Religious Studies
The category for discussion will be the view of good and evil. The group is chosen because human beings often rely on a benchmark to distinguish between moral vices and virtues. There is no distinctive mechanism of discerning between vices and virtuous. There are varying approaches with other people focusing on religion paradigms to determine good and evil.
Other societies rely on logic and philosophical theories to evaluate human behaviour; hence, make a judgment of good and bad. Notably, vices and virtues appear as conventionally accepted principles within society. However, an aspect that appears good in the mainstream cultural norms of one society may be a vice to another. For instance, in traditional African society clitoridectomy
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The paradigm posits that human actions, whether right or wrong, are a result of the perceived consequences. People will choose their actions based on the results and utility they can harness.
In the Islamic religion, human beings will be judged in accordance to their deeds. Therefore, people are prompted to observe due diligence and uphold life while acting in a manner that indicates virtuous behaviour. The punishment of evil deeds is succumbing to hell and joining Satan, who refused to kneel before Adam and was cursed to an eternity of fire.
Islam appreciates that God created both evil and good things. He revealed them to people but gave them the choice to choose their course of action. In Christianity, evil comes from Satan and is not an ideology. Satan is not omnipresent, but his minions crawl the earth in the form of demons. The demons influence and persuade human beings into evil. Through grace, which is sufficient for each being, the power to shun evil was passed to
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If a person behaves in a virtuous manner, the act is repaid and vice versa.
In Hinduism, evil occurs when a person does not meet their obligations. The assumption is that humans are inherently evil, and must always repent through sacrifices so that they appear God (Adams, 1801). Hindus believe in the concept of ultimate reality and karma as the explanation and force behind evil behaviour among the populace.
Taoism offers the belief that evil and good are complimentary in the universe because they are a manifestation of extreme opposites. The belief is that the Tao is always in a constant balance of Yin and Yang. For instance, in the abstracting beauty, ugliness is usually implied. Similarly, an individual who abstracts good, evil is also suggested.
Therefore, neither evil nor good can exist without the other being implicated (Yamamoto, 1998). Evil and good is often manifested in the social environment because they exist to compliment each other. In the student’s social environment, maximization of utility appears as an intrinsic
There are two general types of evil. There is natural evil and moral evil (Erickson, 2000, p.437). Natural evil does not involve the willingness or actions of man. It is simply a part of nature that seems to create an obstacle against the well-being of man. Examples of natural evil would be tsunamis, hurric...
In the excerpt from Philosophy of Religion, John Hicks outlines the problem of evil as such:
"The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces"~Philip Zimbardo. It is hard to not cross the line between good and evil because if someone is getting you mad, you might want to harm them in some way. But you have keep your cool and let it go. Being good or evil is your own choice. Even if you are good, you always have an evil side. This quote fits perfectly because it talks about how evil is really only in people under certain situations. People are essentially good, but under certain circumstances, turn evil.
“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.
Shirley Jackson’s short story “ The Possibility of Evil” is about a little old lady named Miss Strangeworth. She thinks she’s in charge of the town and to make sure it’s free from all evil because her grandfather built the first house on Pleasant Street. At first Miss Strangeworth is a nice little old lady, worrying about people and wondering what others are up to. Then in the middle of the story she becomes a little rude to a few of the townspeople. In the end Miss Strangeworth thought she was getting rid of the evil in the town, but in reality she was causing evil in the town by showing her true colors and being extremely mean and cruel to others. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover because people aren’t always what they seem to be.
What is good and evil and where did it come from? Everything in the world was created from the one God. The God theory infused all things in the world and that live beyond it. From this viewpoint good and evil both derived from the God law. They have both lived since the construction of the world. Yet, evil was in a dormant form at that juncture. Evil is in our mind, not inside our aspiring heart (http://www.srichinmoy.org/spirituality/spirituality/good_and_evil).
In God, Power, and Evil: A Process Theodicy by Davis Ray Griffin the author attempts to take an unbiased look at this age old question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” The author explores different theoretical beliefs in an attempt to answer this question. In most of the resources that I examined the base principle is, above all, a person’s personal belief in God, or lack of, will more than likely dictate how one is able to decipher and understand the logic of evil in the world.
In Chinese philosophy and religion, there is two principles, one negative and dark (yin), one positive and bright (yang)."yin and yang". The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 14 Apr. 2016.In simpler words every good need, it’s bad and every bad needs its good, therefore, every pro has its con.
The question of evil is a common topic among non-believers. Evil has existed since the beginning of time. In today’s society people have become so desensitized to evil, the true origins become hard to understand. God gave us each the free will and ability to choose right from wrong, although many of God’s creation continue to choose sin. The Holy Bible explains to us the nature and root of sin. This explanation helps us understand why bad things happen and how it might affect our relationships with the Most High.
One’s morals set in place the actions they see as proper and improper in their current society. Individuals in the same socioeconomic settings tend to overlap and correspond to each other. Other times morals are nonexistent or different due to one’s upbringing and culture, this means that ‘appropriate’ decisions as seen by some people may be seen as ‘inappropriate’ to others. Evil in terms of morals can be defined as someone 's morals being so extreme or nonexistent when compared to those of modern society 's views that they can not be logically comprehended.
To answer this question, it is first important to differentiate between evil/dark and good/light. What can truly be considered evil and good? It ultimately depends on the situation at hand. A person is walking down the street and sees a malefactor beating up a young girl. The person proceeds to beat up the malefactor. Both the malefactor and person are hurting another person but one is considered good and the other is considered evil. Anything can be evil and anything can be good but until the situation is explained it is neither good nor evil.
The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being.
Theological books describe evil in two broad categories, that is, moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil is a phenomenon that entails the willful decision to do wrong. It is associated with acts of intentional wrongdoing that includes robbery, murder, rape, and theft. This category of evil is the foundation of sin, and is punishable according to biblical teachings. It is also considered as an offense under the laws of the land. These offenses can occur because of influence, or due to an individual’s willingness to take part in sin.
The codification of deviance can vary widely between different cultures, a norm in one culture can be considered deviant in another. For example, the notion of cannibalism has been proved by anthropologists to be a spiritually divine form of ritualistic sacrifice in the ancient Aztec culture of Mexico. Yet in Western culture murder and the consumption of human flesh is considered highly revolting, dealt with by harsher consequences by law than most other deviant crimes. These differences are due to the way each individual society develops their own moral codes. These codes are often defined by cultural ideologies, adversity to other cultures and ritualistic practises which have become accepted, as well established patterns in the development of culture. Lloyd, M 2007 implies this by saying 'we are born into a pre existing (social) order the comes ready made with a large stock of norms and rules we must learn if we are to participate as c...
Good and evil are more connected to each other than what people give them credit for. Good coexists with evil and there can be no good unless there is also an evil. Something that benefits a society would be considered good. On the other hand, if it does not benefit a society, it would be considered evil. The term good and evil can be associated with whatever a person sets their moral to be.