Reflection on Out of the Silent Planet Socratic Seminar

The issue of the distinction between humans and other animals was brought up today. Although many people believed that humans are superior in intelligence to animals and therefore capable of evil, I don't think the dualism between humans and other species is that defined. Dolphins and apes have been proven to be self aware and intelligent, and many other animals are also constantly surprising us with how similar to humans they really are. I don't think humans are really "evil". First off, evil is subjective. What one person may view as evil may be seen as heroic by another. For example, terrorism. One side sees it as evil, the other as noble. In this case, evil really depends on what side of the conflict you're on. Second, no human does evil for no reason. If evil is done for a practical reason, it doesn't really count as pure evil because the perpetrator is probably doing it for food. To survive. Or for their families. Or because they have an unfortunate physical addiction or fetish that they can't get away from. No human does something purely evil. All of our actions have reasoning behind them, murderers have psychological problems and can't fight it. School shooters are depressed and feel wronged by society. Robbers want money to live more happily than they are currently. The problem of evil is more of an illusion than a real problem. Also, all of us have the same built in goals in life: perpetuation of our offspring and species and self preservation. "Evil" acts are often justified by these goals. Balance is also important for life. Without any "evil", there wouldn't be any good. Although evil is subjective and has problems with its definition, many of us have built in morals that preserve the goals stated previously and portraying all opposing acts as evil. Everything is relative and lies on a spectrum. Nothing is pure evil, nothing is pure good. Another issue that was brought up is war. I think war is caused by struggle for power (resources), for the same reason we want to perpetuate as much of our genes into the future generation as possible. Other causes are simply stated reasonings for the same power. Religion, for example, is an excuse for conflict and war even though the basis of religion lies in good things like hope and prayer and peace.