Does evil objectively exist or is it (like beauty) simply in the eye of the beholder?

CS Lewis said that evil is simply the absence of good. Is that an objective existence? Perhaps not.Does evil objectively exist or is it (like beauty) simply in the eye of the beholder?
Throughout history, mankind has always changed what is good or evil based on their own desires at the time.





What is or is not evil however has been determined by our God and that does not change: therefore for those that believe in him, evil does not change. It's description remains constant.Does evil objectively exist or is it (like beauty) simply in the eye of the beholder?
I believe Evils do exist and actually they are everywhere just like Angles but we don't really see them often.
It depends entirely on your definition of both ';evil'; and ';good.';





What's true about our physical reality is that it is a dichotomy. We have light and dark. Left and right. Male and female. But can you in all honesty attribute either good or bad to one half of this naturally occurring dichotomy?





Ultimately, in my humble opinion, everything comes down to cause and effect. In this respect, there is no sin but rather the result of an action. If the action creates a positive, affirming or expanding result - terrific! If on the other hand, it creates a negative, diminishing result - not so hot! Something to be avoided. Consequently...





If you filter your definition of good %26amp; evil through the perspective of either a positive or negative result, then it objectivelfy exists. If on the other hand, you filter it through the persepctive of religious belief, personal bias, or psycholigical pathology, then it is ';simply in the eye of the beholder.';
i'll tell you what i think from a buddhist POV. negative emotions vibrate a certain frequency. they arent good vibrations. so if the opposite of good is bad or evil then evil exist. also, the strongest vibrations generated and held,good or bad,determines rebirth.the cosmos is very lawful.
Evil does exist, hopefully you will not have to look into its face.


I don't think however there is anyone


that escapes.
In order for society at large to say ANYTHING exists, there must be an agreed upon set of criteria for verification of its existence. In general, society has come to the conclusion that tangible objects exist, in other words, that which may be experienced by the five senses or extensions of them, such as microscopes. Those who deny the existence, say of people, are generally thought to be mad. There are agreed upon criteria which will prove that people exist, though those who deny physical reality will argue with this.





The problem with the existence of evil is that it is a concept, rather than a physical thing, and in the absence of some agreed upon set of criterial, we are left only with the sorts of maudlin arguments posted above. Those who believe only in physical realities and deny anything higher often argue such, though, tellingly, they are willing to admit the existence of other non-physical concepts such as democracy, liberty, socialism, etc.





Were society at large to agree upon a set of standards, such as those spelled out for example in the Bible, then we would have an objective standard by which to measure evil. In the absence of this, there are certain moral imperitaves generally agreed upon worldwide: stealing, murdering, raping etc. The various religions have colored mankind's perception of these things, but for the most part, the individual ultimately will condemn any action against him/herself which might not be condemned when it is committed against others. As an illustration of this, consider how you might react if someone were to say he was a pedophile. Those who absolutely hold to the concept that there are no absolutes have to admit that this is OK in order to remain consistent. If the pedophile were to do the unthinkable with their children they would object, owing that there are certain absolutes, that this is wrong behavior.





This might appear to validate the idea that evil is in the eye of the beholder, however, as I have shown, it is merely that we refuse an external standard, ie the Word of God.





Hope this helps!


Tom
eye of the beholder--objectively it's referred to as harm
There is nothing either good or bad,but thinking makes it so. Hamlet 2.2. I can think of no more apt an explanation than Shakespeare's answer to this timeless question. No; evil does not exist beyond mankind's interpretation of it. Evil as an entity, or independent reality, is a superstitious conviction .
All in the eye of the beholder. Heroes and villains both believe they're doing the right thing.
Neither. There is no absolute standard of evil (or good); moral values derive from evolution, which applies to societies as well as to species: a society which lives by sound moral principles will survive preferably to one that does not. So, any action which is deleterious to society may be called evil, but in the absence of society there would be no objective standard of evil.
Evil truly exists. Charles Manson. Adolf Hitler. Jeffrey Dahmer.
Gen.3:22;


Evil existed before Adam and Eve.


Job 38:4-7;


Angel existed before Adam and Eve. They are called morning stars and sons of God.


John 17:3,5,24; Col.1:15-17; Rev.3:12,14;


Jesus was first creation created in the image of God, before all was Jesus.


Jesus did not do evil before all angels. after all. angels, in heaven and on earth, he did no wrong, just because it exist, no one has to partake of it.


Gen.1:26;


God said,';Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Evil is in the eye of the beholder. Christians find homosexuality evil, yet I accept it. Many Christians find killing others acceptable, yet I think it is evil. It all depends on your upbringing.
In the eye of the beholder! One man's terrorist is another man's hero.
good and evil


beauty and ugliness


black and white


life and death


god and the devil








you can't have one without the other
I guess that it is in the eye of the beholder, but many have gennerally been taught to differenciant between what we call good and evil.
Evil does exist. If evil is in ';the eye of the beholder,'; then society can never hold anyone accountable for anything. Murder, torture, child molestation, you name it. It is the moral relativism of our time that is leading to societal corruption and breakdown. To be viable and continue to function, every society has to have certain basic, agreed upon moral precepts or chaos will consume it. Individuals may have disagreements or differences with some of these precepts, but if individuals want to partake of the benefits of living in a society, then the individual must abide by the agreed upon codes and work to change those with which he/she disagrees.
of course i mean heck look at the inquisition... Lets go torture these folks cause we gotz nuthin better to do then tell them we are right and kill them if they don't believe it...





With enough logic everything is justifiable.





EX.


There are too many people in the world and that could lead to mass starvation, global warming, and many other criminal acts that follows overcrowding. Therefore i will randomly sterilize without their permission one out of every ten people that walk past my alley way by means of neutering and spading. The goal to achieve less people in the world would work. The means by which it is done could even be made ';humane';. However, there will always be the opinion that it was bad for me to ';save the world'; by ';cutting off genitalia';.





So please note for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. and evil is a view point. Do you think cows believe us to be evil. go by the slaughter house and ask.
Speaking only from a Christian point of view In the Hebrew Scriptures, evil is related to the concept of sin 鈥擺 ';sin'; translated in Hebrew is chata which means ';missing the mark'; (a term from archery)].





Evil is defined in Thomistic metaphysics as the absence of a ';good'; which could and should be present; it is a lack of something that should be present. The goodness that is missing in the glutton, for example, is self-discipline and temperance. The evil of gluttony is marked by the results of obesity. The results of evil are usually experienced as evil over the long term but may be experienced as short term ';goods';. The cultivation of the good requires the long view.





In Judaism and Christianity, evil comes from disobedience to God. Judaism stresses obedience to the God's laws as written in the Torah and the laws and rituals laid down in the Mishnah and the Talmud.





In Christianity, some denominationss stress obedience to God's law. Others, emphasize Christ's statement that love of God and love of your fellow man is the whole of the law. Still others emphasize the idea that man is irremediably evil, and in need of forgiveness.





In some Abrahamic faiths, evil is personified as Satan, a challenger of the law or will of God. Satan is defined in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek writings collectively as the devil, the adversary, false accuser, slanderer, the counterfeit, a liar, a murderer, one with no truth, the serpent, the evil one, the tempter, and a prowling lion seeking someone to devour.





These faiths also teach that spirits or demons may possess humans or animals and tempt them to do evil. It is argued by those who follow the documentary hypothesis and higher Biblical criticism that this concept of Satan developed over time. Hebrew ';haSatan'; seems originally to have been the accuser, a title given to the prosecuting attorney at the heavenly court.





He still has this character in the Book of Job. It is argued that the larger role of Satan and his identification with Lucifer, later associated with the snake in the garden of Eden, occurred during the period of the Babylonian captivity and subsequent exposure to Iranian beliefs.(1)[citation needed] Orthodox Jews still hold to the traditional view of haSatan being an accusing angel in the heavenly court.





Some forms of Christianity, as well as Judaism, do not personify evil in Satan; these Christian sects instead consider the human heart to be inherently bent toward deceit, although human beings are responsible for their choices, whereas in Judaism, there is no prejudice in one's becoming good or evil at time of birth. In Judaism, Satan is viewed as one who tests us for God rather than one who works against God, and evil, as in the Christian denominations above, is a matter of choice.





The greek word used in the New Testament for evil can just as well be rendered by ';a wrongdoer'; or even as ';the evil one';. This ambiguity means that a passage in the sermon on the mount has been translated ';Do not resist evil'; and ';do not set yourself against a wrong-doer.';





Judaism and Christianity both focus on individual repentance of sin, but in Judaism, repentance requires the forgiveness of the injured party, and thus is rather difficult in some cases, such as murder, but for other crimes, if one is sincerely asked for forgiveness on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement by someone who has truly repented, it is a religious obligation to forgive.





In Christianity, the nature of repentance is highly dependent on sect. Jewish beliefs and Christian teachings say each person will give an account of all their actions, including faith and obedience.





Some cultures or philosophies believe that evil can arise without meaning or reason (in neo-Platonic philosophy this is called absurd evil). Christianity in general does not adhere to this belief, but the prophet Isaiah implied that God is ultimately responsible for everything including evil (Isa.45:7 ';I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.';)





In the Bible, the story of Job is a bold example of how evil exists and seems at times to be victorious, although according to Christian beliefs, all have sinned and fallen short of the perfection of God (Romans 3:23), and the price of missing the mark of perfection (sin) is death.





The crucifixion of Jesus was the sacrifice of a sinless, superior, and good being for the sins of mankind; thus, salvation from death occurs in understanding this idea and making the Christ Lord over one's life.





An important belief that has been emphasized by some Christian leaders relating to the belief that ';all have sinned'; and ';sin separates Man from God'; is that these beliefs imply a certain equality of all humanity; no one is no ';more evil'; than any other person. The murderous are in the same category as the saintly, and the rich are no more worthy of attention than the poor (James 2). The only difference between people, in terms of Christian salvation, is that some have made the commitment to Christ and that others have not.





For the French philosopher Michel Henry, God is the invisible Life that never stops to generate us and to give us to ourselves in its pathetic self-revelation. God is Love because Love itself in an infinite love is Life. By consequence life is good in itself.





The evil corresponds to all what denies or attacks life, it finds its origin in death which is the negation of life. This death is an inner and spiritual death which is the separation with God, and which consists simply in not loving, in living selfishly as if God didn't exist, as if he was not our Father of us all and as if we were not all its beloved Sons, as if we were not all Brothers generated by a same Life.





The evil peaks in the violence of hatred that is at the origin of all the crimes, of all the wars and of all the genocides. But the evil is also the common origin of all those blind processes and of all those false abstractions that lead so many people to misery and exclusion.





Curious98
Absolutely. Morality is determined by the community-at-large and is affected by environment. What is deemed immoral, wrong or ';evil'; in one area may not necessarily raise eyebrows in another.
Complete evil cannot exist because if it did it would not exist because evil would consume itself. Total evil would be incapable of being anything other than evil and when it comes to the execution of the most sinister and evil of devices it is often necessary to placate those who would interfere with such a plan with niceness. Even if this being nice were completely false something purely evil would still be unable to do this.
Evil and Beauty, as concepts have a lot in common





Both are not so much 'in the eye of the beholder' but a social conditioning. Look at the paintings and sculptures of the 18th/19thC. What is presented as the beautiful woman or the beautiful scene. Even in the 1950s woman considered beautiful where very different to now.





This is also true of what is considered evil. Greed used to be one of the 7 deadly sins but now it is almost treated as a virtue. At one time homosexuality was almost compulsory. Here I speak of Ancient Greece. It has been an executional offence. It is still such in some countries and there are those who would like it to be so. However in many of the most civilised countries it is now acceptable.





In the past genocide was considered a valid way of subjugating a population now it is almost universally appalled.
it is in the eye of the beholder...
While we may agree in general that some actions or thoughts are evil, they are truly subjective. Same goes for good, it is, in fact, in the eye of the beholder. Take homicide, we think of killing someone we don't know and know nothing about as evil, but what if you are actually just trying to reduce the population to save resources for the rest of us? Is killing someone who has or will hurt you or your family evil; most people will say no, but what if you and your family are real sickos and like to molest small children? There is no absolute morality.
Man cannot create values. It is impossible for man to choose his ';ideology'; as he chooses his clothes. We cannot regard morality as a subjective sentiment to be altered at will.
evil exists objectively in the sense that it creates physical, emotional harm to humans.





Evil takes his nutrition out of our lack of understanding and selfishness.





for example ,





If christains regard homosexuality as an evils act , it can breed counter hatred from homosexuals.





before this kind of hatred made people violent .





This all came from the lack of understanding homosexuality.





Homosexuals also had to understand why people are so uncomfortable about this.





The more we understand each other , the weaker the evil will be.
Absence of good is evil


absence of God is Devil. Notice the missing ';O'; and added ';D';





Absence of light is darkness but only some thing can exist..no thing can exist.





The mirror image has no existence, ';No-Thing'; ; the thing in front of the mirror has existence, ';Some-Thing';





But even ';Some-Thing'; is in the eye of the beholder as other respondents have noted such as upbringing, religion and cultural morality
It is a deviation from the norm. The opposite of what is considered good. It is a moving target dependent on the culture you are looking at. Thats why there is a whole lot of crap going on that shouldn't be. because our culture is sick.
Well I can't think of anything you could do evil if you were totally and permanently isolated from everyone else. So it isn't independent of human viewpoint.