How do you define "evil"? What is evil? Is there evil? How do people perceive evil?

Evil is only relative to others' perceptions.

I reject the concepts of evil and sin, because I don't live my life based on absolute concrete, black & white morals.  I think that based on our own will to live and survive, a set of morals could be defined upon minimizing the harm we cause one another. 

For example, someone with a fundamental point of view might see lying as an absolute evil, but I don't.  While it's not an admirable thing to do in most cases, there are those situations where lying is the right thing to do.  For example, if lying protected someone I knew from being beaten up or killed, then I would do it.

I don't believe in the absolute concepts of good and evil.  I think there are varying degrees of moral and immoral.

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Evil. That's funny.

Evil is the beliefs that go against your own. That's it. Everyone is the hero of their own story. I know that sounds very cliche, but it's true. We all write our own story. No one gets up and says, "Ah, it's a good day for evil." regardless of what many children's shows would like you to believe.

The good guys always win and the bad guys always lose. This is not because the "bad guys" lost, it's because the losers were viewed as "bad guys" afterwards. History is written by winners, and winners constantly seek to demonize their enemies

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Our perceptions of right and wrong came mainly about because of religion.

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...wee?

If you mean in terms of absolutes, then yes, but religion's concept of right and wrong is too black & white to be of any value.  We, as human beings, are more than capable of being moral without it.

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I agree with the previous posts, good & evil are dictated by culture and based on arbitrary standards. When it comes to humans, all is shades of gray.

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Beauty In Diversity

One example of that would be the war on Iraq lately...

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"Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo"
I will f*** you in the ass and mouth
Catullus, XVI

Things do sound more profound in Latin...

Well, if we were all just nice to each other (or at least pretended to be) then there would be black and white.

Black

1. Murder
2. Stealing
3. Lying

The most apparent things that really shouldn't be done.

Though there are many senarios in which, "I had to steal or starve" or "It was him or me, and he was crazy" and "I didn't want to hurt his feelings" (...it hurts to discover the truth...TT), but they are still wrong. You may wish to think it's gray and not punish them or something, but it's still not right.

If nobody did any of this then the world would be perfect...but perfection and humanity...that's not gonna happen anytime soon...

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...wee?

Sorry, Akira.  That's not true.  Morality cannot be defined by absolute truth.

I'm going to use an example from Dan Barker here.  Let's say a battered woman comes to your door and you let her, give her new clothes, clean her up, and let her stay.  Then her derranged husband shows up at your door demanding to know where his wife is.  If you are a moral human being, you better lie to that man.  You better lie to his face and be proud of it.  In that case, lying would be the most moral thing to do.

Even killing can be justified under extreme circumstances.  Sure, you probably wouldn't be justified in using lethal force while defending yourself from an attacker, but there are cases... extreme cases... where killing would be morally justified.
Take United Airlines Flight 93 for example.  The heroic passengers of that plane averted another catastrophe by subduing the hijacker terrorists and, unfortunately, killing everyone aboard.  Those passengers acted with the intent of stopping the hijackers at any means necessary, and I'm proud of them.  I'm glad they drove that plane into the ground.  I'm saddened that innocent people had to lose their lives, but they probably saved much more that day.

I understand that we don't live our lives in extremes, but there are extremes, and because of them, morality cannot be defined by absolute truth.

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Everybody has their own 'truth', there is no 'absolute truth', so any judgement is flawed from the start. There is something that comes up in all debates, and that is extreme cases and/or exceptions to the general rule, which reflects that lack of absolute truth.

I don't think that lying is evil in itelf, as not all can deal with the truth. Lets say a doctor knows his patient has a fatal illness, but informing the patient of this would cause great distress and serve no constructive purpose, whereas a lie would allow the patient a few years of quality life. Is the doctor wrong in holding the truth? Wouldn't it be cruel, thus evil, to tell the truth to his patient?

Not an easy situation, right? Both sides could be argued here, but IMO all these situations have no universal resolution, and what is right for one person has to be determined specifically. I would describe an evil individual as one who takes pleasure in, or is unmoved by the suffering of others, and activelly seeks to create conditions creating or maintaining that state of suffering. I guess that could be called 'extreme egocentrism', as what we usually consider as 'good' are values like generosity and emphaty.

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Beauty In Diversity

First one, hmmm...good one...gonna have to think about it.

Second one, that's sacrifice. Sacrifice is one of the best ways to go out to me (thank you people).

(edit later...bell rang)

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...wee?

Akira, of course, if you have to think about it and come back to me later, of course you're going to find something to say "Well, there's another way you could handle this situation", but the person in that scenario I gave doesn't have the time to think and come back later.  He can't afford to think it through like you're trying to do.  With only a split second to think, the best course would be for him to lie.  He'd better lie hes pants off and do everything in his power to make that man at his door go away.
What could he possibly do otherwise?  Tell the guy at the door that it's none of his business?  Are you going to tell a sociopath that it's none of his business if his wife is in your home?  Are you going to try to reason with him just so you can get out of lying?  If you say yes, then I would never trust you with my life.

Okay, you could write off the averted hijackings as sacrifice, even though it still involves justified killing.  But what about other criminal activity?  Surely you've seen those real police video programs where cops are involved in hostage situations.  If there's a cop whose got dead aim on a criminal who he feels is about to take another person's life, he is then justified in using lethal force to stop that person.
He's got a split second to aim and fire, and those men are trained to fire at what counts.

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you wanna know what absolute evil is? try reading some books about Hitler. to say that Hitler's evil was only the way we preceive him would be insane... the guy was evil incarnate...

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Hitler was immoral, because he chose to cause unnecessary harm to people.  He had the choice to do otherwise, and he chose to kill and conquer for his own personal gains.  That doesn't make him the absolute definition of evil or immorality.  Subjectively, any other person with political power and the right resources could outdo Hitler.

Hitler may have set the bar for immorality, but that doesn't make him the definition of absolute evil.

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