Evil as a positive existent

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That is what I believe, I can’t quite get my head around the claim that evil is non-being.
 
Kei said:
You seem to agree in the Maximally Great Being.

The corollary is that the maximally evil being is impossible.
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That is only true if you equate the maximally great being with maximally good being.
 
SalamKhan said:
By evil, I mean two things:

Natural evils- such as death, disease, disaster, etc.

Moral evils- which relates to human actions.
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So, when you ask if evil is a positive existent are you asking if death, disease, disaster, etcetera, are entities? Surely you know that some bacteria can invade a living organism and alter its functions (disease) in such a way that it could be destroyed (it dies). And those microorganisms could proliferate in such a way that they could decimate a whole population (disaster). Those microorganisms are, on the other hand, “positive existents”. An besides them, no “death” as a “positive existence” is necessary to explain how a living organism, infested with them, dies.

Would you say that those tiny entities are the Evil? Each one of them? Or a given number (a great number) of them? Or a great number of them, but only if they are together within a reduced space? Or this, but adding the optimal conditions of temperature, pH and other variables, for their proliferation?

And when you suffer some pain, do you tend to think that a chunk of a “Suffering Producer Evil” got stuck somewhere in your body and became one with you, so that you feel it?

Is that your doubt?
 
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A broken arm is non-being in the sense that it is no longer essentially what it is meant to be. Its perfection has been compromised, and we feel it-both in pain and in the inability to use it as it was designed to function. We experience, directly, physical evil in that case, an arm deprived of its essential goodness, even though it began with nothing but its essential goodness.
 
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Kei said:
I don’t see how one could not do this. Good is greater than evil.
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Evil and good are just opposite of each other. Like pain and pleasure. Like confusion and clarity. etc.

The extreme pain should not exist if evil was privation of good.
 
Perhaps that may be the case with death and disease, but disaster? Earthquakes? Tsunamis? Hurricanes? Are these not positive existents?
 
If we scratch an itch on our arm, we’re relieved of pain or irritation. Pleasure is achieved. But if we continue scratching, and scratch harder and harder, the goodness of pleasure transitions gradually into pain, and harm to our arm as well. Evil is simply lesser degrees of good.
 
I don’t understand. Pain is not evil. Suffering is not evil.
Me causing others pain is evil.

They are not mere opposites, thats like saying nothing is preferable, which is against the logic of the argument. In that case, then you could also say existence and non existence are simply opposites, as are, well, anything.

But that is not true.
 
SalamKhan said:
Perhaps that may be the case with death and disease, but disaster? Earthquakes? Tsunamis? Hurricanes? Are these not positive existents?
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Which case SalamKhan?

A hurricane is an immense mass of air and water moving at high speeds. Do you think that is the Evil?
 
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fhansen said:
If we scratch an itch on our arm, we’re relieved of pain or irritation. Pleasure is achieved. But if we continue scratching, and scratch harder and harder, the goodness of pleasure transitions gradually into pain, and harm to our arm as well. Evil is simply lesser degrees of good.
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Given your definition then good also is a lesser degree of evil?
 
Kei said:
I don’t understand. Pain is not evil. Suffering is not evil.

Me causing others pain is evil.

They are not mere opposites, thats like saying nothing is preferable, which is against the logic of the argument. In that case, then you could also say existence and non existence are simply opposites, as are, well, anything.

But that is not true.
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So are you going to have extreme pain in Heaven?
 
SalamKhan said:
Perhaps that may be the case with death and disease, but disaster? Earthquakes? Tsunamis? Hurricanes? Are these not positive existents?
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Or perhaps you think that the Evil is pushing those big masses of air and water against living beings to destroy them? And also that it shakes the earth from time to time to ruin cities and kill a lot of human beings?
 
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Hmmm…perhaps. St Padre Pio I believe said that Jesus is still in so much pain at the sins of the world, and indeed in Fatima our Lady told us the things done against her were like thorns in her heart. The angels and saints still pray for the salvation of souls, and I imagine the evil of the world bothers everyone up there.

But if by Heaven you mean after the Final Judgement, then I would imagine no, as Jesus said every tear shall be wiped away.
 
Yes. If the disasters are positive existents, then they are contingent, and God willed them.
 
Kei said:
Hmmm…perhaps. St Padre Pio I believe said that Jesus is still in so much pain at the sins of the world, and indeed in Fatima our Lady told us the things done against her were like thorns in her heart. The angels and saints still pray for the salvation of souls, and I imagine the evil of the world bothers everyone up there.

But if by Heaven you mean after the Final Judgement, then I would imagine no, as Jesus said every tear shall be wiped away.
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Yes, I meant if there exist any pain after final judgment. I am already aware of importance of suffering in your system of thought. Why pain is bad in Heaven?
 
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