Do you think its True that a person can only see Evil in others if they have some knowledge and experience of it in themselves?

Everyone has their ideas about what things are evil, but that doesn’t mean you have to experience them. To me that’s kind of like assuming you have to fall of a cliff to know it hurts. Paranoia is often a healthy human trait, and it isn’t necessarily learned.

You can see good in others without being taken advantage of. There are charity organizations all over the place that are testimony to that. I know some really good Christians and they are not pushovers by any stretch of the imagination.
And that has nothing to so with evil.
Your argument is a fallacy. The fact that you’ve been taken advantage of more than once proves only that you are still a bit naive, gullible, credulous…take your pick of adjectives. It has nothing whatsoever to do with any existence of evil, or anybody else’s knowledge of it.

In my eyes evil will always overshadow good in a person. In fact evil will stick out like a sore thumb in people. Evil people suck the life blood out of you. Evil people are selfish users and I have no use for evil people.

Having my occupation for so many years, i have developed a sixth sense, when it comes to seeing evil in people. it just comes naturally. i can look at a person and automatically suspect they have committed some time of crime. is this whats called a “gut feeling”? probably so. i did not go looking for this ability, it just came natural to me. what else can you really expect from a police officer? its what we do.

Example: wife and i went to play bingo at a new location. never been there before. i spotted this person(later discovered to be the bingo caller), in the back of the room, standing in front of the bingo machine. i instantly told my wife that “man is a theif and i do not trust him”. sixth instinct? probably. i went into the mens restroom and here was this same person, taping bingo numbers on his cutoff bluejeans pocket. i did not say a word to him, but my suspicions were correct. he was cheating with someone in the audience. halfway during the games, my wife and i noticed the bingo caller and his friend, exchange money won by his friend. enough was enough. i exposed him in front of the bingo audience and he was terminated. how did i know this? gut feeling.

It’s the concept of right and wrong.Most people know the difference.

The idea of someone who had never been exposed to evil seems far fetched. After all, even if you are good, you are living on this planet. Evidence of evil is all around you.

Therefore, I think someone who is good can recognize evil.

(No need to capitalize _good, evil, bad, and true.)

You can be a good person and still keep your radar working so people don’t take advantage of you.

Really evil behavior is different; most people who do dreadful things have had very abusive childhoods. I guess there is an occasional bad seed; I don’t know what the stats are.

I think you need to get a hobby

No, I don’t.

You don’t have to be a butthole to be able to smell one.

No , well yes actually. The experience and knowledge can come from exposure, it doesn’t necessarily have to come from inside ones self.

We contain both “Evil” and “good” within us.
Not too much a reach to see it in others.

That is if you let go of guilt, self loathing and optimism.

If this discussion is to be useful we need to decide whether we are taking about maladaptive, antisocial, hurtful behaviour or some metaphysical concept of “Evil.”

If we are talking about some propensity to act in an adaptive, pro-social, benevolent, benign manner, then we are discussing “good” behaviour.

We have the ability to demonstrate both kinds of behaviour. Psychological dysfunction may produce an observable shift towards “negative” or “harmful” behaviour.

“or some metaphysical concept of “Evil.””

Evil is metaphysical.

Wrong is another word and a better word to use.

@john65pennington So…if you looked at me you just know that I stole some Twinkies from a Shop Ez when I was 8????? And worse…some rolling papers (to write spy notes on. Boy, I got busted big time when my dad saw those! I had no idea what they were for….)

I think that if you’re a bad person, you tend to view everyone as bad, even if your just imagining it. Same with if you’re a good person, you tend to see the good in others.

I’ve never witnessed true poverty, death, and destruction, but I can see the evil in the North Korean government and what it does to it’s people.

No, I never have been proponent of you have to experience it to recognize it.

@YARNLADY NEEDS YARN :) I agree. I can recognize that Charlie Mansion is pretty evil. We all can.

@john65pennington sounds intense ~