Is evil a matter of opinion? - Page 4

quote Overlord76

It basically depends on the perspective of the person. It can variate many times between people. one person may beleive one thing while another beleives the opposite, they may even be another who beleive neither of which the others beleive.

exactly. so you agree its a matter of opinion?

Interpretation of 'evil' is subjective. The majority at large though, determines what qualifies as being 'evil', as far as 'morals' and legalities go.

Basically, 'evil' is a public opinion.

Of course, 'evil' is just a concept, and like many concepts, it doesn't actually exist, it is just something thought up. It is one of those intangible concepts (or more accurately, it will likely forever be intangible).

There is no universal standard of measurement of 'evilness'. As long as it cannot be quantified in a rational, non-subjective manner (re: in a scientific method), then it will forever continue as a concept, rather than an actual thing.

quote Gaming Geezer

quote stefan1888

Considering we assume there is no god,and therefore no belief system for the sake of this discussion. Surely evil is nothing but a matter of opinion, and therefore the boundaries around evil can completely change depending upon the situation.
what do you think?

Well my value system rest solely on the existence of God.
If there was no God to judge me or show me right from wrong, I would do whatever I wanted, even rape or murder.
Even so it would still be wrong but I wouldn't care. Everything has to do with opinion. My opinion would be therefor that if there is no God then there is no right or wrong.

Following that then, couldn't we consider you a truly "immoral" person then under the eyes of God. After all, if you say you only do it cause you believe in God, then doesn't that mean you only act this way because you believe someone is watching you. Under that idea, if said God exists and knows this, shouldn't he then NOT accept you into "heaven" as you are just playing a role instead of being genually good?

It's more either your immoral or they are all just opinions, me going with opinions.

Evil comes down to personal opinion, society may have a general accepeted standard of what's 'evil' and what isn't but most would disregard it under several circumstances, and if you make exceptions for specific instances it becomes double standard.
Besides that I don't even think the common perception even has an actual definition of evil as opposed to simply labelling certain things evil and disregarding everything else. Nor is there any real way to deem what's evil and what isn't, there's no standard or system to determine it.

We have had alot of these threads lately.

This just seems like another version of the absolute morality without god question. And IMO there exists an inbuilt genetic moral code. We can deny, break or avoid it as much as we like, but we all (mentally competant people) know when we are doing something wrong. Sure this is different from person to person, but their is an absolute code most humans adhere to. When they fail to do so en masse social breakdown occurs.

Wither someone labels specific acts as evil or not is subject to their own opinion. But the specific label of "evil" isnt perticularly interesting to me.

quote silverboner

You are correct. Evil is only a matter of opinion if there is no God.

You have yet to actually demonstrate this. All you've done is asserted it. So do you mean to imply that God is the creator of evil?

The specifics on when you cross the evil threashold are shades of grey. In general there is a line. Some instances are slam dunks and others are harder to determine.

quote not logged in

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Not really a matter of opinion. It may be slightly subjective but there is certainly an objective aspect to it. A lot of laws are created rationally and logically...

In general, something is evil if it does more harm than good to someone. Rape. Theft. Murder.

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Yeah this except it isn't based on the effect to the individual but on society. Threats to society are removed from society. Soldiers killing in war are not deemed threats unless they continue these acts at home. It isn't that they didn't kill it is that they killed THEM and not US because they were expected to. Self defence is also an expected action of self preservation. Reasonable expectations justify otherwise unreasonable actions.