Quote:
Originally Posted by ReptileInYourHead
My point is that ‘evil’ is not a natural concept, it seems more likely to be a man made judgement.
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I think you are absolutely correct to say that "evil" is "a man made judgement."
Humans, however, are a product of evolution (if you believe in that.) Our ancient hominid ancestors - if you go back far enough - no more concerned themselves with the concept of evil than did the dinosaurs or the bunny rabbits. But, out of the animal world, a species evolved that came to concern itself with questions of right and wrong. A species evolved to become capable of forming the concept of "evil." It is an abstract concept that exists in the human mind. The human mind, however, is a product of nature.
Humans aren't really evolving anymore. We are no longer subject to the pressures of natural selection which drives evolution. That's because we control our environment, rather than it controlling us. Fair skinned people can survive near the equator by slathering on sunscreen. People can live in the arctic by creating artificially heated environments. We no longer have to adapt to the environment. We adapt the environment to suit us. But there is a sense in which we are continuing to evolve. We are evolving in terms of what we believe. Survival of the fittest has been replaced by survival of what seems most true.
The human species continues to change, in what ideas it holds to be true. There is competition of ideas. We can even think of differing ideologies - systems of differing ideas - as being at war with each other. Ideas matter. Men make judgements about what is evil, based on the ideas they have held. Some old ideas fade away and new ideas are formed. Behavior in animals is instinctive. Not so in human beings. Our behavior is governed by what we believe - those ideas about what is true.