[Poll] Goodness by Choice vs. Goodness by Default

[SternenklarenRitter]

As an evil person, I'm deeply offended by this nonsense.

You're just hungry. Eat a tomato and drink a glass of milk to hold you over until lunch.

 

[penitent]

All people are good. Evil is an illusion caused by fear, pain, and hunger. Someone who is hungry, afraid, or suffering in pain can be stripped of their dignity and become capable of monstrous acts. But at their core, they still are not evil. A truly evil person can exist only in fiction.

"Evil is an illusion. . ."
". . . become capable of monstrous acts."
You're essentially saying that evil is a myth. Yet you're contraindicating yourself by saying that, if a person's physical and mental resolve is tested, then they will descend into an episode of violence and commit 'monstrous acts' -- which could be translated into 'evil' acts. How can you say evil is an illusion, but go on to say that someone can do evil things? How can evil acts exist while the idea of 'evil' doesn't?

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

A monster is not evil. It does not understand its actions; it lives by simple instinct. It does not choose its actions, they are a string of reflexes responding to physical stimulus. A shark is not choosing evil when it bites a person's leg, it is simply hungry. It does not understand what it is biting, it responds by reflex to the vague shape of a sea-turtle. An act of evil requires both knowledge and freedom. But someone ruled by outside forces cannot choose. Someone consumed by their own suffering cannot understand the world around them. Any creature with sufficient knowledge and freedom will choose good, making evil something that cannot exist in reality.