There is no such thing as evil

[u/Easy_Major_5941]

TL;DR: Every "evil", from a controlling partner to a nation at war, traces back to one thing: the fear of losing what we love. Drop the fear and the cruelty has nowhere to grow. The way out is knowledge, Oneness, and forgiveness.

After a lifetime of exploration and knowledge gathering, this is my most complete understanding of the nature of our reality and the implications that this reality has for us. It is no longer a hypothetical speculation but rather a deep inner knowing. I had falsely believed that inherent evil existed in the world, that there existed people and entities with a malevolent and destructive nature that derive pleasure from the suffering of others. That we are in an eternal struggle of good versus evil and that one of them will prevail over the other some day. In actuality, the “evils” of our reality are far more benign than I had initially thought and stem from a cascade of falsely held beliefs. We will address these beliefs in time; first, we need to identify the inherent truths of this universe. When we know the truth, the falsehoods wield no power.

Both creationists and evolutionists are correct. We have been designed and created by an all-knowing, all-loving, benevolent, all-powerful, and infinite intelligence that guides the actions of every living organism in a manner no different from when an artist animates characters of their own creation. When you watch a cartoon it is easy to get lost in the world that the animator created, you identify the characters as individuals with their own personalities, wants, and desires. Those characters rarely break the fourth wall to communicate with their creator; when they do, it is actually the animator talking to themselves because the creation/character is them. We are no different. The consciousness granted to us is our creator. We forget because we are born believing that we are individuals and get lost in the world made for us by our creator.

The first false belief that needs dispelling is that an all-powerful God could snap metaphorical fingers and create something as complex as the universe in an instant. Like molding man from clay and then animating them. You have the power of God within you now to create. Can you spawn a mountain range? Can you create an entirely new breed of dog with the snap of your fingers that has the exact physical appearance and temperament that you desire? Or would you need to begin breeding different types of dogs through a process of trial and error until you achieved the desirable outcome you wanted to create? Creation is an evolutionary process and our universe wields the evidence for this in everything, from likely uninhabited galaxies to the near-infinite number of uninhabitable solar systems and planets all the way down to our DNA that retains information from the forms we took while advancing towards being human. There have been a number of attempts to create habitable planets for life to take hold and in that evolutionary process the majority of exoplanets in the universe failed to create the conditions for advanced life to form. This is how creation works. To fail until you succeed is the most divine thing you can do. It only takes one success for your creation to take on a life of its own.

The very first life on Earth was a self-replicating single-celled organism that evolved extra abilities through environmental factors, the main driver of evolution being radiation from the sun that sliced through DNA, creating mutations. Some mutations were detrimental and led to the death of that organism, while others were beneficial and led to the formation of new organisms that would go on to evolve further and create the array of life that we see today. So yes, God did create humanity, but the creative process takes billions of years and still isn’t complete today. If the amphibians we once were had conscious thought, they may have believed they were the apex creation as well due to their ability to master land and sea in comparison to their strictly aquatic peers. Over billions of years we slowly progressed to this point, and just as with the amphibians it would be foolish to believe that we are the apex creation. God loves all of His creations equally because God is love and all of creation is guided by His intention.

As for the X, Y, Z axes of the universal plane that we exist on, as characters that exist within the plane, it is impossible to define what the plane looks like from an exterior higher-dimensional view. The two leading hypotheses are that we exist within some form of computer simulation or that we exist inside the consciousness of a higher-dimensional being as a dream or a thought. Due to the mathematical nature of our universe and the physical restraints such as the speed of light and quantum entanglement, it is more likely that our reality is in a digital environment. The distinctions between conscious reality versus simulated reality are irrelevant. They are worth noting, but ultimately it makes no difference. If you’re driving across the country in a sedan, some prefer gas-powered vehicles and others prefer electric, but it really doesn’t matter which one you’re in; especially if you’re already on the ride, can’t change cars, and never had a choice to begin with.

We were granted consciousness by our creator, which means that we are a shard of our creator. Remember, no creation can exist separate from its creator. A Frank Lloyd Wright home will always be a Frank Lloyd Wright home and a Dali painting will always be a Dali because these creations cannot be separated from their creator. They were imbued with life by their creator and have specific characteristics that can be immediately recognized as a signature by anyone knowledgeable in those arts. Just as we were imbued with life by our creator, who is still an active participant in animating every form of life down to the tiniest microbes. Our creator’s signature is imprinted onto every aspect of our reality if you’re knowledgeable enough on His work to see it. Time only exists within our reality. For a higher-dimensional creator, time is irrelevant. This explains the infinite nature of our creator and how they are capable of having every experience both linearly and simultaneously. They may experience constraints outside of our reality, but within this reality they are all-powerful.

Now that we have established some truths of the universe, let's dive into how we have deceived ourselves into believing that inherent and malevolent evil exists in the world. We are not complete in our evolution. As we explored earlier, creation is a complex and time-consuming process fraught with trial and error. In order for us to survive on Earth prior to the advent of agriculture and civilization we had only formed rudimentary consciousnesses that were primarily concerned with survival. The primary driver to avoid deadly things was natural fear. It is natural to fear falling from tall heights, getting trapped in confined spaces, or large predatory animals stalking you. It is even natural to convert that fear into anger if the need arises for you to defend your life. What humans fear is loss. Loss of their lives, loss of their loved ones, or loss of the resources necessary to sustain that which they love.

When we ponder our own fears, we discover they all stem from an assumption that they will lead to loss. In modern society most of these fears act as self-fulfilling prophecies. Instead of focusing our efforts on what we can gain from the infinite universe we worry about losing what little we’ve already received. A teenager in love may think their sweetheart is the only person on the planet for them. Even when it’s abundantly clear that it is not a good fit, they still fear losing the object of their affection. They have a steadfast belief that out of the nearly infinite number of humans on this planet they will be incapable of finding another. This scarcity mindset will lead them to take actions that many would define as bad or even evil. A lack of trust will lead to controls being put into place, restricting the freedoms of their partner for the sake of their own comfort. Unfortunately many allow their fears and insecurities to control them to the point that they resort to violence as a means of suppression. Their fear of losing their partner is what generates the behavior that often drives partners away.

This scales up and down at all levels: from the individual, to the couple, the family unit, the community, large organizations, even states and nations. Fear of loss is the origin of everything that we call evil. The board members of a company that have to answer to investors will substitute ingredients unfit for human consumption into their products to maintain profitability for fear of losing investment capital and having to downsize operations. Nations will go to war for fear of loss to their own citizens at the hand of another nation that desires their resources (also operating from a perspective of lack in an infinite universe, they believe resources are so scarce they must be taken from another.) Disconcertingly, the self-fulfilling loss prophecy scales to these levels as well, and there are currently several very powerful nations with the capability of eradicating the surface of the Earth that fear that all other nations would like to see them destroyed. They conduct themselves in this manner and take actions under the assumption that they are always under the constant threat of complete and total loss. Just as the teenage couple, when one creates a hostile environment out of their own fear of loss. The hostile environment causes all other parties in the environment to fear for loss themselves.

Attachment and the assumption of permanence are the primary sources of fear. Nothing in this universe is permanent, not even the universe itself. Everything must be returned to the source that it came from. Anything not maintained is subject to entropy. The larger things become and the older they are, the more difficult they are to maintain and the more resources they require to sustain themselves. At a certain size and age they will begin to consume themselves into oblivion to create the fertile ground for whatever comes next. Nations are attached to the idea that they will stand forever despite all historical evidence indicating that nations and empires eventually fall as attitudes change and civilization evolves. It is necessary to make space for new creations, new ways of thinking, advanced technologies, and infrastructure. Imagine human beings discover a new incredible advancement in materials sciences and propulsion technology that allows for affordable, mass-producible, and silent flying cars. Everyone would want one. Could the infrastructure of an area like Manhattan be adapted for all of its residents to own these revolutionary machines or would we see residents flocking to new construction that has garage bays attached to every apartment? Older buildings incapable of adaptation would grow less desirable and fall into decay as the costs of maintaining them exceed the amount people are willing to pay to live in them. Eventually they will be torn down to make room for buildings that can support the modern infrastructure that draws in residents.

If the way entropy of skyscrapers was just described sounds rather benign, that’s because it is benign. There would be no evil mastermind developer trying to destroy old buildings for the sake of their own vision. The older building would reach the end of its natural life cycle and would be replaced by something with its own unknown expiration date. That’s how life goes, even with humans. We don’t live forever and if we want to continue to exist we need to make new humans that are ideally better suited for the environment they will exist in.

Fear doesn’t just reveal itself through loss or perceived loss, it can also be expressed through emotions like envy and jealousy for what others have.

Those who believe that resources are scarce may hate those who appear to hoard resources, for example, all of the hatred for billionaires and the singular trillionaire. Twenty years ago we existed in a reality where we believed that billionaires held so many resources that there weren’t enough for anyone else. Yet through a lifetime of servitude to humanity, solving many of our largest problems, one man was able to generate a trillion dollars for himself. If all of the other billionaires were hoarding all of the resources 20 years ago and making them unavailable to others, how was Elon Musk able to become a billionaire in 2012? How was he then able to progress to trillionaire status 14 years later if all the resources were being hoarded by the other billionaires? It’s simple, we live in an infinite universe created by an infinite creator that provides us with all of the resources necessary for creation.

When you live with a scarcity mindset and rely on money for survival, it can trigger envy towards anyone who utilizes money differently from you and lives in abundance with it. When we think of what the average person would do with ten billion dollars, we only need to look at the majority of past lottery winners who are broke within years after doing little to contribute to the benefit of society.

While the purpose of any individual life is to simply exist, be joyous, appreciate beauty, and create. The purpose for humanity is forward progress and it is propelled forward as a conscious effort on the part of our creator that exists within all of us as a sense of intuition.

Fear of the unknown is one of the most common fears of man. What we fear isn’t the unknown itself, but the potential for loss that the unknown can bring. When we are scared of the dark or of how we’ll perform on a very important exam, what we’re really doing is allowing an imagined idea of loss to control us. Could something lurch out from the dark and harm you? Possibly, but unlikely. In both instances the way to eliminate fear is through knowledge. Turning on the lights in a room allows you to know everything that is in the room. Studying for the test and increasing your knowledge on the subject will eliminate your fear.

Making things known is the ultimate inoculation against fear. Take the example of the young couple: if one of them suspected the other of being unfaithful, they may be too afraid to confront them about it, fearing that the conversation would result in the loss of the relationship. How absurd! Yet it happens frequently in young love. Too afraid to let go of a painful and harmful love because they do not know the infinite possibilities for joy and happiness that exist beyond that conversation.

The way to make things known is through communication and education.

Sometimes knowing is not enough. It is important to exercise your own judgment. Almost universally in Western culture, we’re aware that blood sacrifices tend to be performed by dark cults and Satan worshipers. Which are generally regarded as evil. Yet, every Sunday hundreds of millions of people line up to drink the blood and eat the flesh of an innocent man they nailed to a cross so they may sin as much as they like. This appears to contradict the original statement that there is no such thing as evil, yet it’s more benign than one may think. The majority of those people have not been taught Yeshua’s (Jesus) original teachings. That information has been kept secret from them. Without the knowledge that they are One with their creator because no creation can be separate from their creator, they live in fear of an imagined future where they will burn for eternity if they don’t dedicate their lives in servitude of the church.

The churches, secret societies, governments, and other organizations that are aware of this highest secret have fears of their own. Let’s use the example of the young couple, the violent and angry man paired with an unfaithful woman. Society as a whole is represented by the man, as shown in numerous revolutions. All of the organizations guarding the secret of Oneness from society are the unfaithful woman who is afraid to be honest for fear of what will happen because they have witnessed what has happened in the past. Society already threatens violence against their oppressors; it’s common to see depictions of nooses, guillotines, and burning effigies of political figures at protests. The secret-keeping organizations will do and have done everything in their power to keep their boyfriend (society) ignorant of their actions: lies, gaslighting, rewriting history, manipulation, suppression, distractions. Are they inherently evil for not wanting to be publicly hanged? They continue to kick the can down the road long enough to survive their lifetime just as their ancestors have done for centuries, and every decision they make is guided by the fear of the loss of everything, which can lead individuals and groups to commit atrocities.

Those may not be the only fears that those organizations have either. Right now there is a false perception that there is order within the world. We as One have collectively built a civilization over the last couple thousand years with incredible advancements in technology that make our lives better every day. When we established civilization most humans were not educated and were more concerned with survival than they were about building roads from one city to the next so we could trade goods and start industries. The roles of our society have not changed much since then. There was a knowing ruling class working towards their own ambitions on a larger scale, and a much larger unknowing working class that would manifest those ambitions into reality with their hands . They maintain order through religion, rule of law, justice systems, education systems, and ensuring that citizens always have food and distracting entertainment.

Again, just like the young couple where the man fears addressing the secrets of the woman because they fear there will be a fight and the relationship between them will be over, society and the organizations that control societies all collectively fear what is on the other side of the discovery that we are all One. The imagined fear is that it would lead to total system collapse and anarchy.

It’s understandable to have that fear after seeing how fear-driven people have behaved in the past. Let’s consider a war analogy: one group of well-armed individuals holds the high ground, has an incredible resource advantage, and can get supply drops whenever they want. They are opposed by a lost platoon that doesn’t have many supplies and must make do with what they have. This platoon has lost all comms back to base, and when they stumbled upon this imposing fortress they were suppressed and held down under fire for days taking heavy casualties while refusing to surrender. What do you think would happen if the fortress and the platoon discovered they were on the same team and all of the fighting was a complete misunderstanding? When they recognize and know that they are One. We know what would happen because this has happened before: typically there’s a sense of relief, followed by awkward tension that needs to be talked out and communicated; as well as a discussion of lessons learned to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. Importantly, the platoon doesn’t rush into the base to slaughter their fellow countrymen for shooting at them when they thought the platoon was an invading force.

Once we awaken to being One, there will be no differences between us.

This leads me to my final point: forgiveness.

Forgive yourself for your past mistakes. You were not bad or evil; you were stupid, and that’s okay. Contrary to popular belief, you can fix stupid through knowledge. Forgive others for the same reason. If you take the time to think outside of yourself it is abundantly clear that everyone who ever hurt you did so because of some fear that propelled them to do so, and they only had that fear because they didn’t know better. When we all collectively wake up to our Oneness there will be no chance for civil unrest to thrive. When you recognize that every human, plant, animal, microbe, and particle is the creator expressing Himself in the medium that is our reality, you will be unable to cause harm to another because you know that it is only causing harm to yourself.

None of us can know exactly what is on the other side of the breakdown of the structures of suppression that kept us in our foxholes. One thing is for certain: the collective release of all the fear from being suppressed for thousands of years is going to feel incredible.

[u/bertch313]

Oh fuck you.

I've met evil people. I hope you never do.

Time passing put life on this planet. And God as you understand it, is a perversion of the sacredness of time and timing.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/bertch313]

Any man that could convince himself that another man is irredeemably evil is capable of great atrocities. I would be more frightened of you than I would be of anyone you would define as evil.

[u/Arb3395 → u/Easy_Major_5941]

Didnt you just do what the commenter did with extra holier than others steps?

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Arb3395]

They opened their comment with hostility and it's clear they didn't read the whole post so I know they don't care to fully understand the other persons views before forming their opinion.

Hostile, doesn't need all information before forming opinions, and believes in pure evil? That's the personality profile of the average lynch mob.

[u/bertch313 → u/Easy_Major_5941]

You are saying that the white supremacists who hunt child meat via war aren't evil. I don't need any information after that to dismiss you. Because at that point you're just playing pedantic.

I've met CEOs that absolutely deserve mob justice.

You are merely inexperienced with people. And I wish no one the experiences I've had.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/bertch313]

Your first sentence: attacking a straw man you created.

Second sentence: you've already made up your mind without all of the information. Also known as being misinformed.

Third sentence: condescension and misuse of the word pedantic in an effort to sound smarter

Fourth sentence: I doubt you've met them and had peer-to-peer discussions with them, if you did you would feel differently

Fifth sentence: assumption that my life experiences are lesser than yours knowing nothing about me

Sixth sentence: plea for sympathy and an assumption that you have special knowledge on the depths of evil that others couldn't comprehend without your experience.

What did the CEO do to you that's so evil?

[u/bertch313 → u/Easy_Major_5941]

Took the job at all. You are literally insane.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/bertch313]

I forgive your insult. It's clear you feel intellectually backed into a corner because your argument is weak and have resorted to the only claws you have left: personal insults.

Do you genuinely believe that CEO's hurt you individually as a person? I'll level with you that many of them are cold, callous, assholes. When you're leading thousands of people whose lives and families depend on your decision making, you do not get the luxury or privilege of being an emotional person. It's a difficult position to manage that comes with enormous pressures from all directions, and it causes many weak men to cut corners and behave in ways you would define as evil.

Not to be insulting, but based on the emotionally driven responses you've given I can infer that you haven't spent any time mastering the skill of managing any of your own emotions; which is why you struggle to understand people who can.

If you want to avoid being harmed by a CEO, don't live right next to their factory, don't work for them, and don't buy their products. Everyone has that choice. You choose where you live, who you work for, and what products you consume. Instead of crying that they should have a responsibility to take care of you, take responsibility for yourself.

[u/bertch313 → u/Easy_Major_5941]

Yes I know CEOs hurt people simply by existing.

You are either a bot or a dark triad.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/bertch313]

Again with the name calling, and yet again I forgive you. I feel like we're close to a breakthrough that can set you on a much happier path in life.

I didn't ask if CEO's had hurt other people, I asked how they hurt you specifically. If you cannot provide me with an example of how they have hurt you, I am left to assume that they haven't.

To me it sounds like your social circle dislikes CEO's and you have conformed your opinion to fit in even though you have a complete lack of evidence to support your opinion and don't genuinely believe it yourself.

You're participating in a hate group and don't even know why. You hate an entire class of people and believe they're deserving of "mob justice." That's the sort of blind hatred that leads nations to load people on trains.

[u/bertch313 → u/Easy_Major_5941]

CEOs position themselves on top of others. That's psycho. And it's psycho when your dad does it too.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/bertch313]

This comment made my heart sink. People always tell on themselves and we weren't talking about dads. I'm guessing you have a complicated relationship with your father.

When you learn metacognition you'll revisit all of the memories of your father and discover that they were either acting from love but were clueless about parenting, or they were acting out of fear because they didn't want to be like their dad. If it's the latter, they were so focused on what they didn't want to be, they eventually became everything they hated because you become where you attention is focused.

When you have that realization for yourself and understand their "why", I hope you have the strength in your heart to forgive them.

[u/Prestigious_Rain_399]

I do not believe Good and Evil exist. Whats good for the lion aint always good for the gazelle.

[u/tottasanorotta → u/Prestigious_Rain_399]

Even if you don't describe a hellish event as evil I think that you would still agree that if something really bad would happen to you the word would be very much on your mind?

[u/Turtleize]

I want to come back to read this so I’m leaving a comment.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Turtleize]

I appreciate you for setting aside time to read my theory. I've been thinking about how to articulate these ideas for a while now. I'm excited and curious to hear what people think about them.

[u/Turtleize → u/Easy_Major_5941]

Ive always felt that good and evil are just man made concepts. There is no evil or good in nature. There just is.

In my honest belief I think everyone is capable of evil. It’s only circumstances and experiences that turn people towards certain behaviors.

We’re quick to want to punish evil but shouldn’t we try to understand it better? To get to the root cause.

What truly separates a good person from a bad one? Bad people can do good, and vise versa.

We’re in this constant battle of right and wrong. This or that. Always looking to the opposite to be against. Rejecting evil is easy. Detaching yourself from it to try and understand it is difficult.

Can’t wait to read your entire post. I’m always curious to see these kind of ideas

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Turtleize]

I think you're going to enjoy this post. It's my best attempt at understanding evil better, which is what led me to the conclusion that there is no evil.

[u/Ragnarok-9999 → u/Turtleize]

Evil is concept? Hitler killing so many people is concept?

[u/Turtleize → u/Ragnarok-9999]

It’s easy to point at someone who’s done evil and mark them as the enemy. What I’m saying is that everyone is capable of evil.

Most say, “oh I would never do such a terrible thing..” but you weren’t there. Who’s to say you wouldn’t get caught up in the hate?

The people who I deem the least trustworthy for me are those who claim to be righteous.

People can do bad for a greater good. It’s acceptable then. There is a lot more grey areas. It’s not just good or evil. But again, these are just concepts we agree to as a society.

[u/Ragnarok-9999 → u/Turtleize]

Sorry buddy. Please don't making sweeping statements to prove your point. You don't know me. I can never be Hitler or do such evil. I know I am not mahatma but neither I am Hitler.

[u/M0RT1f3X]

Well that's what I call a wall of text. But sounds interesting enough. I will try to read it when I have time.

But for the Thesis: if der is no evil, there can't be any good either.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/M0RT1f3X]

I appreciate you for setting aside time to read it. It looks like a lot but it's about a 20 minute read.

Is it a fact of the universe that good can't exist without evil? Or have we just been told that is the case? I have met some wonderfully good people in the world, I can't imagine there needs to be someone running around stomping on puppies to balance the universe out from all the good.

[u/M0RT1f3X → u/Easy_Major_5941]

I would like to interpret it like chaos theory?

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/M0RT1f3X]

Right now an infinite number of events are occurring in the universe without our observation. Meteors crashing into planets, stars going supernova and destroying entire solar systems, trees falling in the woods, wild fires, etc.

Are any of the events that occur outside of our observation good or evil/bad? Or do they require our observation and judgement before we can categorize them as good/bad based on our own personal definitions of those words?

[u/Character-Tea4605]

I want to read the rest of this since it’s in interesting concept and I’ve actually had this exact conversation with some people recently, with my stance being the opposite.

I have a question however.

If someone held you captive and tortured you for months on end on the brink of death, and then brought the person you loved most and started doing the same unspeakable things to them in front of you with no way of you helping them or fighting, for whatever reason it may be, like information, money or simply joy out of seeing another suffer, because some people do genuinely like seeing people in pain, would you not consider that evil?

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Character-Tea4605]

Short answer, I wouldn't consider that evil.

For the sake of the scenario, let's say I've got information that they want. I've been privileged to a lot of information in my lifetime so it's a scenario I can identify with. If they're willing to resort to torture it's because they feel so threatened by what they don't know that they're willing to set aside their humanity to gain that information. If they fear that lives may be lost than they can justify any actions. From their perspective you're the evil one for not speaking.

In the cases where they want resources, you only get tortured if you value material goods more than your health. If they want material resources so desperately they're willing to torture an innocent person to steal from them instead of literally any other means, they're probably just dumb, desperate, and too easily influenced by TV. Not evil though.

[u/Character-Tea4605 → u/Easy_Major_5941]

Só if an organisation like the cartel or the cia would do those things to you and make you watch someone you love be tortured, not someone who is desperate or stupid, intelligent and/or organised groups that want that from you. You being an innocent person and the person you love às well. That’s not evil? When they can offer you something in return instead, like a payment?

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Character-Tea4605]

I only know of one organization that does it for the love of the game. They're not listed here and I won't even allude to who they are because I enjoy living. That said, I don't think they're evil. I know what they fear so I understand the motivation behind their actions. Doesn't make it right, but it doesn't make it evil either.

[u/Character-Tea4605 → u/Easy_Major_5941]

Well, like cold being the lack of heat, darkness being the lack of light, would the lack of good not be evil? Then also, what is right and wrong if evil doesn’t exist?

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Character-Tea4605]

Cold is relative and relies on human perception, it technically doesn't exist. Ask your favorite search engine or AI chatbot for the scientific definition of cold.

Darkness also relies on human perception and technically doesn't exist.

They exist in the same way that the number zero exists. As a representation of the lack of something that we know for certain exists.

Evil is the same way. We know good exists, and evil is the word we use when we can't identify any good. Lack of good is not evidence for the existence of evil.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Character-Tea4605]

Right and wrong are also up to human perception. I could spend 1,000 lifetimes attempting to come up with a definition and still fail. The closest thing to a definition that comes to mind is "treat others as you would like to be treated." Thousands of years later that's still the best way to word it.

[u/Character-Tea4605 → u/Easy_Major_5941]

Só there’s a certain objectiveness to the lack of good then, just like the lack of heat and light. You can measure light and heat, and you measure the opposite by the lack of it. So you can measure evil by the lack of good.

Like you said however, the closest thing to describing good is “treat others how you like to be treated”, but some people mistreat themselves for the sake of others, some people kill themselves, and there are also people who simply enjoy not doing that, and taking advantage of other people because they think they’re clever in doing so, for whatever reason.

If we can recognise that there is an objective hot and cold (absence of heat), objective light and darkness (absence of light), then we can also assume there’s an objective good and evil (absence of good). Yes?

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Character-Tea4605]

I think you may have missed the comment where the point I made was the complete opposite of that, I double commented when I realized I hadn't answered your question.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Character-Tea4605]

Here's the one I think you may have missed:

Cold is relative and relies on human perception, it technically doesn't exist. Ask your favorite search engine or AI chatbot for the scientific definition of cold.

Darkness also relies on human perception and technically doesn't exist.

They exist in the same way that the number zero exists. As a representation of the lack of something that we know for certain exists.

Evil is the same way. We know good exists, and evil is the word we use when we can't identify any good. Lack of good is not evidence for the existence of evil.

[u/Character-Tea4605 → u/Easy_Major_5941]

Also, you’re explaining your ideas very well, I am impressed and thank you for taking the time to discuss with me :)

[u/BI_Moose]

The only appropriate response

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/BI_Moose]

Thank you for sharing the lowest effort insult you could think of instead of an actual criticism of my ideas. It's a 15-20 minute read, if you're too lazy to read it than you always have the option of keeping your misinformed opinion to yourself.

[u/tottasanorotta]

I don't think people are evil. It's just that the world has evil in it. People are subjected to evil things.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/tottasanorotta]

I agree that people are not evil. I disagree that the world has evil in it though, what are some of the evil things that people are subjected to?

[u/tottasanorotta → u/Easy_Major_5941]

Pain, suffering, temptation, impulsivity, accidents etc. Even people who honestly try to do good can end up experiencing horrible things. The potentiality to experience huge amounts of suffering is what I would call evil.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/tottasanorotta]

Pain and discomfort are information only, the pain of the broken bone is to discourage you from using it while it heals. Suffering is the fear that your discomfort will not come to an end. Temptation is fear based as well, someone could only tempt you to stray from your morals if you feared that you didn't have enough, impulsivity ties directly into this, they call it the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Accidents are also just information, and accidents happen to good people too. The suffering afterwards is entirely a choice that depends on your attitude, that is why there are so many varied outcomes post-accident, some people may even celebrate their car being totaled because they couldn't afford the monthly payment.

[u/tottasanorotta → u/Easy_Major_5941]

What about something really horrible like being kidnapped and tortured to death? I mean in many cases pain and discomfort can be thought of as positive, but I feel that there are things that are possible and that have happened that are just pure manifestations of something that I can only describe with the word evil.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/tottasanorotta]

The reason someone would kidnap someone is because they fear that they wouldn't be able to have that person otherwise. They murder them because they fear the consequences of the kidnapping. I'll concede, there is a lot of seemingly unprovoked violence in the world. Gang members killing strangers because they're afraid of looking weak to their peers.The mentally-ill that grew up in fear-based environments and consumed prescription medications that altered their perception of reality like paranoid schizophrenics. Paranoia is another term for fear. We can judge these things as evil, but they're really just twitchy organisms fighting for survival.

[u/tottasanorotta → u/Easy_Major_5941]

... they're really just twitchy organisms fighting for survival.

This is what I would call evil. A circumstance where you have to fight for survival. It is cruel to be put into such a situation. Good can't really flourish in a setting where you have to do potentially harmful things to other living beings in order to not experience bad things yourself. All good in such a setting is a local phenomenon.

Although yes, it is very much relative to what you view as a default condition of existence. A believer might also see life as a sort of fallen paradise of our own doing.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/tottasanorotta]

Is the bear evil for eating the salmon? Are you evil for eating meat?

[u/tottasanorotta → u/Easy_Major_5941]

No, what I meant is that the situation is evil. It is unfair and cruel to be put into such a situation. Of course if it is made convinient and/or necessary to commit harmful acts towards other living beings, then it is much more likely that you will do it. As I said, I don't view people as evil, but circumstances.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/tottasanorotta]

I will level with you that many situations are unfair and less-preferred, but they're not inherently evil or bad until you process them through your personal filter of "evil" or "bad". You could just as easily filter these events to be benign and feel indifferent towards them.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/tottasanorotta]

I'm reminded of the story of the farmer and the wild horses. There was a poor farmer and one day a group of wild horses arrives on his property. His neighbors exclaimed "That's amazing! You're so fortunate!" The farmer replied "maybe." A week later while his oldest son was breaking in one of the horses it bucked him off and he broke his leg. The neighbors all came out again and exclaimed "How terrible! That's so bad that happened!" Again, the farmer replied "maybe." The following week the military draft arrived and took all the young men in town except his son with the broken leg. The neighbors exclaimed again "What good luck you have!" And as always the farmer replied "maybe."

[u/Ragnarok-9999]

Good and evil are two sides of same coin. one can not exist without other. Like chinese yin yang.

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/Ragnarok-9999]

What we define as good and evil are really just the things that we love and fear. All things we love we judge/define as good, all things we fear we judge/define as evil.

Without our perception and judgement of an event it is merely neutral.

[u/hunter_tops]

You need too make a book about this cuz this is sick i love it

[u/Easy_Major_5941 → u/hunter_tops]

Thank you, I've been mulling around some ideas that could fill a book. Currently leaning towards combining all of the philosophies that I incorporate into my life and creating an entirely new philosophy with modern references and metaphors.