”. Denial of harm is when you take a wrong action because you don’t see
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Because of oxytocin and the neutralization of morals, the best way to treat people is not as evil, but to treat them well, and assume the best of them. As you treat them better, scientifically, they are more inclined to treat you well. You shouldn’t blindly trust anyone, however, you should always approach people with positivity. If you treat people as evil, they will be quicker to it. If you treat them well, they will do the same and when they don’t, all the times they did will be worth it. In conclusion, moral evil exists through the combination of temptation and the neutralization of morals. To fight back against human nature, don’t fight fire with fire, go and treat people well, because you may find a good side in
There are many different points of view about human behaviors. Through specific characters mentioned in Fahrenheit 451, “A Very Old Man Enormous Wings”, and “The Lottery”, individual attitudes are exaggerated to the point that their evil motivations behind their behaviors are obvious. Everyday humans attempt to attach the connotation of good to humanity, but it’s just because humans want to look past the fact that we are realistically not good. It is very difficult for us to reflect on our own behaviors. Even though people try to avoid admitting it, we always try to be the best in whatever we do. We naturally make our own survivals the best we can make it. Harming others knowingly and enjoying it is a hallmark of being evil. Good is not only
The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur into many shades of grey allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being. Man is not inherently good or evil but they are born innocent without any values or sense of morality until people impart their philosophies of life to them. In the words of John Locke:
THEME: The line between good and evil is sometimes unclear, and as a result, people often think that they are doing the right thing when it is actually the wrong action, and vice versa.
Evil has a direct link to oxytocin being released into the brain. (Zak 1) The 5% that don’t share many traits with psychopaths. (Zak 1) Not all evil people don't have the ability to release oxytocin. People who release oxytocin when given a positive signal tend to be “normal people. 95% of people release oxytocin when given a positive social signal. (Zak 1) Most people are not evil, the number may
The problem of evil is inescapable in this fallen world. From worldwide terror like the Holocaust to individual evils like abuse, evil touches every life. However, evil is not a creation of God, nor was it in His perfect will. As Aleksandr
Good and evil make the world we are living in today. However evil stands out more than good and people tend to focus on the evil behavior of humans more often. Human nature tends to decide that if someone looks evil they will be evil. The good and the bad make up the goodness in life. It is impossible to always be good or evil but there are things that can make us better or worse as a person. For one to be free, one must live in a world of evil and good.
Many people have different views on the moral subject of good and evil or human nature. It is the contention of this paper that humans are born neutral, and if we are raised to be good, we will mature into good human beings. Once the element of evil is introduced into our minds, through socialization and the media, we then have the potential to do bad things. As a person grows up, they are ideally taught to be good and to do good things, but it is possible that the concept of evil can be presented to us. When this happens, we subconsciously choose whether or not to accept this evil. This where the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke become interesting as both men differed in the way they believed human nature to be. Hobbes and Locke both picture a different scene when they express human nature.
...good nor bad feels wrong to us. This is because, as the centre of our ethical system, God represents perfection and what humanity is meant to achieve. People simply wish to be good, and to be good means to become more like God, a central idea in a number of religions.
“Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other” (Eric Burdon). People do not think they are doing good or evil, they just think that they are doing the right thing. Evil comes from within each one of us. You just need to something to bring it out.
There are two kinds of evil, moral and natural. Moral evil is things like murder, rape, stealing, terrorism, etc. Natural evil is things like suffering and unpleasantness typically as a result of moral evil. Evil is that which has no power of its own. Evil is darkness, a negation of light. Its power is in us, in our fear of it, in that we consider it a "something" worth responding to.
When anyone thinks of the word “evil” they do not think it is within themselves. In reality, without a structured and well-followed society, people are apt to follow their own corrupt desires and neglect the thought of consequence. In the allegory, Lord of the Flies, William Golding reveals that man’s selfishness and sinful nature will be unmasked when the structure of a society deteriorates.
With all that said, agreeing with William Golding is most logical. Humans possess evil in them but society, rules, laws, orders, and morals aids individuals to avoid corruption. Without the law, it is most likely that individuals will do selfish things and become corrupt rather than transform into an ideal person with the need of only to survive. Golding’s Lord of the Flies is an extreme but great representation of the human nature.
Whether or not humans are instinctively good or evil has been a much talked about debate for many years and is known as an unanswerable question. Determinists, such as Thomas Hobbs, have come to the conclusion that humans are naturally evil and it is within our basic instincts to be greedy, selfish and otherwise drawn to chaos. Hobbs states that “our true nature arises in times of strife and it is within us, when threatened, to self preserve.” I on the other hand disagree with this famous philosophers take on human nature. In this short essay, I will argue that human beings are born with the instinct to be good and to love one another, as well as to be loved.
Phillip Pullman, a British author, once wrote, “I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are”(goodreads.com). Pullman’s quotation on the actions of man being the source of good and evil closely relate to morality, principles regarding the distinction of right and wrong or a person’s values. The question of what human morality truly is has been pondered by philosophers, common folk, and writers for thousands of years. However, sometimes a person’s ethics are unclear; he or she are not wholly good or bad but, rather, morally ambiguous.
What drives people to act in an improper way, is not evil, but rather a lack of empathy hardwired into their brain. When a