Good and Evil

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I was thinking about St. Augustine’s conception of Evil which is lack of good and the verse in Genesis 3:22 about knowledge of Good and Evil: And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”. I was wondering how Evil could be known if it is only lack of Good.

Moreover, Evil states, such as anger, are something that we experience so how something that we experience could not exist. To me anger is only opposite of happy and we can experience both.
 
STT said:
I was thinking about St. Augustine’s conception of Evil which is lack of good and the verse in Genesis 3:22 about knowledge of Good and Evil: And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”. I was wondering how Evil could be known if it is only lack of Good.

Moreover, Evil states, such as anger, are something that we experience so how something that we experience could not exist. To me anger is only opposite of happy and we can experience both.
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I don’t think it’s good to link evil and anger.

One can be angry without evil.

One can be evil, quite happily.
 
I think of it in terms of hot and cold.

Cold, in a sense, does not exist either. It is only the absence of heat. And when there is literally no heat, you reach a temperature of absolute zero. But heat can keep getting hotter and hotter. There is no upper limit of temperature.

Good and evil are similar. Evil is not something in and of itself, but the absence of the good that ought to be there.

Now, simply because it is conceived as a lack of something rather than the presence of something does not mean that we don’t experience it. We certainly do experience it just as I am experiencing zero degree temperature right now.
 
Let me rephrase my question better. How evil could be knowable if it is objectively unreal?
 
Joe_5859 said:
I think of it in terms of hot and cold.

Cold, in a sense, does not exist either. It is only the absence of heat. And when there is literally no heat, you reach a temperature of absolute zero. But heat can keep getting hotter and hotter. There is no upper limit of temperature.

Good and evil are similar. Evil is not something in and of itself, but the absence of the good that ought to be there.

Now, simply because it is conceived as a lack of something rather than the presence of something does not mean that we don’t experience it. We certainly do experience it just as I am experiencing zero degree temperature right now.
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Could you please answer the question in post #5?
 
STT said:
Is happiness good?
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Careful not to assume happily and happiness are one in the same.

Keep the context clean.
Code: 
Doing something happily may not lead to happiness.
Happiness aka Joy, is good and desired for us by God.

We only find Joy at it’s deepest level, along of the path of ‘The Way’ (Jesus).

So there is a directional aspect.

Though that doesn’t mean all ‘little Joys’ are bad. For instance, the beer at the end of the work day.
 
STT said:
Let me rephrase my question better. How evil could be knowable if it is objectively unreal?
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I don’t know that saying evil lacks existence is the same thing as saying it is “unreal”.

But even so, we can know things by privation. It’s like filling in a puzzle with missing pieces. Identifying that which is missing tells us something about the absence.
 
Joe_5859 said:
I don’t know that saying evil lacks existence is the same thing as saying it is “unreal”.

But even so, we can know things by privation. It’s like filling in a puzzle with missing pieces. Identifying that which is missing tells us something about the absence.
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Let me explain myself better. One can easily know what evil is if evil is simply privation of good. The problem which is left is that what good is. So the tree must be called the tree of good instead of tree of knowledge which was not called therefore evil must be objectively real.
 
STT said:
I was thinking about St. Augustine’s conception of Evil which is lack of good and the verse in Genesis 3:22 about knowledge of Good and Evil: And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”. I was wondering how Evil could be known if it is only lack of Good.
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I think that evil is more than just the absence of good. Genesis 2:18 “It is not good for man to be alone” Is it actually evil for man to be alone, or is it merely not good?

If we divide actions into good, neutral and evil, then “not good” covers both the evil and the neutral actions. I do not agree that neutral actions should be classified the same as evil.

I think the “not good” definition is too simplistic.

$0.02

rossum
 
rossum said:
I think that evil is more than just the absence of good. Genesis 2:18 “It is not good for man to be alone” Is it actually evil for man to be alone, or is it merely not good?

If we divide actions into good, neutral and evil, then “not good” covers both the evil and the neutral actions. I do not agree that neutral actions should be classified the same as evil.

I think the “not good” definition is too simplistic.

$0.02

rossum
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Irrefutable! 👍
 
STT said:
I was thinking about St. Augustine’s conception of Evil which is lack of good and the verse in Genesis 3:22 about knowledge of Good and Evil: And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”. I was wondering how Evil could be known if it is only lack of Good.

Moreover, Evil states, such as anger, are something that we experience so how something that we experience could not exist. To me anger is only opposite of happy and we can experience both.
Click to expand...
Evil is known by experience. The actions of ISIS come to mind, which would be unheard of and unimagined in Eden. Eating the fruit of the tree swept A&E into a world where such evils and others would from then on be literally known, along with good, by contrast, which previously was simply the norm in all of God’s creation for them.
 
STT said:
Let me explain myself better. One can easily know what evil is if evil is simply privation of good. The problem which is left is that what good is. So the tree must be called the tree of good instead of tree of knowledge which was not called therefore evil must be objectively real.
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forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=14355140&postcount=39

The phrase “knowledge of good and evil” represents an arrogance over others, an institutionalised “right” to deny others’ rights. It is about power wielding rather than genuine power sharing.
 
rossum said:
I think that evil is more than just the absence of good. Genesis 2:18 “It is not good for man to be alone” Is it actually evil for man to be alone, or is it merely not good?

If we divide actions into good, neutral and evil, then “not good” covers both the evil and the neutral actions. I do not agree that neutral actions should be classified the same as evil.

I think the “not good” definition is too simplistic.

$0.02

rossum
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I don’t understand what is your conclusion.
 
STT said:
I don’t understand what is your conclusion.
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My conclusion is that the “not good” definition of evil is not accurate enough as a definition and should not be used.

rossum
 
STT said:
Therefore evil is not simply the absence of good.
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Ys, it’s still an absence, or a lessening, or a perverting of some good. Either way good is distracted from or decreased. Another way of putting it is that a lack of love can manifest itself in many kinds of harm being done to neighbor. Quite observable whenever it happens.
 
fhansen said:
Ys, it’s still an absence, or a lessening, or a perverting of some good. Either way good is distracted from or decreased. Another way of putting it is that a lack of love can manifest itself in many kinds of harm being done to neighbor. Quite observable whenever it happens.
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Does extreme evil exist? According to your definition, no. Do we experience extreme evil? Yes. So we have a sort of contradiction.
 
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