Can people be good or evil? Or is it their actions that are good or evil?

Question

I think its people's actions that are good or evil, not the person themself. Some people do terrible things, like killing people, but at the end of the day they're still able to love, and even if at the moment they can't, isn't is possible for them to realize what they're doing is wrong? How can we call someone who can still feel good emotions evil? Who are we to judge them? I think that people are people, and their actions can be defined by this good and evil, but I would like to know what other people think.

Answer 1

well its up to thier route. a good person is good, and an evil is evil, they dont change

Answer 2

I wish I could add you to my contacts, because I love your questions.  

You are SOOOO right.  Man only knows the things of man; if he is hungry, tired, cold, hot, etc.  Evil & good deeds come from another source which influences man, and not from the man himself.  These sources are spiritual sources.  God's word says that we don't war against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness.  It is these evil spirits that will be destroyed at the end of the world, not the men which they influence.

I am almost alone in this belief, but my heart tells me this is the way it will be.

edit:

Answerer, Time Will Tell, is talking about those like "Legion" mentioned by Jesus in the bible.  He was completely overcome by a multitude of evil spirits, but once Jesus cast them out of the "man", the man was restored to his right mind.  So, who was to blame for his actions while the demons ruled him?  The man, or the evil spirits?  I say the evil spirits are to blame alone.

Answer 3

Dear Friend,

                       The definition of Good and Evil is like tossing a coin in the air and guessing which side will come up i.e. Heads or Tails, though both are the 2 sides of the same coin.One cannot exist without the other. It is inherent Nature in our selves,which works like Yin and Yang.

In religion, ethics, and philosophy, the phrase, good and evil refers to the evaluation of objects, desires, and behaviors across a dualistic spectrum, wherein in one direction are those aspects which are morally positive, and the other are morally negative. The good is sometimes viewed as whatever entails reverence towards either life, continuity, happiness, or human flourishing, while evil is given to be the support for their opposites. Depending on the context, good and evil may represent personal judgments, societal norms, or claims of absolute value related to human nature or to transcendent religious standards.

There is no consensus over whether either goodness or evil are intrinsic to human nature. The nature of goodness has been given many treatments; one is that the good is based on the natural love, bonding, and affection that begins at the earliest stages of personal development; another is that goodness is a product of knowing truth. Differing views also exist as to why evil might arise. Many religious and philosophical traditions claim that evil behavior is an aberration that results from the imperfect human condition (eg. "The Fall of Man"). Sometimes, evil is attributed to the existence of free will and human agency. Some argue that evil itself is ultimately based in an ignorance of truth (i.e., human value, sanctity, divinity). A variety of Enlightenment thinkers have alleged the opposite, by suggesting that evil is learned as a consequence of tyrannical social structures, good is good evil is bad.[clarify] And by a rationalist or evolutionary perspective, humans are biologically adapted to carry out a variety of game theory strategies, some of which may promote individual utility at the expense of group utility, which, if the disparity is extreme enough, would be termed evil. Goodness in mathematics has also been related to entropy and information theory, as well as how well a statistical model will reflect a set of observations (known of as goodness of fit).

Although goodness is generally not considered to be a real or well-established property under the laws of physics, each person's highly individual concept of the perfect good has profound psychological significance. Agreement is divided over the extent to which this with the real world, but there is little disagreement that one's concept motivates one's actions in the real world.

Theories of moral goodness inquire into what sorts of things are good, and what the word "good" really means in the abstract. As a philosophical concept, goodness might represent a hope that natural love be continuous, expansive, and all-inclusive. In a monotheistic religious context, it is by this hope that an important concept of God is derived —as an infinite projection of love, manifest as goodness in the lives of people. In other contexts, the good is viewed to be whatever produces the best consequences upon the lives of people, especially with regard to their states of well being.

Answer 4

I think its your soul or whatever that drives your actions...therefore if you are an evil person you are going to do bad things.  If you don't all the time its only b/c you had self control or something, but in the end we are who we are.

Answer 5

Well, it really depends on what your definition of "evil" is.

I mean, yeah, a lot of things are pretty universally considered evil. Rape and murder come to mind.

But there is a lot of things then that becomes a matter of personal ethics. One person may vehemently believe that abortion is evil, and another doesn't. See?

Answer 6

An action which has the property of being "evil" in one context (situation,) may be "good and proper" in another context. Actions are nothing more than actions.

But it is the purpose of the action within the context that makes it evil or good. And "purpose" is applicable only to humans, not to actions per se.

We may use the words "That was an evil act." But we really mean the act had evil intent. Intent is purposive. The act didn't happen by itself. That particular act was chosen--by a person.

Choices have purposes, and to say it once again--purposes are attributable only to people.

Answer 7

There are good and bad parts in all of us. But I know for a fact that there are some that are truley evil by nature and know that there are some who are evil but think of themselves as rightous.

To some degree you are right. But you really must rethink your thoughts. I can say this because I have seen things. There will always be preditors and prey. Life isn't only about that but I am responding to this question.

Then there are thouse that get caught in the middle. No, we shouldn't judge them, your right, but can you come up with a better idea on how to protect the innocent?

You cannot change true preditors.  What else can we do?

Answer 8

The older i get, the more I feel people are more evil than good...even though I choose to take the high road! I don't get surprised anymore!

Answer 9

I don't think we can judge by either, because what we deem as evil may be totaly acceptable in other cultures. For instance we all believe that muslim extremists are evil, however they truly believe what they are doing is the word of god and that we are evil. So I dont think that you can  judge a person as evil by their actions or their affiliations. I belive it is more a point of view than anything else. I believe that execution is a just punishment for multiple offenders does that make me evil? I believe a woman has a right to choose wether or not to give birth does that make me evil? No but there will be readers on here that believe that i am. Because in their eyes or from their "ponit of view" I am.

Answer 10

People are what they do.  But because there is no absolute definition of what is good or what is evil there's no way to say "this person is evil" or "this person is good".  When we say "this is a bad person" we generally mean this is a person who does things which we judge to be bad, but others might judge the same actions to be good.  The 9/11 gang are generally regarded in the US as the epitome of evil, but their own folk hold that they are martyrs upon whom unreasonable numbers of virgins will be lavished.  Plus, I suppose, an eternal supply of Viagra.

Answer 11

human commits mistakes that he didn't intend to do and others, yes. we may predict that a person is evil not at all times, but if we only see or heard he do evil things and sooner, if he did good things, we may able to think that his good at it. so it depends, we didn't have the power if that person is bad by looking him. but God did, he knows all about his creation. just like an invention you haven't  seen  yet and didn't know how it operates. you may able to tell how if it done anything or you may ask the inventor what is it for. same as knowing the identity of a person so you may able to predict if his really good.