More new content just to fill up space...

As part of my program of telling everyone what to do and think, I have recently been answering a lot of questions on Yahoo! Answers. Figured I might as well share the wisdom here...

First question:

What Is The Definition of Evil?
I don't think there is any real definition of evil that covers everything. It's how people perceive certain activities that go against cultural norms or biases. Hell, I've even heard that eating shellfish is evil according to the Christian Bible and Jewish Torah. I used to eat shrimp all the time... I'm SO screwed when I die.

My feeling is that true evil doesn't exist in mankind, because the concept of evil itself is rooted in beliefs about the supernatural. We usually perceive "evil" in a person when their acts are so horrific that no real human being could have committed them -- the person must be connected with the Devil or something. What we're really perceiving, in my opinion, is evidence of a tragic mental imbalance with tragically horrible consequences.

But who's the first person that comes to mind when you hear the word "evil"? 9 times out of 10, people will say "Hitler". I know I'm playing the exaggeration card here, but bear with me.

Ask yourself, though, how did Hitler get into power? Wasn't it because so many people in Germany agreed with him? And what about all the people who carried out his horrible orders? Aren't they to be considered evil, too? And what about Germans who knew what was happening and didn't do anything to stop it? Aren't they, then, evil?

Fact is, Hitler and his followers did what they did because they believed that doing so would be to the betterment of mankind. There are still people I know who are otherwise very nice who believe Hitler wasn't as bad as he is made out to be. It's a belief born out of fear and ethical retardation.

Evil is just a word we use when we just can't understand how a person could do something like that. But looking at it as evil does no good, either. If someone is evil, then we don't need to ponder it any further -- but if someone has a mental imbalance that causes him to disregard the simple human courtesy of not hacking a victim up with a cleaver, then there's hope.

I know, this is a rambling essay filled with BS and leaps of logic. But if you're talking about a concept as out there as the definition of evil, then you're gonna get a lot of convoluted answers. Especially since I haven't given it much thought...