Radical Evil in human nature?

[SolitaryWalker]

Where on earth do you get this unrealistic notions that we pretend radical evil does not exists? Some of us may believe in "naive fairytale" goodness, and some of us may not. But I think the key point you missed is that life isn't so definitively black and white. Evil intent exists, so does good intent... however extreme cases are rare incidents indeed. Most people have both the desire to be selfish and giving/caring. I don't see why you have to isolate good to be absolute pure altruism. Because if you do so, radical evil can only be about inflicting harm on other people at the cost personal expense without even gaining emotional satisfaction... As Cafe mentioned such definitions are way too restricting. The probability of either event is so low that you might as well say it is highly unlikely one of us will encounter it. So we work more or less with people who have both good and evil intents with them. Kind of like the interpretation behind chinese "ying yang"... "Within all good there is evil and within all evil there is good." If it suits us to value the positive side of people more than the negative then it is our right. We acknowledge the existence of both, but we perfer to focus more on one than the other. Besides... what's so bad in deriving personal pleasures in helping others? Intents that benefit self need not always harm others. If both sides gain something out of the interaction... why not have it? It's still "good" in my mind.


Does that help explain why life isn't an absurd tregedy? Life is only a tregedy if you insists radical evil is out to get you. Of course that is not the case.

Does all of this mean that you are now willing to admit that the world would have been a much better place if the human race never existed at all?

[nightning]

Does all of this mean that you are now willing to admit that the world would have been a much better place if the human race never existed at all?

No shirt off my back if we don't exist! Think about it... we're the most damaging species to ever existed on this planet (If the history of Earth based on soil layers are accurate). Evolution is not a goal directed process... people aren't perfect. If we happen to be a "mistake" where replacement by another species is more beneficial for keeping this planet habitable, who cares? The past is irrelevent... for good or bad, we "happened". So let's just make the best of this situation okay?

[SolitaryWalker]

No shirt off my back if we don't exist! Think about it... we're the most damaging species to ever existed on this planet (If the history of Earth based on soil layers are accurate). Evolution is not a goal directed process... people aren't perfect. If we happen to be a "mistake" where replacement by another species is more beneficial for keeping this planet habitable, who cares? The past is irrelevent... for good or bad, we "happened". So let's just make the best of this situation okay?

The harder we try to make the best of the situation the worse it actually gets.

[nightning]

The harder we try to make the best of the situation the worse it actually gets.

How so? Please clarify.

[SolitaryWalker]

How so? Please clarify.

We rarely wish to make the world a better place. Usually when we say that thsi is what we want to do, it is just a cover up for more of our selfish motives. People shouldnt be allowed to 'try to make the world a better place' the reality of it is that they are using the resources that they received for their personal benefit. Some are just better at hiding this than others. We are not capable of anything other than serving our own ends.

[cafe]

I would selfishly like my grandchildren to have a nice, clean, beautiful planet to live on with sustainable energy and diverse flora and fauna.

[SolitaryWalker]

I would selfishly like my grandchildren to have a nice, clean, beautiful planet to live on with sustainable energy and diverse flora and fauna.

If you had a choice...

I would selfishly like my grandchildren to have a nice, clean, beautiful planet to live on with sustainable energy and diverse flora and fauna.

Guarantee for this to happen within a 100 years... not to just your grandchildren... but to everybody... to bring paradise to Earth. by 2100.. at the expense of you dying right this moment. Would you accept this?

[cafe]

If you had a choice...





Guarantee for this to happen within a 100 years... not to just your grandchildren... but to everybody... to bring paradise to Earth. by 2100.. at the expense of you dying right this moment. Would you accept this?

No child would ever go to bed hungry again or die pooping their guts out from dirty water again. Where do I sign?

[SolitaryWalker]

No child would ever go to bed hungry again or die pooping their guts out from dirty water again. Where do I sign?

Quite noble... you sure you'd manage to do this? Of course your mind will want for this. But human nature is too rotten to let you carry through with that. It is our vile nature that makes decisions not our intellect. Our intellect is slave to our base nature.

[cafe]

Quite noble... you sure you'd manage to do this? Of course your mind will want for this. But human nature is too rotten to let you carry through with that. It is our vile nature that makes decisions not our intellect. Our intellect is slave to our base nature.

I would not sacrifice one of my own children, but if I knew my children would be taken care of, then I don't think it would be that be that big a deal. People willingly die for causes and always have.

If it was going to be a very painful death, I might not be able to go through with it, but if it was going to be quick and painless, meh.