If someone had constant thoughts and fantasies about raping, torturing, killing etc people that they may or may not enjoy but were perfectly moral in the real world (either for its own sake or from fear of consequences of acting on said fantasies) is it reasonable to describe such thoughts as evil?
What about describing the person as evil in nature even if they never act on them?
Is this a sound moral judgement or just thought crime?
If not evil then what term should we use? Deviant?
First things first, what is evil? How is it defined?
Firstly it’s quite disturbing that someone with the OP’s picture would ask this question…
I would say there is nothing wrong with having a thought of an evil act, any more than we should praise someone for dreaming of winning a nobel peace prize. And heck, many of us play violent video games or watch violent movies…enjoying mowing down pedestrians in GTA is not 1% of the way towards being a mass murderer – it’s 0% of the way; it’s actually a pretty good outlet for our everyday frustrations.
I would say though, that someone who frequently has thoughts of harming others, and finds it is becoming a stronger desire, has a moral obligation to seek help to avoid such desires becoming manifest.
Is Jimmy Carter evil?
Thoughts by themselves don’t matter at all. Only how you actually interact with the world around you, and treat other people, matters.
Thoughts can be unhealthy, but only actions can be evil.
I would say it could make sense to label thoughts about actually doing evil actions as evil. But it would not be evil to merely have those evil thoughts and not act on them. And if the thought is just a fantasy you have no intention of ever acting on, then it’s not even an evil thought.
It is very important, however, that whatever you label an evil thought, you do not ever beat yourself up for having it. I already said it doesn’t make you evil. Don’t forget that.
But I do think it’s useful to be able to think “This thought is evil. I probably shouldn’t intentionally pursue it further.” You’re not evil for having the thought, but you still may wish to challenge it.
That is a whole other thread (and willing to bet it has been done already).
For the OP I would guess doing “bad things” is as defined by our society. Stealing. Cheating on your SO. Shooting your puppy or goat because they bug you. Stuff like that. The OP can correct me if I am wrong.
Those may not be “evil” things but they are usually considered “bad” things.
To the OP I would suggest we all have a weird stray thought that is not “good” such as someone is pissing you off and you briefly consider punching them in the face.
I would not say that is evil. I would say acting on those thoughts is the bad thing.
However, if you find yourself fantasizing about doing bad things and find them interesting or pleasurable on a regular basis then you (general “you”) should seek psychiatric help. Without that there is a chance of acting on those bad notions.
Just my $0.02
Could be characterized as evil. I don’t know if that alone precedes actual evil acts but I’m sure some people who have committed evil acts have had such fantasies.
If one is an orthodox Christian, then the belief is that one can sin in “thought, word, and deed”. In fact, that exact phrase is in the Lutheran confession of sins. On the other hand, “If a tree falls and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” In other words, “If an evil act is only in the mind and never enacted upon, is it truly an evil act?”
This encapsulates the entire point of the thread. Evil acts are, by definition, evil. What precedes an evil act is (in my opinion) not evil. It is not evil to buy an axe even if you intend to use it to cut off your neighbor’s head. It is not evil to think about cutting off your neighbor’s head, no matter how elaborately you may imagine a plan for doing so. This is, I think, an important and useful distinction.
And even if you don’t act on them, too many thoughts like that can make you miserable. For your own psychological health, it’s probably best to avoid that.
I don’t know about this any more. 20 years ago I certainly would have agreed with you.
But I have kids now, and I see them develop with stimuli I did not have. I see the world they experience as very different than the pre internet 80’s and 90’s I called a childhood.
The anarchy and mayhem a kid can cause in Battlefield 4 or Fortnite is thought by many to be the same level of violence as GTA V. But to me they are very different. In BF4 everyone involved is playing the same game, they are all hunting you and you are hunting them, or the opposing team. So there at least mentally it’s akin to paintball.
But GTA V is just a city, a universe, where a kid can cause mayhem and destruction for fun and the people he affects are not important in any respect. They don’t even acknowledge the existence of the player. That plays on the minds of 10 year old boys still behind in empathy. It’s what internet trolling is all about, the desperate desire for any attention whatsoever.
So no, playing these games is not 1% of the way to a mass murdering psycho. But more than 0% of the way to the sorts of anti social ideas that will harm society as a whole in the near future.
I am of the view that a lot of so-called “evil” thoughts are a defense or justice mechanism taken too far or in a distorted direction.
There are some people who’ve said - in total seriousness - that they wish for a Thanos type of event where a huge portion of the Earth’s population gets wiped out in some massive genocide-type incident - their main reason being that they believe the Earth to be overpopulated and wish something could solve the problem. Saying “I wish for there to be something like 500 Holocausts” sounds utterly evil but is very understandable.
Same with a lot of racism or wishing harm on a certain group of people. If you’ve been exposed to a diet of information that makes you believe that a certain category of humans are getting unfair benefit or taking advantage or causing harm, it’s natural to wish for their elimination or something of the sort. So again, it’s a justice or defense emotional mechanism taken too far - evil, but understandable.
GTA V is rated Mature (17+) in the US.
If a parent is cool with their elementary school kid playing GTA, that’s their decision / discretion. But it’s a bit weird to complain it isn’t suitable for a 10 year old though, when it is explicitly not designed to be.
When do you suppose that will kick in? Because what’s actually happened since video games have become popular is that violent crime has dropped, precipitously, across the developed world.
People have been predicting that violent video games will inevitably lead to more violence and the exact opposite has happened over the last 40+ years.
One counter argument to this might be that mass shootings in the US have gone up, considerably, over this period. But the key thing is in the US; violent video games are popular in most of the developed world, and there has been no such increase in mass shootings.
What does track the increase in mass shootings very well, is sales of “modern sports rifles”, like the AR-15.
I think there is a sort of moral Dunning-Krueger effect, and that people who are more morally good are often more aware of their faults and flaws and potential for evil than are people who are less morally advanced and self-aware.
In Buddhism, there is the teaching of Body, Speech, and Mind. Thoughts have consequences (karma) but they are less than the consequences of voicing those thoughts. Likewise saying something has karmic effect, but not as strong as acting on them.
Same idea as the Christian idea of ‘sinning in your heart’ but more nuanced, as usual. The point is that even our fantasies have karmic weight, and it’s wise to notice that.
That’s a take on it, but couldn’t the exact same action be evil or not depending on the thoughts of the actor? I would say that the intent is what is evil or not, regardless of the act or the act’s effectiveness.
The graph of violent crime above looks more like a bell curve starting at 1960 and ending at today. So you want to claim that the Recent Increase in Modern Sports Rifles is rising violent crime and the increase in recent violent video games are responsible for decreasing it.
What are you on about?
@Sitnam Engaging with this would very much be a hijack of this thread, so I won’t.
I stand by my last post. Your response simply misunderstands a couple of very simple points. I can elaborate in a new thread.