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Originally Posted By: MysticSophia
I believe that there is evil in the world but I dont believe the devil can make you do anything or that satin has any power to control people. I think there are just people who have so little respect for others or themselves that they do not care who they hurt or how they do it as long as they get what they want. I have met people who have no conscience and I have met people that went beyond that into soulless or no spirit at all! and for whatever reasons, I believe, they choose to become what they are no one made them that way.
I also dont think evil has a religous cornermarket or the lack of evil either.. it is an open door anyone can walk through with no discrimination!


I was going to pick out which part of this I wanted to comment on - but I really agree with the whole thing. You said it perfectly Sophia!

There are some people who through illness cannot control what they are doing, but there are many, many people in this world that just don't care about anyone other than themselves. The selfishness and apathy are what make them evil.


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I believe that we existed as spirits before we were born with physical bodies. We were allowed to choose our life situations, for the most part, based on the lessons we wanted to learn (or relearn).

As for mental illness, we chose that, too. However, there are cases of demonic possession as well. Mental illness may be caused by this but may not be.

Evil exists just as surely as Goodness exists. There are opposites of all things. You choose what to experience. It might not seem that way for people in negative situations, but they chose before they were born.

I read a book about callings and destiny in life and there was a chapter on "The Bad Seed." Fascinating. Some people are born to a destined outcome. But God always gives us free will to choose: before we come down and while we are here...and even after we leave (through repentance).

I wish I remembered what the title of that book is. I gave it to someone.


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I preer to believe that "evil" and "good" are just cultural frames of "destruction" and "creation". The problem with this is that it leads to cultures framing desctruction as something that is always bad. While that may be the case sometimes, other times destruction is good or even necessary. So by framing these ideas as "evil" or "good", we limit our existence. On the other hand, if we can take a step back from what we want to label "evil" and ask the questions: How is this destructive? and What does this destruction do? We can gain a deeper insight into what is really going on.

For instance, as a therapist, I work with chronically mentall ill individuals and, while their illness is often destructive, sometimes that destruction can be breaking down negative things. One adolescent client recently started cutting due to their mental illness and this was a huge shock to their family. While this was destructive or could even be labeled "evil" depending upon the cultural/spiritual frame we want to place on it, it also brought the family to a place where they began recognizing the dysfunctional family patterns that caused that client anxiety and resulted in the cutting. Because of this, they were able to work on changing their habits to healthier habits. Something destructive actually broke down unhealthy barriers and made way for new creation.

That's just my opinion on it, though. smile

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For sure it's real......God created it. It's right in the bible about his creating it.

Everything God creates serves a purpose, even EVIL.


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Native Americans portray in their myths the good and evil in life:

A lot of the animals in the stories are referred to as 'tricksters'. Although the trickster can be rebellious, disorderly, cunning, sneaky, witty, curious and sly, he is always, first and foremost, a survivor. The trickster will not stop short of trickery, thievery and deception to get what he wants for himself, however, the ultimate goal is usually to assist the humans by making life better for them. By doing something wrong to gain something good does not seem the proper way to go, but it could be seen as overcoming the bad to obtain the good. The balance in life contains the good and the bad. So, there is the symbolism of positive and negative, the good and the evil, the beautiful and the ugly which is seen in all of Nature. The trickster can play any or all of these parts to reach his goal.

The above quote is from my article at the link below. You might find it interesting.

Good and Evil in Myths

I wrote the above article several months ago and thought it would be good to include in this thread.


Last edited by Phyllis, NA and Folk; 03/13/09 11:39 PM.

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Great article, Phyllis! Much of the Native American Folklore is similar to the Tao, when it comes to "good" and "evil." Each can be malleable, and one can be disguised as/move into the place of the other, and take many forms. All in all, there is no fear or hatred of either form, simply the availability to learn vital life lessons, and to gain a deeper wisdom.

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Thanks, Shannon.

You word your thoughts so well.

I remember often what Leo Buscaglia used to say: "If not for the bad, you would not recognize the good."

Throughout all Creation, there must be balance.


Walk in Peace and Harmony.
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I believe that evil is perceptual and part of mans opinion. Why does one say "that is evil" and about the same thing others say it is good. My question is this' Who are we that make such pronouncements? If we truly have all of our ducks in a row then we can judge a situation from a well balanced perspective. But on the other hand if all of our ducks are in a row we might see that some things that we call either evil or good are instead just what they are. If I say that this person or spirit is evil, it has no basis in fact. It is still just my oppinion. Maybe to others this person or spirit is a good friend. Does that cancell out my reality? Even if a whole culture says that something is evil and just one person says that it is good then it is all still opinion. When I quit looking at what is good, bad, right wrong, black, white, too much, too little, too this or too that, I began to view things as in balance and quit judging things and people as these things are well beyond my scope of understanding. What is going on in the world is perfect. I have trouble with this at times also but maybe if we can not see things that way then we have some clearing to do within our own thought processes. Most times what we call evil or good is projectionary; things that go on within, not without. Just my little opinion.

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Originally Posted By: flutterby378

Evil exists just as surely as Goodness exists. There are opposites of all things. You choose what to experience. It might not seem that way for people in negative situations, but they chose before they were born.



I should amend this thought because I don't mean to say that everyone chooses for bad things to happen to them. We often choose our experiences but I believe that sometimes, evil-minded people do affect innocent people without consent and thereby setting into motion a whole new series of karmic debts.

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Originally Posted By: flutterby378

I should amend this thought because I don't mean to say that everyone chooses for bad things to happen to them. We often choose our experiences but I believe that sometimes, evil-minded people do affect innocent people without consent and thereby setting into motion a whole new series of karmic debts.


I agree with you that unfortunately "evil-minded people do affect innocent people without consent..." Like you said a whole new series of karmic debts is generated by those actions.

I didn't think that you meant people actively choose for bad things to happen to them. I do believe that we have chosen certain lessons before we incarnated so we can grow as a soul. Certain lessons are not all lessons though. This is certainly my personal belief and not a generalization. I sometimes wish I know why everything happens, but I have long realized that I have to let that go in order to find peace in life.

I saw and responded earlier to the post that Michelle from the Spirituality site shared... about her cousin's cat brutally hurt Cruelty to Cats . News like this always makes me sad and think about the topic of evil or the lack of consciousness.

flutterby378 Thank you for your re-post.

Last edited by Cara Philosophy Editor; 01/22/10 06:23 PM.
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