Do you believe people are evil or the acts people commit are evil?

I don't believe in evil. I believe in a set of internal scales which weigh your self-interest on one side and your morality on the other. When your self-interest (or selfishness) outweighs your morality, you transgress. Where both sides of the scale contain lighter quantities (i.e. queue-jumping, or giving yourself the larger of two pieces of cake), we don't tend to see it as evil.

Where the weight of morality is larger (i.e. murder, genocide), we judge virtually everyone who transgresses in the same way, without any account of the level of self-interest required, or that their scales may be malfunctioning. Indeed, it's seen as disrespectful to even consider this in the face of, say, ethnic cleansing. So we badge perpetrators as evil, dole out their punishment, refuse to think about it any further, and never question ourselves the next time it happens. Or the time after. Or the time after that.

The word "evil" is a way of compartmentalising things, leaving them undealt with, without comprehension, and attributing them to the will of, what is to me, a mythical figure. It's simple, guilt-free, convenient, but - above all - fundamentally wrong in every single way.

I think there's a glitch with iin website. For the past few days, I've voted on many polls but they all still show all zeros.
Anyway..I do believe that some people are inherently evil and commit evil acts because they have no capacity for empathy.

Have you heard of the Milgram experiment? It showed that under certain circumstances most people had it in them to commit acts of cruelty. Not a very comforting thought, but still good to know.

Evil is a useless term. What we call "evil" is merely confusion, ignorance, weakness,, and mental illness. There is no such thing as evil.

I believe that some people are genuinely evil. They lead normal healthy childhoods and lives and yet have that evil mentality. There are others who just do evil things, but arent evil. These people do not understand the extent of how bad their behavior is and so they do horrible things. Evil people do understand and have been that way since they were very young. They just have no value for anyone or anything else and more importantly take pure joy in being evil.
I believe most people fall under the "do evil things" category though. Truly evil individuals come once in a while.

There is no evil or good. There is only human and animal and everything between is a matter of perspective.

A lot of western media tries hard to make the hero and villain obvious.

No one is BORN evil.

this is real life not a movie therefore the word evil is invalid. there are criminals but they are not evil.

the acts are evil. i once killed a guy out of curiosity but it's not like i'm a dick or anything.

People keep going on about perspective, no good and evil etc etc.. well thats obvious, thats not what the discussion here is about! its about whether or not if the term evil were to be used in a sense that it is either a very real state of mind or within the action itself.. or whther the state of mind at its essence is the evil causing the act....................... this is all just bullshit really but its nice to see people getting chatty over such a..delusional(?) subject. Almost like when you have a good discussion with a seriously religious person - the only way you can have one is by admitting hypothetically that all their beliefs are true BUT then pointing out the flaws withing their own beliefs and showing them how they contradict themselves.. thats the only way you can "win" .. if you care for such things... no point just goin " your wrong, your god is not real"

bad and good are just perspective.

There is no such thing as good or evil, just different opinions and ideas it's all subjective. I wouldn't even count serial killers and maniacs because they have been proven to be born with crossed wires. I mean people who are considered selfish simply use money for themselves because they feel it's a dog eat dog world etc. etc. Someone who kills their child may see it as their only way out of something. bla bla bla.

I believe that most "evil" people don't see themselves that way. In my mind, everyone's perspective of themselves is different. Good and evil are subjective concepts that differ from person to person, therefore, even if you see an act as evil, the person committing it might not think so.

i believe in pure evil, when someone intentionally kills a child they cross over to the dark side. if they hide it and dont confess they are not mad just bad. i could be wrong but i dont think so

Humans created such things as good and evil, before those catagories where made we called every act "nature". I don't beleve anyone can be truely good or truely evil because both of those things are choices and aren't absolute. People can commit evil actions or good actions but that does not mean they are good or bad. I think people can be on an evil path or an good path but that does not mean they are those two paths themselfs.

i really don't think you can be evil in the truest sense of the word. so i guess it would be the act which is evil, but even then you also have to look at the intent reasoning and conditions in and of which the act was performed to deem it evil.

I don't think anyone is totally evil. Those terms are used for society because those acts have repercussions on society.

Uh... well, I don't think people are evil, truthfully. People who commit acts of murder and do big time crimes like that, I believe, have demons or are fulfilling the lust of the flesh. Just my opinion.

People can become evil through experiences and thus do evil things. But this also means that people can stop being evil due to their experiences.

The concept of 'evil' is purely a human interpretation of behaviour and usually used as an an explanation of something that is not understood or is alien to society's concept of 'morally right'.

Behaviour is determined by the individual and the choices they make. We all have the opportunity to make choices about how we behave, these choices are influenced by our upbringing, life experiences and how we then respond to others around us.

What makes humans different from the rest of life on Earth is our ability to 'reason', the ability to reflect on our actions and choose to change our behaviour or not.

obviously tis all comes down to each individuals own opinion on what evil actually is and where it begins.... religious nuts anyone? im just trying to see on a basic level what people generally believe... though it sucks that people dont actually use the pol!! blah...