You've made a good point here Jay T.  There are anti-heroes who do bad for the greater good. Are they really evil?  What is the difference between a man robbing a bank to keep his home, or feed his family, and a man robbing a bank to bankroll a hate group, or terrorist organization? 

are people good or evil? humans, like tim said are flawed. it comes(at least to me) the choices we make. like tim, i've done things i can't atone for, but if i drown in the darkness, evil wins. i can't change my past i can only change my future. the fact thank i can recognize the bad i've done and agonize over it, makes me "good side". evil can't do that. that bad things that are done to me? i've had to forgive those who did it. not forget those things, nor ever trust those people but so i don't lose me in the darkness. again its a choice. i make it sound so easy--so far from easy, i fight everyday. most label me as "naive", "miss goody-two-shoes" and "don't get reality". then i tell them my past they either don't believe it(at 1st) or just stare at me, dumb founded.

This is such a good blog JayT. 'Everything you do will affect someone, somewhere, somehow', is so true, but I doubt if many people out there would be comfortable with such an idea. Throughout the ages, people have undoubtedly looked to whatever religion they follow to define to them what is 'good' and what is 'bad', rather than use their own judgment. Maybe as a way of absolving them of any guilt. 'I don't make the rules around here, I just follow them like everyone else'.

Religion has a lot to answer for. Not a day goes by without someone killing someone else in the name of a God and they all believe that they're 'good' for doing it. I'm not just talking about the obvious loonies either. Apparently, God fought on both sides in WW1 & WW2 when in excess of 80 million people lost their lives. It makes you wonder if any of the religions out there are actually working for the right guy!

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It makes you wonder if any of the religions out there are actually working for the right guy!

like I said...is the devil's job to create evil or exploit the evil within??? I have to believe if there is a devil, it's to exploit the evil that's naturally there

I think that's correct. There must be a weakness there in the first place and it's in all of us.

30 minutes ago, JayT said:

like I said...is the devil's job to create evil or exploit the evil within??? I have to believe if there is a devil, it's to exploit the evil that's naturally there

I was taught that the devil has no power over humans. If someone chooses to be rotten to the core, they are supposedly weak in mind and spirit, making them vulnerable to Old Scratch's evil ways. lol I agree with tim, and moggy. We are flawed creatures, and in my opinion, arrogant to the point of ugliness. 
Although I am no longer a believer, I do know a few true Christians who actually follow the teachings of Christ. They don't pass judgement, they are beautiful, peace loving people who are not trying to earn their way into their God's Heaven by contributing the most money to the basket on Sunday. I am proud to know them. On the other hand I also know so called Christians who use their religion to excuse their evil ways. We all know this is nothing new. We humans, religious or not, have been corrupt from day one. Different day, same shit. 

We all have done things that we are ashamed of. But like Jay T pointed out, the level of harm to others might be taken into consideration..I think most would forgive a man who loves his family to the point of risking his life robbing a bank, but condemn hate mongers who are so evil they bring nothing but pain and suffering to the world. 

Everyone has an evil streak (or two, or three) inside. Humans are hopelessly flawed. Some events or circumstances can spark those evil tendencies to surface, but not all people inherently aim to do harm. Most people can decipher right from wrong and make sound choices based on certain values and morals that are put into place to keep us from completely destroying one another.

As Jay pointed out, there are varying levels of evil, and how actions affect other people, positively or negatively, makes a difference in the perception or acceptance of the wrongdoings. Some things are forgivable. Others are too deplorable to even consider. Each of us has to live with the choices we make, just as we must learn to deal with iniquities made against us. Like others have mentioned here, we have "evil" moments we must atone for. No one is free of guilt, because no one is perfect.

I do not believe humans are puppets, being directed to perform evil acts. But it's certainly tempting to place the blame on an evil superpower in order to absolve ourselves from the responsibility.

24 minutes ago, MacGreg said:

I do not believe humans are puppets, being directed to perform evil acts. But it's certainly tempting to place the blame on an evil superpower in order to absolve ourselves from the responsibility.

In order to grow, we much accept responsibility for the actions we choose. If we do not accept the responsibility and learn from our missteps (not mistakes) we grow stagnant and what is stagnant is dead.

22 hours ago, R J Drew said:

You've made a good point here Jay T.  There are anti-heroes who do bad for the greater good. Are they really evil?  What is the difference between a man robbing a bank to keep his home, or feed his family, and a man robbing a bank to bankroll a hate group, or terrorist organization? 

In the eyes of the law, there is no difference and anyone who attempts to take money from a bank can expect no leniency. I have enough trouble taking my own money out! Seriously though, I have never heard of anyone robbing a bank to feed his/her family but I know someone from Boston who told me that he used to regularly put money into a bucket that was passed around his local bar in the eighties or nineties to go to the IRA who were fighting the British in Northern Ireland. They were also planting bombs in pubs, department stores, and museums in London and other cities in the UK, which killed and maimed a lot of innocent people, including young children. Not much different to what ISIS are doing nowadays. He was therefore indirectly funding a terrorist organization and although he admits now that he may have been wrong to do this, he's not exactly riddled with guilt or losing any sleep over it. This guy is married with kids and he's one of the nicest people that you could meet. It's impossible to imagine him hurting anyone.  

3 minutes ago, Dodger said:

In the eyes of the law, there is no difference and anyone who attempts to take money from a bank can expect no leniency. I have enough trouble taking my own money out! Seriously though, I have never heard of anyone robbing a bank to feed his/her family but I know someone from Boston who told me that he used to regularly put money into a bucket that was passed around his local bar in the eighties or nineties to go to the IRA who were fighting the British in Northern Ireland. They were also planting bombs in pubs, department stores, and museums  London and other cities in the UK, which killed and maimed a lot of innocent people, including young children. Not much different to what ISIS are doing nowadays. He was therefore indirectly funding a terrorist organization and although he admits now that he may have been wrong to do this, he's not exactly riddled with guilt or losing any sleep over it. This guy is married with kids and he's one of the nicest people that you could meet. It's impossible to imagine him hurting anyone.  

the IRA was a terrorist organization, but then again Westboro Baptist Church was a terrorist organization too

13 minutes ago, JayT said:

the IRA was a terrorist organization, but then again Westboro Baptist Church was a terrorist organization too

I must admit, I just had to read up about this so-called church. They're really scary!

1 minute ago, Dodger said:

I must admit, I just had to read up about this so-called church. They're really scary!

when their leader/preacher died a few years back, they lost a lot of their pull....I used to have a Meme that read Live your life like Westboro Baptist Church would protest your funeral

8 minutes ago, JayT said:

when their leader/preacher died a few years back, they lost a lot of their pull....I used to have a Meme that read Live your life like Westboro Baptist Church would protest your funeral

Those holy rolling, Bible thumping bastards! The Westboro Baptist Church...what a bunch of nuts. 

5 minutes ago, R J Drew said:

Those holy rolling, Bible thumping bastards! The Westboro Baptist Church...what a bunch of nuts. 

gotta love their official website www.godhatesfags.com funny story though.....the man who hosted this site was gay and charged them out the ass to keep the website going

1 minute ago, JayT said:

gotta love their official website www.godhatesfags.com funny story though.....the man who hosted this site was gay and charged them out the ass to keep the website going

That really is funny. Did they know this?

Just now, Dodger said:

That really is funny. Did they know this?

they had to....everyone else refused to host their site