Can Atheists explain to me why there is evil and suffering in the world?

[Blackened]

Good/Evil is all just brain chemistry, a small change in the brain can completely alter a person's personality. There are numerous reports of people who have gone from having a nice friendly personality to cold and selfish after suffering a bit of brain damage.

There was even a case of a man who developed pedophilia urges so went to the doctor and was told he had a brain tumor, got it removed and the urges went away. The urges eventually came back so he returned to the doctor to find the tumor had returned.

But what is consciousness? And why do we experience?

I understand through evolution, our brains evolved to contain a "mind". But what the fuck is that? What the fuck is experience? It certainly seems bizarre that "all of that" can be contained in a spherical object smaller than a basketball on top of my neck and time itself is experienced by a series of chemical reactions.

 

[tramendous]

I am curious about atheistic perspective on this issue.

I am sure it will make a lot of sense.

Im a theist but i imagine that atheists dont believe in a supernatural or theistic cause of evil. In fact they probably dont believe evil exists. Im assuming they believe some people who have psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies cant feel remorse and some of these people are sadists who liking hurting others and are born that way and that this is what we normally define as evil. They believe the source of the behavior originating from your brain rather than the devil/soul. Of course this view is problematic in calling it "evil" because the person has little control over it and is born that way.

 

[meauneau]

The TS's question is not that important. What is important is that the fact that there is evil and suffering is evidence that makes naturalism more probable than traditional theism.

 

[Falsedawn]

Why does everything need a reason for it?

That's the cool thing about being agnostic/atheist, you can acknowledge that sometimes shit just happens for no reason.

Why does evil exist? Because people with the capacity for evil exist. Why do they exist? For no particular reason whatsoever.

 

[weed]

because there is good in this world.

 

[Rusk]

But what is consciousness? And why do we experience?

I understand through evolution, our brains evolved to contain a "mind". But what the fuck is that? What the fuck is experience? It certainly seems bizarre that "all of that" can be contained in a spherical object smaller than a basketball on top of my neck and time itself is experienced by a series of chemical reactions.

None of this exists according to materialistic (and therefore deterministic and therefore reductionist) point of view, and poster you are quoting got that view, sooo you are asking the wrong person and looking in the wrong places.

I know you question was probably rhetorical.

 

[Cid]

I never understood how the existence of God would have any correlation to the existence of suffering. Why would humans make this bizarre assumption that just because he exists he's concerned with your pain?

Well there's these books right...

 

[Rusk]

The TS's question is not that important.

What is important is that the fact that there is evil and suffering is evidence that makes naturalism more probable than traditional theism.

Why are you trying to change the subject? Like i said this thread got nothing to do with theism and God.

You already made a good thread about this subject, this thread is about something else.

 

[meauneau]

None of this exists according to materialistic (and therefore deterministic and therefore reductionist) point of view, and poster you are quoting got that view, sooo you are asking the wrong person and looking in the wrong places.

I know you question was probably rhetorical.

What do you mean with "materialistic"?

 

[Blackened]

None of this exists according to materialistic (and therefore deterministic and therefore reductionist) point of view, and poster you are quoting got that view, sooo you are asking the wrong person and looking in the wrong places.

I know you question was probably rhetorical.

Yeah. To me, it opens the possibility that there very well could be much "more".

As @Cid will probably tell you, it can be pushed even further.

I seriously wouldn't be surprised if there were some transcendental quality. "I AM", the way the Jews describe God is totally believable. And if so, anything is possible really.

I can't claim that "I know" the details though, so I really have a hard time believing. You'd have to accept the religious text as "gospel", for lack of a better word. Maybe? I dunno.

 

[IndyCovaHart]

lol is there really some profound answer necessary here?

Shit happens and then you die.

 

[Rusk]

What do you mean with "materialistic"?

"Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all phenomena, including mental phenomena and consciousness, are results of material interactions."

 

[Higus]

From an atheistic pov, suffering is a byproduct of existing. There isn't a purpose for it, it's just a consequence. "Evil" is concept. Perhaps a useful concept, but not something that can be measured or defined. As such, you can't really prove that it "exists" in any form other than conceptual.

 

[Cid]

Yeah. To me, it opens the possibility that there very well could be much "more".

As @Cid will probably tell you, it can be pushed even further.

I seriously wouldn't be surprised if there were some transcendental quality. "I AM", the way the Jews describe God is totally believable. And if so, anything is possible really.

I can't claim that "I know" the details though, so I really have a hard time believing. You'd have to accept the religious text as "gospel", for lack of a better word. Maybe? I dunno.

Don't think that was me you were responding to. Too deep, mine was the shitpost

 

[meauneau]

Why are you trying to change the subject? Like i said this thread got nothing to do with theism and God.

You already made a good thread about this subject, this thread is about something else.

I think it is a boring question honestly. You could have asked "why do we refer to some events in the world as evil" or "is suffering an evil?" or "why do different societies have different views on what is evil and what isn't", or "can objective moral values be discovered empirically or not, if not is there a non physical faculties with which we become aware of these objective values?", etc.

 

[Curly Peibce]

Evil and suffering by who's definition?

One way or another it's still just dog eats dog.

 

[meauneau]

"Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all phenomena, including mental phenomena and consciousness, are results of material interactions."

You can be a materialist and not be a reductionist.

Proponents of non-reductive materialism hold that the mental is ontologically part of the material world; yet mental properties are causally efficacious without being reducible to physical properties.

 

[Blackened]

Don't think that was me you were responding to. Too deep, mine was the shitpost

Talking about the Hoffman avatar my brother.

I know you know what I'm talking about.

 

[Blackened]

You can be a materialist and not be a reductionist.

Proponents of non-reductive materialism hold that the mental is ontologically part of the material world; yet mental properties are causally efficacious without being reducible to physical properties.

From my perspective, that doesn't really explain anything.

Mental properties are separate from the physical universe, not a part of matter? From that view? Sounds spiritual. Is the implication one can be a materialist and be spiritual?

 

[Rational Poster]

I am curious about atheistic perspective on this issue.

I am sure it will make a lot of sense.

Most people are just stupid and selfish. That's it.