Chrissy

After reading all the passages explaining different peoples’ views on evil, I have to say that I don’t really agree with any one idea. I think evil is too controversial to suite one definition or belief. Some people believe or disbelieve in it, some think of it in a religious and nonreligious way, and some support or don’t support the renewed use of it in society, and all of these people have ideas in their arguements that I agree and disagree with. Therefore, it’s hard for me to really pick out a certain one to discuss. However, there was a specific quote that interested me.  Dasha Rittenberg, a Holocaust survivor said,

“People would go to sleep every night and get up in the morning and eat and drink and be evil. Were they too created in the image of God? I don’t know. What does it say about God?”

This quote particularly jumped out at me. In all of our class discussions about evil, we’ve consistently mentioned the concept that certain people aren’t just born evil, but some fall into the temptations that make them do evil things. I guess this is a more religious way of looking at it, especially since it was the religion-centered Puritains that so thorougly believed the Devil was out there to tempt people. So, in the same religious sense, isn’t it true that God is supposed to be the creator of all things, including humans? So why is it that certain people are more likely to stray from good and do things that can could be seen as evil? This is partially why the concept of evil is so difficult; it often has a reference or connection to religions and God. So, if we’re going to look at evil as something connected to religion, don’t we have to examine the concept of God too? Overall, when looking at this from a religious perspective, I agree with Dasha Rittenberg. What does the concept of evil say about God?

Ryan wrote

People are not evil; their actions are

I agree with his statement. I don’t think that people can be naturally evil as if they were born that way. There is some sort of motivation, pressure, or inspiration that leads to evildoing. For example, the plane hijackers of the September 11th attack thought they were doing good through their actions. Most evildoers have an agenda, or something that encourages them to do evil, they aren’t just naturally evil. It’s in their actions. This interests me because it reminds me of what we talked about the other day in class. Older religious groups such as the puritans used to think that the Devil was out there and able to tempt good people into doing evil things. They believed that in order to escape the Devil’s temptations people should follow the path of God. It is clearly a longstanding concept that it is not the actual people, but the actions they are driven to do that are evil.

My definition of evil is anything done intentionally to cause harm to an individual or group.  The problem is that what is evil depends on point of view. General examples of evil ranging from minimal to explosive include lying, gossiping, fighting, murdering, and many others. From the perspective of the identifier of evil-doings, the behavior causes nothing good, only bad.

In today’s society, examples of evil are the common rape and murder crimes, the terrorist attack on September 11, or the shootings that have occured at schools. Evil of the same sort has occured in the past, examples being slavery, wars, or genocide. All of these are acceptable instances of evil; it’s something that simply isn’t right.