Does evil explain the grisly Manitoba Greyhound beheading of Tim McLean?

[AddisonMiles]

http://daoureport.com/thescoop/is-evil-the-only-explanation-for-the-grisly-manitoba-greyhound-beheading-of-tim-mclean/

Quote: "The daily litany of human savagery defies comprehension - women and children hacked to pieces; babies sliced out of wombs; young girls kidnapped, raped and buried alive; innocent civilians blown up at markets; political prisoners brutally tortured and murdered; daughters slaughtered by their parents in the name of "honor." How can we explain such gruesome, depraved acts? And how can we explain the perpetrators' lack of remorse?"

...

Jonathan Pincus, a neurologist and author of Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill? concludes that "it is the interaction of childhood abuse with neurologic disturbances and psychiatric illnesses that explains murder." Helen Morrison has studied the brains of serial killers for decades and offers this: ""What makes a serial killer? After all these years, I still don't know," she says in a cool, soothing voice. "We try to give them motives, but they don't have any. They just do it."

Do these acts - and all the murder, torture, mayhem, and cruelty that stain human history - prove the existence of evil?

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I believe evil is found within those that do evil things...it is not an external force that can

be quantified.

Evil people tend to band together, as with any other homogeneous group.

There are people who could never be forced to do evil..while there are those who would do evil things without much provocation.
It is a combination of nature and nurture.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I'm not convinced that those who randomly murder are 'evil', but they are certainly

disturbed and were raised without conscience. When a group of men sit in a room and plot to assassinate a world leader or bomb a country for power and money, that is evil. When they decide to torture and create millions of people fleeing from their homes, that is evil.

Serial killers and 'mob' hit men are evil, but the average person that kills people they don't know are sick.

[uppityperson]

5. Thank you for putting it so well. I was trying to figure out how to differentiate and you did well.

[Prefer]

3. Other famous killers who "appeared to be like robots"

Sirhan Sirhan - Killed Bobby Kennedy. Said to be in a trance like state. Was later demonstrated that he could be hypnotized and made to climb his cell like a monkey

John Muhammad - Ended his killing spree and manhunt by pulling into a restop, placing his wallet on the roof of his car and going to sleep, shortly after a demand to read the obscure phrase "Like a Duck In a Noose" was read aloud on national media.

[whistle]

4. Evil? You mean as possessed by the devil? Or evil as where a man has has allowed himself to sink

...to the lowest level of depravity?

[Vickers]

6. It's just all part of God's grand plan.

:eyes:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. I think it only proves there can be only one.

[EOTE]

11. Inappropriate.

But really funny. Perhaps he really was the Highlander.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. This is a "Does God Exist?" question

In other words, utterly pointless.

[AddisonMiles]

9. It's debatable whether one of humanity's eternal questions

is "utterly pointless" ;-)

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. It's also debateable

Whether such a category as "humanity's eternal questions" has any merit.

;-)

[TexasObserver]

10. We know what a sociopath is, but we don't know why they are the way they are.

Humans are bound by their social structures, which are essential to our success as a species. We are empathetic animals because our survival as a species requires it. The sociopath lacks that empathy, and that makes him or her very dangerous to the remainder of us.

[defendandprotect]

13. We're all capable of violence; we're all capable of being driven insane . . .

and there have certainly been forces over the past 30 odd years trying to move Americans

to greater violence --- and to put us all into "Shock & Awe" . . .

See Naomi Klein's book ---


Also remember that Patriarchy and Violence are mirror images of one another

As long as we have patriarchy we will have wars and violence --

Males are making war against life itself ---

[Orrex]

14. Does "evil" explain anything? Ever? Or does it just give us an excuse to stop trying to understand?

These horrible acts do nothing to prove the existence of evil as a real, objective force; they prove only that people are capable of acts of terrible cruelty and brutality. Some of the people who commit such acts are mentally ill; some are driven to these acts by desperation or fear or duress; and some do them for political expediency.

Calling them "evil" gets us no closer to understanding why they happen.