Comments on: There is No Good and Evil, Just Smart and Dumb (Part 2 of 2)

By: Caleb Reynolds

Caleb Reynolds — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 19:02:41 +0000

For further thought on developing a common moral baseline from which we can operate, see Sam Harris’ book “The Moral Landscape”. It’s an insightful work dealing with the foundations of “morality” and how we can use them to our advantage in trying to create a better world

By: Irina

Irina — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 01:47:44 +0000

Agreed. Humans are neither good, nor evil. Everyone is trying his/her best to be happy. Some people choose destructive paths – and for that there are many reasons.
Also agree that doing good is beneficial. Unless ur a sociopath…
However, when you are writing about hate or anger I agree partly. Understanding that everyone has his/her reasons to be ‘evil’ really helps in most cases and the anger doesn’t even appear. But that concerns minor things or things that happen to others.
If a misguided ‘dumb’ person hurts you in a serious way, or harms your loved one, you naturally feel anger and/or hate, even if you realize the criminal had a tough childhood.
You may sympathize that the poor guy had a rough time in his life, but that wouldn’t stop you from wanting a punishment for him if he raped ur daughter or killed ur brother.
There is a limit to how much understanding the root causes decreases the anger/hate occurrences or intensity.
So Id say anger/hate are destructive in most cases, but in some they’re natural, justified and a person experiencing them shouldn’t feel ashamed of the fact. At least on the current stage of evolution )) It is only human to make bad choices and cause harm, but so it is to scream when you feel pain or to hate when u’ve been hurt. Of course, you want to get rid of the negative feeling someday, but not necessarily straight away and under the pressure of being perceived as an idiot unable to ‘be smart’.
Just some thoughts on the subject…:)
Irina´s last [type] ..Lady in red? :)))

By: Karma in the Western World « this bookwyrm

Karma in the Western World « this bookwyrm — Wed, 11 May 2011 21:14:33 +0000

[...] wrote last semester in my World Religions class, because I was inspired by yet another article from raptitude.com. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think about karma- is it real, just another groundless [...]

By: David

David — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:58:38 +0000

People are not just good or evil. They are just people.

That’s all I’m trying to say with this huge long-winded post. The idea of good and evil can be used to justify anything.

By: Nina Maryn

Nina Maryn — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:53:10 +0000

Thank you so much :) I loved this article xD

The passage where you discuss ignoring the unbringing of an individual because of their actions struck me in particular. A dear friend of mine was recently transfered from our school because he was accused of bringing a legal marijuana-like substance to school. Several weeks after an adversary makeshift court session was held, with his mother sitting right in the room, paralized from Lou Gehrig disease which he has had to deal with since he was small, he was “sentenced” to a school transfer. Shortly thereafter, my friend killed himself on January 20th. The school system showed no concern for the insignificance of the crime or the hardships he’s delt with at his home.

People are not just good or evil. They are just people.

By: David

David — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:12:25 +0000

I’ve expressed misgivings with this article in the past, but I don’t think I came off as arguing that there is a cosmic justice system, only that serving oneself in short-sighted ways that cause harm to others creates the inescapable consequence of suffering on oneself, which manifests itself in all sorts of ways. This is not the same as saying that all unhappiness is a result of our choices. The concept I was getting at is called karma vipakka in the Buddhist view, and reading about it will probably give you a better idea of what I was getting at than what you read here :)

Karma is hugely misunderstood in contemporary culture as if it’s some kind of cosmic moral balance. Karma is a collective term for your intentional actions, vipakka are the real-world consequences of those actions. If a person’s ultimate goal is to alleviate anxiety and other unpleasant states (and I would argue that it is for everyone, even if they don’t realize that the impulse to avoid or escape unpleasant states is behind every desire), then stealing, cheating and killing are unskillful ways to go about it, even if we don’t make any moral judgments about those acts.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:26:12 +0000

It’s a lovely sentiment, But it assumes some kind of cosmic justice that simply is not there. The reality is much more complicated with people being happy or sad due to a whole range of circumstances eg. (genetics, ignorance, wisdom) which often have little to do with their own choices.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:33:27 +0000

I appreciate the response, and the post itself. The wording you used was really the main (maybe only) disagreement I had with this post. The way ‘good’ and ‘evil’ were worded as ‘wise’ and ‘dumb’ distracted me a slight amount while I was reading. Because it did sound like you were simply creating an incognito dichotomy. I assumed this wasn’t intentional based on the points you were stressing. I also realize that it is hard to word it any other way. I just came across this post and this website so I read the article as if I did not have the unwritten understanding that is required to truly understand your meaning. All in all, great post! Things like this are honestly a breath of fresh air. Thanks for everything.

By: David

David — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:06:14 +0000

I forgot to mention that the point of the post was not to create a new false dichotomy, but to recognize that “evil” behavior has traditionally been seen as a justification to hate somebody, even torture and kill them. If we reframe evil as the consequence of low levels of awareness and wisdom, then the intuitive reaction is to see if we can find a way help the person not do those things any more. That’s the esoteric meaning of “forgive them for they know not what they do,” but Christian institutions have often ignored that in favor of justifying punishment and shame.

By: David

David — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:58:35 +0000

I think maybe we are always expecting a clean dichotomy when there isn’t one. This post is a really old one, but I think even at the time I mentioned that it’s not always possible to understand the consequences of any behavior because the cause-effect web is so complex and far-reaching, so we often can’t easily categorize a behavior into good/bad, or wise/foolish. So it’s not important to get the right “tag” for a person or a behavior, only to understand that unconscious behavior leads to the creation of suffering, and conscious behavior leads to the reduction of suffering.

Recognizing what those sorts of behaviors (conscious and unconscious) really feel like from a first-hand perspective is what allows a person to understand the sort of consequences they are creating with their intentions.

I know that’s pretty vague, but every time somebody attempts to prescribe specific actions to do and specific actions to not do, then we get tenets and sins, and we have a religion on our hands.

I regret the way I worded the title of this post because it is misleading — it seems to encourage looking at this with that classical kind of good/bad dichotomy.