OLAADEGBU:
What is the definition of evil? What does the Bible say about evil? Does evil exist?

PastorAIO:


Evil is any Adverse event or Mal-intent that is directed against Man in his attempts to Fulfil his True Being.

OLAADEGBU:


What does the Holy Scriptures say about it?

PastorAIO:


My contribution is to give you my definition of evil. What the bible has to say, or whether it exists, are not points that I care to address.

orisa37:


Anything done physically and spiritually to hurt other. Also a doer of evil is evil.

tartar9:


xtianity

orisa37:


When you add the "", you get Devil and that is the "Subject". Evil on its own is the object of its maker. Devil makes evil.

OLAADEGBU:


Good job.

davien:


So by logical deduction god created the devil as a tool to propagate evil...

OLAADEGBU:


God created angels not devils.

davien:


And is the devil not the first rebellious angel?

If in your logic things cease being gods handiwork' after they change then the universe isn't gods handiwork' since it's changed over the years..lol

OLAADEGBU:


What is the definition of evil? What does the Bible say about evil? Does evil exist?

Evil is what is morally wrong, sinful, or wicked. Evil is the result of bad actions stemming from a bad character. Biblically, evil is anything that contradicts the holy nature of God (see Psalm 51:4). Evil behaviour can be thought of as falling into two categories: evil committed against other people (murder, theft, adultery) and evil committed against God (unbelief, idolatry, blasphemy). From the disobedience in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9) to the wickedness of Babylon the Great (Revelation 18:2), the Bible speaks of the existence of evil.

For many centuries Christians have struggled with both the existence and the nature of evil. Most people would acknowledge that evil is real and has always had devastating effects on our world. From the sexual abuse of children to the horrific terrorist attacks on 9/11, evil continues to rear its ugly head in our own time. Many people are left wondering what exactly is evil and why does it exist.

The existence of evil has been used as a weapon by opponents of theism—and Christian theism in particular—for some time. The so-called "problem of evil" has been the subject of various arguments by atheists in an attempt to demonstrate that a God who is good simply cannot exist. By implying that God must be the creator of evil, God's holy character has been called into question. There have been many arguments used to indict God as the cause of evil. Here is one of them:

1) God is the creator of everything that exists.
2) Evil exists.
3) Therefore, God is the creator of evil.

The logic of this syllogism is sound. The conclusion follows logically from the premises. But does this syllogism demonstrate that God is the creator of evil? The problem with this argument is its second premise, that evil is something. For evil is not a thing; it is a lack or privation of a good thing that God made. As Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland has noted, "Evil is a lack of goodness. It is goodness spoiled. You can have good without evil, but you cannot have evil without good."

Goodness has existed as an attribute of God from all eternity. While God is perfectly holy and just, He is also perfectly good. Just as God has always existed, so too has goodness as it is a facet of God's holy character. The same cannot be said for evil. Evil came into being with the rebellion of Satan and subsequently entered the physical universe with the fall of Adam. As Christian apologist Greg Koukl has said, "Human freedom was used in such a way as to diminish goodness in the world, and that diminution, that lack of goodness, that is what we call evil." When God created Adam, He created him good, and He also created him free.

However, in creating Adam free, God indirectly created the possibility of evil, while not creating evil itself. When Adam chose to disobey God, he made this possibility a reality. The same scenario had previously played out when Satan fell by failing to serve and obey God. So it turns out that evil is not a direct creation of God; rather, evil is the result of persons (both angelic and human) exercising their freedom wrongly.

While evil is certainly real, it is important to recognize that evil does not have existence in and of itself. Rather, it only exists as a privation (or a parasite) on the good. It exists in the same way that a wound exists on an arm or as rust exists on a car. The rust cannot exist on its own any more than cold can exist without the existence of heat or darkness can exist without the existence of light.

Despite the horrible effects of evil on our world, the Christian believer can take comfort in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded for us in the Gospel of John, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). More importantly, we look forward with great anticipation to our home in heaven where the ultimate evil, death, will finally be destroyed along with the "mourning, crying and pain" which it inevitably produces (Revelation 21:4).

http://www.gotquestions.org/definition-of-evil.html

tartar9:


xtianity

One definition of evil is the Nairaland "religion" forum. It's mostly just a pit of the devil.

PastorAIO:


My contribution is to give you my definition of evil. What the bible has to say, or whether it exists, are not points that I care to address.

PastorAIO:


I see that you cannot respond to my answer to your question.

OLAADEGBU:


Your opinion is not of any use to me. I would rather prefer to know what the Bible says about it because that is where I take my authority from not from the[b] ideas of fallible sinful men.[/b]

OLAADEGBU:


Your opinion is not of any use to me. I would rather prefer to know what the Bible says about it because that is where I take my authority from not from the ideas of fallible sinful men.

Idiot, aren't the anonymous writers of the Bible fallible sinful clowns

PastorAIO:


My contribution is to give you my definition of evil. What the bible has to say, or whether it exists, are not points that I care to address.

PastorAIO:



Sir, you cannot escape from the ideas of fallible sinful men.

Kay17:


Stepping aside from theology, my understanding of Nietzsche's thoughts on evil:

Slave morality through its resentment converts what's its oppressors find to be good to themselves, into evil. For example he makes the analogy of the eagle and lamb. The lamb expresses slave morality by resenting the strength of the eagle. Such strength is interpreted as evil. Therefore evil is a subjective construct of the slave moralizers.

While the eagle finds whatever means to exercise its energies as good. Hunting and flying are good. Bad is now a defective state. For example physical weakness, poverty, impotence. These states are condition of the slave moralizers who worship their impotence, poverty and weakness as good.

Good is passive for the slaves while evil is active.

Good is active for the nobles (eagles) while bad is passive.

From his Gay Science, he says Evil men are the different expressions of the same instincts shared with other men. So I think eventually he takes good to be some refinement of one's instincts. Rather than the raw fulfillment of the same instincts.

PastorAIO:


It seems that Nietzsche sees morality as a means to justify one's condition or way of behaviour.

While I agree that people have many different ways of justifying things that they were going to do anyway, or conditions that they are in, I think his categorisations are too simplistic.
I've met many people, and I'm sure you have too, that once they realise that they've been the victims of a joke they immediately go out to look for another naive person to lure into the same joke so that they won't be the only victims.
Too many people when they have been victims only go on to feel justified in victimising other people. It's as if their victimhood is the green light they need to wreak terror on others. (Israeli Zionists might be an example in point).

In fact i've come to the conclusion from my years of experience with humans that it is those individuals that go around feeling sorry for themselves, feeling that life has been too tough for them, that are the most likely to be callous selfish hateful individuals. You can already see the selfishness in the way that they always talk about how other people were victimising them and how unfortunate their lot has been as if they are the only people on this planet that are suffering.
Anybody that can look around this world and conclude that he/she is the one that is the worst victim of life has all that it takes to be a nasty Terrorist.

If one takes a closer look at the 'Slave' societies that Nietzsche is talking about what you will likely find is that it too is stratified. The More oppression the Master race perpetrate on the Slave races, the more oppression the upper echelons of the Slave races will perpetrate on the lower echelons. It follows that being a victim does not lead you to have a Slave morality endorsing weakness like Nietzsche proposed but rather it makes you more likely to embrace oppression yourself.

Nietzsche was trying to have a dig at christianity but I believe that he failed woefully in his thinking here cos he let his distaste for christianity cloud his judgment.