Why do people do such evil things?

[Logan's Runt]

The world is brutal, we're no better.

 

[raybia]

edit

 

[raybia]

We're animals with brains. :heart:

When we individually and collectively develop those brains into a mind then we are no longer animals. We then become something more, something far greater.

We become a Human being.

 

[Oddzball]

I swore I was going to take a long break from posting in message boards, but recent events have just bothered me so much I had to see if there was anyone else out there who felt the same way. By now most of you must know about the horrible tragedy Jennifer Hudson is going through, how inhuman to have an innocent child mixed up in this senseless violence and parade of violent death. And then there's yet another school shooting, this time in Arkansas, with two fatalities. All this cruelty has made me question whether we as a species are losing our minds? Why do people do such evil things to one another? It just makes me feel like crying out from all the pain in my heart for a world that is losing itself. It seems to me like the only real purity on this planet is the balance of nature, which humanity has seemed to turn its back on and delights in destroying. I just have to ask myself a lot why all this negative energy continues to thrive. When will all this apathy and senseless destruction end?

Greek Myth has Herakles butchering his own family in a bout of madness. Medea's method of punishing Jason is still one of the most outrageous crimes in literature. Procrustes was the first recorded serial killer.

Humanity has been at this sort of crap for a while and shows little sign of letting up.

 

[SuperFerret]

Yes, I know the whole Human Nature thing, but my God a 7 year old child who basically did nothing to anyone was brutally murdered. I think it's sick that such a lovely boy has suffered such a cruel fate. We, as Homo sapiens, have one thing most animal species do not have and that's thought and reason. It angers me that most of humanity insists on acting out with intolerable cruelty towards one another. With all our technological advances we still as a species have remained evolutionarily stagnant.

We're animals with brains. :heart:

When we individually and collectively develop those brains into a mind then we are no longer animals. We then become something more, something far greater.

We become a Human being.

You all really think that our "reason", "brains" and "thought" make us that much better than other species? I won't get into the reasons here, but I've got to disagree with all of that.

But, since you bring up the other species, allow me to put my two cents in. What do the other species have in abundance that we humans do not? Natural checks in population. Homo sapiens has no natural predators, is able to stave off and even defeat disease, and has a shockingly high survival rate in infants. Lacking the usual checks, humanity has improvised. Murder, wars, "evil", when there's nothing that can kill us, we have to thin the herd ourselves. It's cold, it's heartless, I know, but our species is already over-populated and I feel that that fact, combined with our advanced control over our environment, is what's led to these other population checks.

Now this isn't to say that I don't feel sadness for what happened to that child, or to anyone who has been denied their elderly years, all I'm stating is my understanding of it all.

 

[Captain Planet!]

Why? Because they can. They always have and they always will. No one will ever be able to completely stop that.

 

[Venom75]

We are all born with the capacity to do evil. We all have that dark side within ourselves. Most people just do a better job of controlling it than most. Maybe "evil" is instinctive?
Humans are the only creature that kills for fun or pleasure. All other animals kills for food or for protection. We were blessed with great intelligence over all the other life forms on earth,yet sometimes humans are capable of the stupidest actions.

 

[thedeadite]

I'm not really sure I believe that humans are the only creature that kills for fun/pleasure.
I remember reading that male bottlenose dolphins kill porpoises, for no reason apparant to scientists. Some believe it's for sport (fun). Mind you I don't remember where I read that so I have no source to back it up.

 

[thedeadite]

double

 

[Knightsaber Priss]

I tend to think evil thoughts are one thing (Like delighting in killing off a room of Sims by setting a stove fire.) but evil actions is just a total waste of potential. When will we ever get that universally if we can't evolve into more enlightened beings we'll never be anything more than a primitive planet of heathens.

 

[Master Chief]

You all really think that our "reason", "brains" and "thought" make us that much better than other species? I won't get into the reasons here, but I've got to disagree with all of that.

But, since you bring up the other species, allow me to put my two cents in. What do the other species have in abundance that we humans do not? Natural checks in population. Homo sapiens has no natural predators, is able to stave off and even defeat disease, and has a shockingly high survival rate in infants. Lacking the usual checks, humanity has improvised. Murder, wars, "evil", when there's nothing that can kill us, we have to thin the herd ourselves. It's cold, it's heartless, I know, but our species is already over-populated and I feel that that fact, combined with our advanced control over our environment, is what's led to these other population checks.

Now this isn't to say that I don't feel sadness for what happened to that child, or to anyone who has been denied their elderly years, all I'm stating is my understanding of it all.

Why'd you toss my quote in with the others? It's basically what you said in a sentence. I wasn't saying the brains made humans better. Murder and "evil" are population checks as you so put it, because it's a part of our nature, just like it's part of every animal's nature to kill each other; Look at monkeys, when s**t gets brutal between families one kills the other's babies by smashing their heads in.

The only difference is we can all hear about a murder and cry about it, because along with the technology making it possible we've been conditioned to think of every human life as special and unique.