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Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

Can evil be scientifically quantified as to what it really is?

Asked by Hypocrisy_Central (26879points) September 20th, 2011

In this question, as well as other threads, evil is tossed in, and batted about. In an isolated construct, what is evil? Evil can be accurately measured, like temperature, wind speed, etc, if no humans are harmed can it still be evil, and if so, how so? So long as no one was harmed why would sports hunting, greed, gambling, etc be evil or even remotely seen as evil? For evil to be evil, what qualifying traits, or benchmarks does it need to meet? Who gets to be the authoritarian body to validate evil to make it evil an ”official evil”?

attack the question purely scientific, only off facts or something you can accurately measure on a scale like wind speed, weight, Ohms, BTUs, etc, no connection to deities, entities, theologies, etc

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10 Answers

rebbel's avatar

Yes.
It’s E=uvc2.

King_Pariah's avatar

It can’t be quantified, it is not whatever the majority of man agrees that the abstract idea of good is. Abstract things cannot be measured.

Blackberry's avatar

I’m assuming it would be a thorough psychological and mental evaluation by professionals.

ddude1116's avatar

I’m sure it can, but it’d be such an intricate process that it would be virtually futile in actual use.

dreamwolf's avatar

Evil is intentions based. If Intention=Negative Cause to someone, and how many times they think about it, it can be quantified.

I=NC(T) of any thought that causes harm to another or ones self. Yeah I made this up, but it makes sense. If you plan to publish it, let me know at least :D

boxer3's avatar

evil don’t look like anything.

YARNLADY's avatar

Not with our present technology, but advances are being made all the time in detection methods through genetics, microbiology, and brain scan data. Perhaps it will someday be possible.

cockswain's avatar

Evil has no bearing or existence outside the human mind IMO. There isn’t an evil force flowing throughout our galaxy. Evil is a sociological phenomena.

wonderingwhy's avatar

Evil is just a subjective label societies and individuals use to define (usually, extreme) behaviors or beliefs they find intolerable. You can measure it but only in the sense of what is/was considered evil during a specific period of time.

cockswain's avatar

@wonderingwhy Great answer. My sentiments exactly. Slavery and the Crusades are evil by my standards, but were considered necessary and rights in another time.

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