The Root of all Evil? What do you think it is?

[Gravity]

What do you think is the root of all evil?

I dont know, I'd have to say GOD(religions) or MONEY..

but those 2 who ever created them were genius's.

[lost in smoke]

conciousness

[Nimrod's Apprentice]

Upon being born into this world you are thrown into a world of all evil. This world is evil, as well as good. If we were to cut out the good aspects of life, evil would follow but then life would not be able to exist. I E people couldnt eat meat, it would be a race over vegetation, couldn't destroy the earth to build homes. In a tribal world, evil reigns, you must fight animals, you must hunt and kill, you must fight each other for food and women to reproduce. If you consider this evil like most people today, its a necessary part of life. However I beleive the evil you are referring to is like you said Money or God. Yet these are not, the root of all Evil is colonization, and civilization.

Money and God (with a capital G) were both byproducts of civilization. Hiding inside walls, to escape the natural world of chaotic dangerous weather, and preying animals. We then traded this for a virus type mentality of domination. This is the root of all evil. Without civilizations there would be no tyrants, no wars for anything except natural wars like food, sex, and land. Not over religion, or power, or wealth. Violence to one another is also a byproduct of civilization, if we were still out in the wilderness, we would have to band together in about 80% of time, unless we were in a secure place having an internal feud for the above mentioned things.

[gdkumar]

Hare Krishna!

Dear Gravity,

The root cause of all the evil is because of narrowness or selfishness of our mind. The sense of 'I' and 'My' causes all evil thoughts and actions. First we tend to draw a small firm circle with our own family of husband, wife and the children. Then depending on our mental broadness we make that circle bigger and bigger.......outside the immediate family....father and mother... relatives....neighbours......towns......cities.... .country......continents.....and then the whole world. As our circle grows bigger and bigger the line of the circle becomes more and more faint and at one point it vanishes. Most of us are bound within the first two circles.

He is the happiest and most beautiful(Mentally) person who belongs to the whole world. The whole world belongs to him/her. Everybody's happiness becomes his/her happiness. Everybody's tears of pain and sorrow brings tears in his/her eyes. The question of being evil does not arise at all for him or her.


It is a divine game of balance of good and evil. Without this game evaluation of good and evil would not have been possible. Think of this world with only white without the VIBGYOR !


Love,

Kumar.

[TrippinBTM]

ego/selfishness. All badness springs from that.

[Last Stand]

What do you think is the root of all evil?

I dont know, I'd have to say GOD(religions) or MONEY..

but those 2 who ever created them were genius's. Religion it self and today...........Television.

[Nimrod's Apprentice]

Trippin Btm do you think the ego existed before civilization?

[BlackBillBlake]

Unconsciousness - in the sense that people don't act or think consciously, but as a result of their often faulty programming. The robotic or machine like nature of human beings.

They simply repeat patterns of negative behaviour because that's what they've been mis-educated to do.

[TrippinBTM]

Trippin Btm do you think the ego existed before civilization?
Good question. I lean towards yes. But in a tribal context, it isn't much of a problem because there are checks and balances of behavior for coordinating self and society. Civilization/city living made the tribal checks inapplicable, due largely to the disparity in wealth and the fact that you were a stranger to most people around you. Doing evil to a stranger is not as hard as doing evil to a friend or family member, especially when your life and well being depend on those friends and family members (as it does in a tribal society but often doesn't in civilization).

[Sera Michele]

ego/selfishness. All badness springs from that.
Beat me to it Trippin.

IMO, the EGO is the root of all evil.

[Inquiring-Mind]

money, ignorance, religion

[Gh0sTiNnyc]

jesus....

[eman resu]

Right Wing Conservative Republicans!!!!!

[Nimrod's Apprentice]

Evil existed before we did. We just had soccer mom types rename it as smoking crack behind the school and raping their daughters.

[prismatism]

to cover everything in one word, Fear.

fear is why people are ignorant, why people watch so much god damn tv, why they eat so much greasy meat, drive their cars so much, want so much material crap, and don't consider another way of being. it's not a conscious thing, like, "i have to stuff my face and sit on my ass or else someone will hurt me!" but people want to be accepted. they want self worth. they don't think they can give it to themselves. they need someone to tell them they're worthwhile in this vast universe, in which they aren't even half a speck of significance. commercials make them feel smart, or special. having the best of something makes them better than someone else. they need all of their reality to scream "INFINITY IS A LIE. YOU ARE ALL THAT MATTERS!" so they can believe it, so they don't ever have to think about how small they are.

[TrippinBTM]

I'd guess all that fear stems from the fear of death.

[Nimrod's Apprentice]

You guys ever heard the fear of death is only a subconcious trick? Given to us by alien intervention.

[Gh0sTiNnyc]

the Vatican...

[Nimrod's Apprentice]

Ok you nut job, we understand you hate Christianity.

[NeoPascal]

Good and evil are only relative ideas that exist in the minds of humanity, neither actually exists.

[UrsusKind]

the dali lama teaches that desire is the root of all suffering.




if you learn to not want anything you will not suffer

Jesus tried to teach the same lesson. Look at the lilies of the valley and the birds you know.

[prismatism]

it all means the same thing. why would you want something if you didn't think it could protect you from something else?

[King Parrot]

Good and evil are only relative ideas that exist in the minds of humanity, neither actually exists.
Right on.

[peaceloveandshrooms]

Good and evil are only relative ideas that exist in the minds of humanity, neither actually exists.
What is existence? All concepts exist only in the mind. The concept of life itself exists only in the mind. Everything we know exists only in the mind, because we cannot be sure of anything that we perceive of external reality. Therefore, existence in the mind is enough existence for me, especially when so many people live their lives with the mentality that they should be doing good not evil. To humanity, good and evil are very real, I think.

[NeoPascal]

What is existence? All concepts exist only in the mind. The concept of life itself exists only in the mind. Everything we know exists only in the mind, because we cannot be sure of anything that we perceive of external reality. Therefore, existence in the mind is enough existence for me, especially when so many people live their lives with the mentality that they should be doing good not evil. To humanity, good and evil are very real, I think.
nicely said, but i would like to add that they are relative to each other and hold no universal. for example, most people would say that murder is wrong or evil. but if were to kill hitler would it still be evil or would it bee good because it was for a greater good? and if you killed him before his masscarce, would it be good because of the saved lives, or evil because the man you killed did not yet cause the hollocaust?

[scratcho]

Objective reality exists without perception from humans(pretty rough to prove,eh?)--humans show up--ergo="evil" & "good" and all else we have perceived or will perceive,right up until the END.Been said above tho.

[prismatism]

yeah, evil doesn't exist. but i think when we say "evil" we mean "things that make us unhappy" and there are things that do make most people unhappy.

[pop_terror]

I don't believe in evil either, but I would say the root of our "problems" is not being fully aware of the truth, whatever the truth is.

I'm thinking of the universe as existing independently of time, as a sort of solid unchanging thing that just is. (Read "Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut if you want.) Events are also objects and cannot be extracted from It or It won't be It, in which case it can't exist. That it exists being generally accepted as being a good thing. If you don't accept that, then I suppose for you existence would be the root of all evil.

[Love_N_it]

that's one thing I've learned about the truth lately, the more you look for it the less you know of it.

The truth is that right now it feels like we lost,. or that we have a chance of losing something that it seems like the 'people in charge' somehow overlooked.
Maybe the root of all evil started when man first realized "this is my baby" .
And he must have know right there and then that he couldn't take care of it 'properly' by himself. Not if he stopped to consider the miracle that he was holding was going to depend on him to secure their environment... which should be a natural instinct.
So he had to share the responsibility with someone else, and for some reason he turned it over to another .. man.,
Men are all NUTS !!

it's a good thing I used to see the world like one of those brazen ass fools.
if not I wouldn't have ever outgrown that comfort zone where most men must be out of their damn minds. All this time , how long has it been since a man said "this is my baby" without knowing that their beautiful future was going into the 3rd world war?
How long ago did the last "official" war end ?

I'm trying to get the machine to help me pull their silly assess out of the shredder,,
hoping that a man get's the notes but they probably won't let me. I'm ready to do something now and when those boys even consider the possibility all they can think is "we are in deep shit now" ... but they know it's just getting worse.

I think we need enough testosterone on this Earth to keep a good cleaning project going for the men to stay occupied while they clean up this mess they made during their 3 "official" world wars. And over the next few thousand or million years to come maybe the women can show them how to do it right... idunno.
We'll see how hard it is to convince a sr. military official that it would be easier if somebody showed them how to stop these poor unfortunate men in charge from destroying everything. They are driven to win, and killing themselves.
If you could show them that, they would just keep doing it because they are not strong enough to accept that kind of responsibility. It's been going on like this for how many years ?
Who knows where the root is, the only way to ever find it and show it to people would be to lock up the planet and cut them nuts out. It's not like they would ever change, much less make a gradual turn towards making their decisions based on their childrens long term future.

sorry I don't make it here much lately , I just haven't been in the hip or loving 'mood' or thinking like a civilized man is supposed to so it's best not to come here much .
I'm on it tho' , the law is gonna have to do something with me eventually ,, those 'laws' don't deserve to be applied to any'thing' or anybody like this system has been doing. so it really doesn't matter where the root of this synthetic creatures contamination originated from, much less the root of all evil.
this tree produces a lot of nasty funkin' warmongers that don't have a problem with what their future looks like . so far.

my only fear is that this has all been done before, and some'thing' or someone is dissappointed in me for taking this long.

I love ya'll .
and there IS some evil in me ,
hopefully enough!

[Boss_d.j.]

life. the beginning of all things laid the foundation.

[themnax]

fanatacism itself. although i suppose that's almost circular. which may be we few if any of us are ever entirely innocent.

=^^=
.../\...

[Nimrod's Apprentice]

the root of all evil is the word evil

[gunison]

The ROOT of all evil is moral responsibility.

[Nimrod's Apprentice]

The ROOT of all evil is moral responsibility.
So your saying if there was no moral responsiblity to uphold nothing could then be considered evil?

[TrippinBTM]

^makes sense when you say it that way, doesn't it? If you have no morals, nothing you do can be immoral or evil. :H

[gunison]

So your saying if there was no moral responsiblity to uphold nothing could then be considered evil?
Moral responsibility arises because humans have the ability/opportunity to choose from among alternatives in a given circumstance. When one undertakes a given action, one could have chosen otherwise. That one could have chosen otherwise makes one blameworthy (or praiseworthy) for undertaking some action. Without this (the abililty/opportunity to have chosen otherwise), the term 'evil' (and I assume we're talking about moral, rather than natural, evil) is senseless jargon.

[Libertine]

What do you think is the root of all evil?

I dont know, I'd have to say GOD(religions) or MONEY..

but those 2 who ever created them were genius's.

RELIGION & GREED

[themnax]

^makes sense when you say it that way, doesn't it? If you have no morals, nothing you do can be immoral or evil. :H

many seek simplicity in life by desiring that perspective.
bennifit and harm continue however to exist
as does the suffering that harm generates.

this suffering may not be targeted other then statisticly

but the worlds we all create we all live in

the more harm we each create, the more unhappy conditions there are for everyone.

the arbitrary pseudomoralities of chauvanistic beliefs i sometimes see as having been created as a way to deny this simple reality and delude ourselves into imagining, becuase it is not linear, direct, and immediate, that it might somehow not exist.

or that we might some how win the luck of the draw and be among the ones who appear to elude it.

the reality of kharma and dharma is that while statistical in nature, not even a god can illude it, nor predict how or when it might catch up with them.

no special places of eternal punishment and reward are required.
some things do happen more often then others
and some things do happen more often when other things happen first

one need not take any god, sage or scholar's word for that, a simple riguourousness of self honesty is sufficient to observe its opperation.

evil is indeed a word mere mortals have invented
but bennifit and harm continue to exist
and whatever condition in whatever life we are surrounded by
is influenced, however collectively and unobviously, by the actions
of each and every awairness living or 'living' in it.

this can be summarized, if a bit overly simplisticly as i had previously
that the real root of evil, is not the real morality of the avoidance of
causing suffering and harm, but chauvanistic fanatacism, that
supplants the simple observable price of harm, with a cook book
of preassumed behaviours, and deceptions as to what can and
cannot be expected of them.

perhaps i should say the real root of suffering and harm, so as
not to confuse them with their symbolic representation by the
somewhat more arbitrary and presumptive term "evil".

=^^=
.../\...

[lovelightlisa]

The ego

it holds us back from unity

[rebbatskcab]

Moral responsibility Agreed. Before there was a scale to gauge it on, there was no evil. How can you have something that subjective without a standard? Thus, moral responsibility is the reason evil exists.

Even more indirectly than that, the human race is the root of all evil. Seeing as we came up with the concept of moral responsibility to begin with.

I'm not saying we should all go off and start killing people, of course. I'm just saying that evil is remarkably subjective and I don't like polarity.

Of course, sometimes I think math is the origin of greed. And then I get back to my algebra homework.

[Turn]

This is a cool thread.

I think it is just our nature, the way we ended up being programmed. The ego, civilization, or the unconcious, we just don't care about others by nature. This ties into the question of can we ever solve humanities proablems? Proabably not, look at America we have all our basic needs met but still can't come anywhere close to a perfect society

[bamboo]

The root of all evil was the evolution of the ability to tell the difference. Up to that point in time all else was just the mindless struggle to survive.

[King Parrot]

Pephaps communication i.e. writing, language, is the root of all evil....

[pop_terror]

Maybe it's water...or carbon.

[Kharakov]

Necessity:1 : the quality or state of being necessary
2 a : pressure of circumstance b : physical or moral compulsion c : impossibility of a contrary order or condition
....
4 a : something that is necessary : REQUIREMENT b : an urgent need or desire

[roly]

marmite

[Kharakov]

Ok. I thought it was God anyway. Without evil, how would video games exist? Then again, I would probably have a lot more pleasure without evil... sacrifice the imaginary games for a perma-gasm.... unfortunately I am not allowed to have either.

[Last Stand]

Lucretia MacEvil
Little girl what's your game?
Hard luck and trouble
Bound to be your claim to fame

Tail-shakin' heart-breakin' truckin' through town
Each and every country-mother's son, hangin' 'round
Drive a young man insane
Evil that's your name

Lucretia MacEvil
That's the thing you're doin' fine
Back seat Delilah
Got your six-foot jug o'wine, woman

I hear your mother was the talk of the sticks
Nothin' that your daddy wouldn't do for kicks
Never done a thing worth-while
You're just an evil woman-child.

(spoken) ooh, Lucy, you just so damn bad

(Instrumental Interlude)

(Bridge) Devil got you lucy
Under lock and key
Ain't about to set you free
Sign sealed and witnessed
Since the day you were born
No use tryin' to fake him out
No use tryin' to make him out
Soon, he'll be takin' out his due
What-cha gonna do?

Lucy MacEvil
Honey ya been all night?
Your hair's all messed up, babe
An' the clothes you're wearin'
Just don't fit ya right
Big Daddy Joe's, payin' your monthly rent
Tells his wife he can't imagine where the money went
Dressin' you up in style, evil woman-child.

[r33f3r_m4dn3ss]

http://public.carnet.hr/~mihmader/girls_evil.jpg

[IllusoryFreedom]

Humans are the root of all evil. Humans created all of the other evils like money and religion.