How can some people be so evil?

Question

I watched a documentary last night about Dennis Rader the "B.T.K" serial killer, and i just cant get into my head how evil some people are. I think i'm losing faith in humanity.

Answer 1

welcome to the club!

Answer 2

I sound like a cynic when I use science to explain emotions. Like telling people that love is all about the release of hormones, but sometimes I can only use science to explain things. According to the FBI half of murderers have Anti-Social personality disorder, ASPD. (Which doesn't mean they avoid people, that's avoidant personality disorder. Pop culture screwed up the meaning.) The DSM-V1, which is the book psychologists have to use to diagnoses psychotic and mental disorders, lists the symptoms of ASPD. A few are  apathy towards others, a disregard for rights of others, a sense of entitlement, unremorseful, unconscienceable, blameful to others, manipulative, and affectively cold . And this seems to have something to do with the prefrontal cortex of the brain. It's been found that the prefrontal cortex of the brain of murdrerers has 11% less grey matter than normal people. The prefrontal cortex inhibits the limbic system which is the part of the brain that controls aggression and  the right orbital cortex controls fear. So if you were born with a right orbital cortex that doesn't function well, you might have a problem having a conscious.

But not everyone with these biological symptoms turns into an evil person. So there has to be some influence from their personal life and how they were raised. Have you heard the term "nature vs nurture"? (Biology vs Culture) I think in the case of these people it's both. They may have had a horrible life and unfortunately already have the disadvantage of a brain that doesn't function normally.

I'm using my text books to explain this, (psych major) but this website talks about it and it's pretty much accurate to the DMV-V1. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/ne... . Ok that ends my boring biology lesson.

Answer 3

People are apes.

Answer 4

join the club, evil is everywhere and there is no way in stopping it spreading, maybe their is just one person out there in the world who is really kind and genuine, but really its a mask, deep down that person is evil and just waiting to spread mayhem, watch American Pyshco

Answer 5

Sorry to tell you pal, but theres evil in everyone.  Some are just worse than others.  Whats important is that YOU Keep YOUR  head straight.  

And "IceMan" is waaay worse than the B.T.K.

Child molesters are worse (in my opinion).  They top the heap.

The best thing is not to dwell on it, but be informed like you are doing.  You'll get over it and eventually develop a calloused heart like the rest of us.

Answer 6

Don't lose faith in humanity. Think about it: all the documentaries are about the evil people. Why doesn't anyone do documentaries about the good people? Our earth is full of them! No one realises it because all the publicity goes to the evil people, but i think all is balance--the yin yang, you know? Evil is balanced with good. It may not seem like it at first, but look around you carefully: loving parents tucking their child in bed, brothers and sisters displaying their tough love, young couples, old couples, charity workers, teachers...so many persons who never did an act of evil in their lives and end up dying unknown because they didn't. It's the fault of the media--why do they keep showing us the evil side of the world?

Don't lose your faith in the world, friend. Loads of wonderful people are still here, and we shoudl praise them instead of ignore their existence. (but first to be praised should be my Mom, who rocks my world!)

Answer 7

It is written into our DNA.  Humans are primates that harbor primal urges just like our cousins the chimps.   We just evolved, for the most part, the ability to reason over our emotions.  Sometimes something doesn't go right in the upstairs department of humans and they lash out just like any other animal would.  It is sad, but it is life.

Answer 8

Welcome to your first step on the right path!

Humanity is crumbling. The problem no one wants to do anything about it.  I agree that indiscriminant killing is an atrocity that needs to be ended.  Of course, to do that, changes need to be made. Bo no one wants to hear that.

I just watched a documentary on possible astrological events that could potently end life on earth and I began to wonder if that's not such a bad idea. Maybe not all life, but a disaster that killed 3/4 of humanity may not be such as bad thing. It would give us a chance to start over.

But hay, maybe I'm just as horrible as Rader, but I don’t think so!

Answer 9

people just are jason - their minds arent quite all there and they just dont fit into society like most people. something has gone seriously wrong somewhere for people to commit murder etc

Answer 10

For every evil person there are countless others who are kind, considered and concerned.  So don't loose faith in humanity.  Unfortunately it is often the horrible news that are trumpeted out into the world, and that is what sticks to our minds and influences our thinking.

Answer 11

dont lose it just lose the losers

Answer 12

Hello,

(ANS) Mans inhumanity to man seems to know no bounds sadly. History is littered with blood shed of the most horrible kind, I could quote endless examples (but wont). From the Aztecs, the Spanish conquistadors through to the n***s and Stalin to Al Quida & so on.

**Thats why I have no belief what so ever in any form of a god, because there has been more killing & murder in the name of god and religion than anything else on this earth.

**So, OK!! if there was a god why does he or it permit humans to go on slaughtering each other endlessly. What kind of a god then creates humans, makes an earth for them and then allows them to go on wiping each other out?? is that just a wee bit counter productive of god?? Is that all a stupid god could come up with, wouldn't god have come up with something abit more useful than that?

Ivan

Answer 13

some people are just born evil. it isn't always a question of

how a person is raised or what they are taught. good & evil

does exist & sometimes thats just the way a person is born.

Answer 14

If you pay evil no attention it has no power! try focusing your undivided attention on good things people do and dwell on those instead. you will be shocked to learn how much of a difference it makes.

Answer 15

who really knows probably they have never been wanted and have been abused a lot as a child. In fact I think most criminals have been. thats why it is important to take care of your kids and protect them.

Answer 16

think of us as an intelligent animal that still wants to be civilized

Answer 17

All mankind are evil and have sinned, ever since man fell in the garden man has been sinful. The only thing to reconcile our sins is the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ.

Answer 18

Stop watching those documentaries. They'll depress you. Some people are just mentally sick - but know how to hide it so that they appear normal a lot of the time. That's what's really scary - when they act normal but aren't.

But honestly, I think to an extent a lot of people are "backstabbers." They enjoy inflicting pain on others, whether via a cruel word, or a mean action. And then there are those people who literally do it.

Go do something nice for someone today. Donate blood. Volunteer somewhere. When you're with people who do things for others you'll start to regain your faith.

Answer 19

Evil has been on the earth a lot longer than Dennis Rader.  Think about what Adolf Hitler did to the Jews or what Roman Emperor Nero did to the Christians.

It is actually a mystery why these people were so cruel.  Some say it was linked to how they were raised as children.  But I believe that this is just a bunch of psycho-babble.  These people were placed on Earth to change it through the suffering of others.  I don't know why.  But I'm guessing things would have been different if these weasels didn't exist.

Answer 20

its not a question of being "evil" or not these people are sociopaths and that is a mental condition

Answer 21

ppl have been like this since the dawn of humanity....witness Cain and Abel (the first murder).

Most of us are not sociopaths.

Answer 22

Unfortunately today in day with so much movies of terror in where massacre is part of the condition, urges those whose mentalities are confused or with social problems.

It has to take for example this type, from shows; the bases in the human being are fundamental and the love that like parents, the discipline and our habits are crucial, we pruned to improve that there is in a future less criminals of this type.

Answer 23

Childhood trauma, enviroment, you can put all those factors in, but in the end, it's their choice to be the way they are.  Don't lose faith, man, for every Dennis, there's 50 good people.

Answer 24

Cus they have no feckin' LIVES!

Answer 25

Some people do appear to be born with a propensity for wickedness

Answer 26

you should of lost faith in humanity waaaay before BTK

Answer 27

*A lack of thinking with common sense.

*Or they are dealing with a ton of problems, and they don't know how to deal with it responsibility.

Answer 28

I know what you mean, so then I have to remember all the good people in the world, trying to make it a better place. Shalom

Answer 29

good for you.

Answer 30

There's no such thing as evil... I haven't seen the documentary but from the way I see things persons who are imagined to be "evil" don't actually imagine themselves to be so or they wouldn't perpetrate or enact the "mischief" they do. They find their circumstances validate their actions or that they're actions are not wrong at all.

Further one should consider that the actions of "right minded" people are also founded on their circumstances and desires.

It is important to remember that society itself delineates between "good" and "evil" and the basis of this delineation is often based on irrationality and mere political and economic expediency.

Individuals themselves cannot be "evil". Society is required for "evil".... even to extent of being the sole frame of reference to define "evil", as without any detriment there could be no wrong.

Evil individuals are a mythology which exists only to protect political and economic interests and underlying and corollary moral and personal status quos.

Answer 31

if evil didnt happen, how would u appreciate the good?