Posted on 04/14/2009 4:51:05 AM PDT by Kaslin
When the average person thinks "evil," he thinks of a cruelly-featured, sneering, bestial man wickedly twirling his mustache as he draws perverse delight from inflicting misery on his fellow human beings.
People who fit the almost cartoonish definition we've grown accustomed to viewing as evil, certainly do exist -- and we hear about those dictators, serial killers, hit men, & psychopaths on the nightly news.
But, it's a mistake to believe that those are the only people who do evil or that only activities that rise to the level of murder, rape, or armed robbery are sins. The worst of the worst may deserve especially strong condemnation, but small cruelties committed by unthinking people -- who view themselves as good and just, despite their sometimes malicious actions -- have done more than most people realize to spread evil, degrade civilization, and drag our culture into the sewers.
That's the everyday reality we live with, especially in prosperous, civilized nations like America. For the average person, on a typical day, the evil that comes into his life isn't from some modern day Snidely Whiplash; it's from other ordinary people: his co-workers and random folks he passes on the street during his everyday life.
Yes, "good people" can and often do perform evil acts that should be incompatible with their view of themselves as decent human beings. Unfortunately, it's our nature to lapse into malevolent behavior sometimes and if we're not paying attention, we can sometimes engage in it for quite a while without even truly realizing how far we've drifted from our values.
With that in mind, evil is...
1) Anonymously emailing death threats.
2) Suing someone who did nothing wrong in order to try to collect a big payday.
3) Passing on information that you know is a lie about a political opponent.
4) Posting someone's phone number or address online in an effort to intimidate him or worse yet, in hopes that someone will try to hurt him.
5) Putting an earmark in a bill in order to enrich your friends, family, or yourself.
6) A witty comedian telling a brilliant joke about how dumb people are to do the right thing.
7) Breaking into a house and encouraging people to engage in squatting.
8) Lying to a woman to get her to sleep with you.
9) Being an online troll.
10) Trying to convince people to do something that's immoral, unethical, or just plain old wrong so that you'll feel better about doing it yourself.
11) Spreading a conspiracy theory you don't believe in to draw in traffic for your website.
12) Spraying graffiti on someone else's property.
13) Watching someone drop money on the ground and keeping it instead of giving it back to him.
14) A pastor who waters down his Christian beliefs because they conflict with political correctness.
15) Hacking into someone else's computer.
16) Choosing not to help pay for your own children's livelihood.
17) Spreading malicious rumors about friends and co-workers.
18) Aborting your child because it's inconvenient.
19) Deliberately undermining someone else's marriage.
20) Trying to rig an election, win a seat in the courts that you lost at the ballot box, or trying to insure phony votes are counted.
21) An atheist trying to ruin other people's faith in God to make himself feel better about his own unbelief.
22) Writing a virus that infects someone's computer.
23) Living off the charity of others or the government dole AND feeling no shame over it.
24) Mocking someone whose politics you disagree with right after he dies.
25) Knowingly accusing an innocent person of racism.
Amen.
This is how you are deceived. Like I said before, gradations, gradations. This changes nothing about the definition of evil. Wickedness comes in all strengths.
I’ve got to get to work, but it’s a slope. It’s all evil and you can start small and eventually move on to evils that effect more people negatively. Doesn’t matter. Satan still smiles. Best to stay away from any moral wrong.
Definitions of evil on the Web
# morally objectionable behavior
# morally bad or wrong; "evil purposes"; "an evil influence"; "evil deeds"
# that which causes harm or destruction or misfortune; "the evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones"- Shakespeare
# having the nature of vice
# the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice; "attempts to explain the origin of evil in the world"
# malefic: having or exerting a malignant influence; "malevolent stars"; "a malefic force"
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
From the column-—”...small cruelties committed by unthinking people — who view themselves as good and just, despite their sometimes malicious actions — have done more than most people realize to spread evil, degrade civilization, and drag our culture into the sewers.”
“Are you kidding?”
No, I’m not kidding. He starts out with a vague point and then presents a very good list of evils, of which I agree. And then, he doesn’t finish the article. It’s a very poorly written with no summary. I’m not arguing the point of the article, I’m saying the writing was pitiful.
I know of a lot of “evil” people and it seems they always get away with things or rewarded....
2)” Suing someone who did nothing wrong in order to try to collect a big payday.”
A Karma angle to this: Co-worker of a friend was transferred to another city, and sold his house. The buyer found out that the company he worked for was going to declare bankruptcy so he backed out of the contract. Seller initiated a lawsuit against buyer when another buyer came along and wanted the house. Lawsuit was officially withdrawn, new buyer signed contract subject to home inspection, which found $30,000 in needed repairs.
Everything in the world is not black and white. There are degrees of evilness and immorality. Spitting on the sidewalk is not the same as spitting in one's face which in turn is not as evil as bashing in one's face.
Liberals have played on the apparent failure of many to differentiate these levels of evil for years. So, when a sidewalk spitter tries to criticize the face basher, they start condemning the crimes of the sidewalk spitter.
That is certainly true.However, the person who fails to honor his mother is none of societies business, while the person who murders is.
9) Being an online troll.
Government making it impossible or highly difficult for people to give to church or charity. That steals the blessings one should receive by practicing charitable giving.
“11) Spreading a conspiracy theory you don’t believe in to draw in traffic for your website.”
That is why we have “Coast To Coast AM” for, to deal with conspiracy therories.
“14) A pastor who waters down his Christian beliefs because they conflict with political correctness.”
Like this?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2228425/posts
Yes I know, they get promoted or never get caught doing their dirty deeds. I guess every dog has their day.
Good point but never getting another deduction will not impact my giving at all. In fact, lots of times I have given anonymously so no record was taken.
S-O-R-O-S
I would disagree with you on that count. For whatever it’s worth, I’d like to share something with you. When my son was growing up we had many a conversation about good/evil, sin and so on. We are a Christian family - a believing and PRACTICING Christian family.
The gist of what I told my son was this. If you show me a thief, he may not be a murderer, but show me a murderer, and I’ll show you a thief, in more ways than one. I guess what I want to say is that sin begets sin.
You show me the person who is not honoring his/her parents and I can almost guarantee you they are remiss in many areas of their life. It comes down to values.
But, your point is well taken and I don’t want to argue this on the microlevel.
God bless!
Oh, well, your point makes your sense now. As for pitiful writing, what else is new? I have a friend and an article was written about him in Forbes Magazine - he said he was embarrassed b/c it was so poorly written. When I read it, I was aghast that this person would be hired at a major magazine - I then forwarded it on to a friend who does free-lance commercial writing and she, too, was aghast.
And while I’m on my soapbox, let me share this with you. I am in college (career change) to become a teacher. These students will get up to speak and have the worst grammar and speaking skills, saying things like “fer” instead of “for” and “cuz” instead of “because” and so on and so on. While I have no problem with colloquialisms and homey talk, I can just picture them modeling this awful behavior to our public school students. I literally could scream!!!
When taxes are so high that people find it tough to give then the government is stealing the abiilty to give with a cheerful heart.
I wasn’t thinking so much about deductions.
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