Does The Devil exist?

It’s a given that there are/ have been many Gods in different cultures. But could it be there’s only one Devil? Is evil pretty much the same in every religion culture?

 

I'm going to look into this. The lass across the road is some psychotherapist. I will make enquiries.

 

I think we as people aren't so different and that evil looks generally the same i.e. the absence of good. On the devil, I suppose all we can go on are our feelings, the same with God. People joke about a 'man in the sky with a beard' in the same way they joke about a pitchfork and horned beast, but like with good and evil it's a feeling in your core rather than an image, so the devil probably 'feels' the same to those who believe in it, regardless of religion. I would add further that only a fool would believe there is a 'God' but no 'devil.'

 

Keep me updated!

 

Psychopaths don't have to be murderers. They just don't have compassion or care for others and will readily manipulate for personal satisfaction without feeling of remorse.

There are plenty of psychopaths and sociopaths in the upper realms of business for example I think something between 1 and 0.5% of the population display all of the traits of a psychopath, but around a quarter of the population display at least one of the typical traits at some point.

 

But ultimately those are all subjective judgements not absolutes.

 

Our own feelings are subjective though. But collectively most people will agree on basic good/evil principles. My point was that I think individually we know if we have done good or bad things and we don't need the judgment of others to confirm or establish that.

 

Yes, agreed. I was talking about more extreme, consistent psychopathy but take your point.

 

Never so black and white
Well we now come to a trivial but important detail. If this is a grey squirrel and it's in England, it's vermin and we should be killing as many as possible - in fact I'd say the best thing to do all round is to kill em all and eat them.

But obv's if I was a vegan that'd be immoral, a buddhist? against my religion, a hindu? fine cos the squirrel isn't as important as me. a Muslim or jew? I could eat it so long as it'd been blessed

edit... from many different viewpoints, the death of a squirrel isn't necessarily evil or even a particularly bad thing

 

Psychopathy and other personality disorders usually stem from childhood trauma such as abuse or neglect. Their personality is effectively shattered at an early age and it is usually beyond repair. They learn other ways to get what they need due to previously being subjected to horrible life experiences and no positive role models, so will manipulate, feign empathy and kindness etc. They will often find it difficult to regulate their emotions or go the opposite way in showing very little whatsoever.

DBT (dialectical behavioural therapy) and Schema Therapy are somewhat effective at teaching ways to cope with personality disorder symptoms, but I would not go as far as say they would ever be "cured". People with personality disorders often burn out as they get older, too, so the symptoms soften a bit.

 

Yes in practice I agree most people have a similar basic moral compass. But still we making a self judgement on what we believe to be good or right. Good and evil are just terms we have created to label the extreme spectrums of behaviour as we judge it.
One person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.
I just think it's a interesting concept when you really think about it deeply.
Now don't get me wrong I will describe people or actions as evil, I'm not trying to suggest all behaviour should be acceptable. Ultimately I suppose we all have the freedom to do anything we like and through either our own judgement or fear of the judgement of society we make our choices on what is acceptable.

 

The killing and eating is a good point Donny. I stopped eating meat 3 years ago when i came out of a relationship and started cooking for myself. Before that, I used to feel guilty for eating meat and had been considering vegetarianism for a few years, so in effect i was a hypocrite for continuing to eat it. I accept that many meat-eaters can separate the packaged product from the animal. But i can guarantee that for the majority of people, regardless of religion or moral compass, if they engaged in the act of strangling or knifing a squirrel to death and watched the life leave its eyes, all of the points listed above as reasons to kill a squirrel would become insignificant and the feeling of guilt - however fleeting - would present itself.

 

Personally, I find the best way of killing grey squirrels is drowning.

* Though thankfully its a very good number of years since I last had to do such a thing.

** Also note, bizarrely, that it's actually illegal to release a squirrel into the wild if it's been trapped.

 

You savage!

 

It's not like I ate them raw or anything!!! I did sell a couple to one of our local restaurants though! Until they realised living in our loft was a poor life choice, the squirrels, not the restaurateurs

 

Lovely bit of squirrel...

 

IMO... given everyone should be free to believe what they want to... God is a man made construct as is the Devil. If God exists or does not exist man would still create one.

Organised religion is man made and very little to do with God and has been used over many centuries to manage and control the population using the carrot and stick approach... be good 'i.e. do as instructed by the religious leaders and you'll be rewarded in the afterlife. Fail to 'tow the line' and oblivion or worse... an eternity in 'hell' will be your fate.

In some respects, it makes sense, especially in relatively primitive societies before governments and democratic systems evolved became the 'glue' that held societies together. After all if you believe that there are absolutely no repercussions for anything you do on this Earth...good or bad, for a proportion of the population, the temptation to do anything they want for self enrichment goes unchecked. If, on the other hand, you have powerful religions leaders in the community constantly talking of hell and heaven, many people come to believ in it and temper their behaviour. At the same time, these religious sects mades sure of their power base and consolidated them by making contiributions to them important part of the whole system. Any dissenters are accused of blasphemy and ostracised or worse.

Indioviduals are capable of being both good and bad, but the proportion differs from person to person. Attitudes to good and bad are inherent, some from life experience in adulthood and some from upbringing -parental influences and the sort of crowd you fall in with in early adulthood when most susceptible to peer pressure.

 

We disagree fundamentally on this.
As a species we’ve hundreds of thousands of years history as omnivores. The biggest reason more people are becoming vegetarian is the fact that industrialised meat has separated the packaged meat from the animal to such an extent that when people make the connection it upsets them.

I believe if we all still lived as hunter gatherers vegetarianism would only be widespread where meat was scarce or where religions like Buddhism became popular.

Killing other animals to eat is such a fundamental part of ‘life’ that the vast majority of life on earth depends on it.

I’m not macho, I know I’d be squeamish the first time I slit a rabbits throat for dinner, but I reckon after half a dozen I’d be fine with it.

 

That's fine Donny, we can agree to disagree.

 

Both Yourself and Donny Red have valid arguments. I go with the argument that we , as a species are omnivores. I also agree that if you have the wherewithall and the knowledge to eat a Vegan or vegetarian diet and be healthy then, if that is what you want you should certainly not be ridiculed. I object to the evangelical types though who take the moral high ground and berate we meat eaters. Worse still the extremist 'meat is murder' brigade who carry out extreme criminal acts against farmers etc.
What we should all agree on though is the quality of life enjoyed by animals bred for food and the manner in which they are transported and killed, parlticularly the industrialisation of the processes.

We eat too much meat, too often, and demand low prices. If people could be persuaded to eat less meat and be prepared to pay more or the same for less then Welfare could take centre stage in animal husbandry. Governments could certainly help in making provenance information for all meat and poultry available to customers be it from butchers, retaurants or fast food outlets.