Are we alone? Don't know! Uncertain! — TheMadFool

It's absolutele certain that we are not alone. The universe has an abundancy of life. Of course rhere is a small chance of no life being there, but then again, around every Sun-like word there are planets with life. That's no Russel's reapot.

Knowledge of good prevents one from committing acts. They committed those acts because they did NOT know what good and evil were. — AlienFromEarth

This doesn't make any sense at all. As @TheMadFool says with his not so accurate but lovely quote:

I sinned, not towards an end, but because I loved the sin — Some saint (forgot his name)

Also you contradict yourself with it.

There is no lower level of instinctual knowledge, than to know what good and evil are. — AlienFromEarth

If knowing good and evil is instinctual, then not knowing what good and evil is would be impossible. Hence, as "knowledge of good prevents one from committing acts" there is no evil in this world.


On the most basic level though, I see a problem with your definition of evil.

That which intends to unjustifiably harm innocent people. — AlienFromEarth

What is justifiable and what is not is completely subjective. Hence by your definition, what is evil and what is not is completely subjective, ruling out "pure evil".

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The definition of evil: That which intends to unjustifiably harm innocent people. — AlienFromEarth

4)Committing evil cannot be considered a "mistake", as it is deliberate as the definition of evil above states. Deliberate is the opposite of mistake. — AlienFromEarth

Are you saying then that a person can commit an act they themselves consider unjustified?

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If they consider it unjustified, they wouldn't do it. — AlienFromEarth

It means evil people do not consider anything justified — AlienFromEarth

Is this not a contradiction?

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Now if they make a mistake, well they were still trying to do the right thing — AlienFromEarth

I’m contending that if a person always considers their own actions justified then evil is always a mistake, never deliberate.

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innocent — AlienFromEarth

This is the term that has multiple definitions. Is the son of Hitler, no someone who say didn't get their ass kicked and who actually succeeded, say successfully killing off oh.. half the world's population and enslaving the other half to grueling labor and torture, not just for punishment, but often for fun.. let's take this fictional person. He has a kid. That kid is as innocent as you or I. Is he not?

Somewhere down the line, there's someone related to you who got away with unspeakable acts that by pure fact, enabled you to become the person you are today.

That said people far too frequently confuse evil with animals who simply don't know any better and thus need to be controlled. Mental illness too.

If a conscious person always considers their own actions justified but is sometimes wrong about this, then they are capable of committing an evil act that they considered justified (i.e. they’ve made a mistake). So evil doers aren’t necessarily unconscious.

I’m assuming that your stance on evil commits you to some kind of religious point of view. Is that the case? Also, how do you reconcile your view of evil with evolutionary theory? Is there adaptive survival value to pure evil? Perhaps even more than to good?

It's absolutele certain that we are not alone. The universe has an abundancy of life. Of course rhere is a small chance of no life being there, but then again, around every Sun-like word there are planets with life. That's no Russel's reapot. — Zweistein

God is infinite, so His universe must be too. Thus is the excellence of God magnified and the greatness of His kingdom made manifest; He is glorified not in one, but in countless suns; not in a single earth, a single world, but in a thousand thousand, I say in an infinity of worlds. — Giordano Bruno

In space there are countless constellations, suns and planets; we see only the suns because they give light; the planets remain invisible, for they are small and dark. There are also numberless earths circling around their suns. — Giordano Bruno

Giordano Bruno was, unfortunately or not, burnt at the stake for heresy. Now, no one would look askance at you for asking the same questions he did. My, my, how the times have changed.

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The definition of evil: That which intends to unjustifiably harm innocent people. — AlienFromEarth

An evil doer never considers their own actions justified, because they are not conscious beings. — AlienFromEarth

And intention in a conscious act; so if “evil doers” are unconscious then they aren’t capable of intention, and so aren’t capable of evil.

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Evil is deliberate. — AlienFromEarth

So this appears to be your main problem. Evil can’t both be deliberate and unconscious.

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Do you think deliberation can be an unconscious act also?

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Not religious, just logical and autonomous. Oh and conscious. Lets not forget that. — AlienFromEarth

Whether you know it or not, your description of evil puts your thinking in the category of ‘secular’ religion. You may have absolutely no affiliation with organized religion( thus it is secular) , but your approach is a classic example of a religious metaphysics, and not even a very modern one at that. It is incompatible with the implications of evolutionary biology as well as modern psychology.

Thus, the robots intentions are not it's own, it is merely the intentions of the organism that created it. — AlienFromEarth

I agree. But I also say that those organisms providing the intentions can do so precisely because they are conscious, and intentions spring from consciousness.

If evil doers are on your terms unconscious just as robots are, then they can’t actually intend anything and so are not capable of evil.

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A human can completely override a genetic predisposition and change their lives however they want. — AlienFromEarth

Even if they’re unconscious?

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well with unconscious beings it wouldn't be their "intention". — AlienFromEarth

This is what I’m getting at. If an evil doer is unconscious then they lack that intention.

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