Do you believe that evil exists?

[wuapinmon]

I was in an Ingles supermarket in Henderson, NC this afternoon waiting in line to check out. I got this completely dreadful uneasy feeling in my soul. It was draining in an instant. I looked around and saw three men, large muscular men, with tattoos all over their bodies (including necks and faces) coming across the store at a good clip. I instinctively reached out and pulled my daughter Marley closer to me. I didn't stare at them, but I watched them (out of the corner of my eye) approach and pass me. All of the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. It was a feeling of absolute dread. It wasn't fear. I'm not afraid of anyone (unless they have a weapon), but this was something else.

I'm no seer or psychic, but I felt like there was a great evil near me even before I saw them. Something in my soul told me to avoid them at all costs, and I did. I've only felt this way a couple of times before in my life.

Even now as I sit here, I have a knot in my stomach thinking about that moment, and the dread that welled up inside of me in an instant.

[Donuthole]

That is the oddest description of an encounter with the Three Nephites I've ever heard.

[Uncle Ted]

Yes.

[YOUTUBE]0AXr3ykkWVs[/YOUTUBE]

[Katy Lied]

For me, evil appears to be a subtractive concept:any bad thing done to someone else, for no apparent reason or benefit, is evil.

For example, I understand robbery comes from desperation for money, whether due to a heroin addiction, or greed for money. Some crimes are committed for excitement, or as revenge for an injustice suffered as a child. Terrorist acts are done for many reasons- some good and some bad. Rape may be a lust for power.

But when someone expends effort and resources to destroy someone or something else and gets no gratification out of it, that's just plain evil.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Yes.

[RobinFinderson]

I voted 'unsure,' because I am unsure about what the question really means. On the one hand, evil as a human construct, the way Katy Lied defined it, or by any other reasonable definition, obviously exists as a useful construct.

However, I don't think that it exists as some independent force in the universe, and I definitely don't think that anyone can 'sense' evil on some spiritual level, the way that wuap describes. I guess I should qualify that -- I would not be surprised if science eventually identifies human potential to dimly sense the emotional states of nearby people. At the very least, I think we are subconsciously picking up and interpreting minute details that we perceive i others, and this micro-sensing contributes to our first impressions. Dogs are incredibly good at this. But maybe there is some aura component to that, registered on some electromagnetic spectrum that our brains subtly pick up, but which science has not been able to decipher. Whatever this sensing ability is, I think it operates pretty subtly in humans, and not nearly as well as it seems to operate in dogs.

Which is to say, I don't think that wuap's experience is weird, but I don't think it signifies the existence of evil as some universal force. Somehow wuap formed an impression of these guys, that impression locked into his personal construct of 'evil,' and he acted accordingly.

[Non Sequitur]

However, I don't think that it exists as some independent force in the universe, and I definitely don't think that anyone can 'sense' evil on some spiritual level, the way that wuap describes. I guess I should qualify that -- I would not be surprised if science eventually identifies human potential to dimly sense the emotional states of nearby people. At the very least, I think we are subconsciously picking up and interpreting minute details that we perceive i others, and this micro-sensing contributes to our first impressions. Dogs are incredibly good at this. But maybe there is some aura component to that, registered on some electromagnetic spectrum that our brains subtly pick up, but which science has not been able to decipher. Whatever this sensing ability is, I think it operates pretty subtly in humans, and not nearly as well as it seems to operate in dogs.

Which is to say, I don't think that wuap's experience is weird, but I don't think it signifies the existence of evil as some universal force. Somehow wuap formed an impression of these guys, that impression locked into his personal construct of 'evil,' and he acted accordingly.

That was my first thought as well. Not just dogs, but many animals are able to sense things that are unseen, many times when they are in danger. I think Wuap sensed something -- danger perhaps -- but I don't think it was evil in the classic religious sense of an entity external to our human nature.

[Rosebud]

I was in an Ingles supermarket in Henderson, NC this afternoon waiting in line to check out. I got this completely dreadful uneasy feeling in my soul. It was draining in an instant. I looked around and saw three men, large muscular men, with tattoos all over their bodies (including necks and faces) coming across the store at a good clip. I instinctively reached out and pulled my daughter Marley closer to me. I didn't stare at them, but I watched them (out of the corner of my eye) approach and pass me. All of the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. It was a feeling of absolute dread. It wasn't fear. I'm not afraid of anyone (unless they have a weapon), but this was something else.

I'm no seer or psychic, but I felt like there was a great evil near me even before I saw them. Something in my soul told me to avoid them at all costs, and I did. I've only felt this way a couple of times before in my life.

Even now as I sit here, I have a knot in my stomach thinking about that moment, and the dread that welled up inside of me in an instant.

Wuap, I believe evil exists, but I don't think that people can discern evil in the way you describe. My thought is that when we "sense" evil in this manner, it has more to do with our own feelings and life experiences than it does with the people in whom we are sensing a problem. IOW, maybe something specific about these three men or this particular situation triggered a reaction in you that has more to do with you and your life experiences than it has to do with them. The dread and the knot in your stomach are real, but (IMO) they teach you more about yourself and where you've been than they teach you about the three men.

[Rosebud]

(And I'm of course not insinuating that you are evil.)

[Commando]

Good question. For all intents and purposes, definitely. I also think the human spirit can pick up on it. I have had fairly traumatic and definitely not imaginary interactions with spiritual beings that have wanted to harm me. Whether you want to parse that down and call them Evil or just misunderstood emotionally troubled souls, that's up to you, but for the purposes of this question, yes.

[taekwondave]

I see it closer to how Robin describes it. My guess is that you felt a great deal of NEGATIVITY coming from those men. I can sense that. I can sense when someone is offended by something I've said or done if I'm in their presence. I don't have to be looking at them when I sense this. It's like a knot in my stomach. My girlfriend thinks that I AM picking up on subtle physical clues that I recognize as discomfort or unwillingness to participate, and she may be right, but whether it's my subconscious picking up on something through my eyes, or through my ears, or through some other more subtle medium, I can almost always tell when I've said something or done something that someone around me doesn't like. Sometimes it will happen in a crowded room full of people I'm discussing something with, like at a family dinner, and I'll actually just stop and say, "I get the feeling I've overstepped my bounds somehow and that someone here is offended. Have I offended anyone?" Usually, the offended party will speak up and say, "No, it's just..." The "it's just" part and what follows it is the obvious giveaway.

I don't believe in evil people, but I have no problem with the idea that sometimes people are mad, or even REALLY mad, and carry with them a negativity that is so resolute and severe that we feel inclined to refer to it as "evil" but I'm willing to bet those three biker dudes you saw, regardless of what their intentions were at the moment you picked up on that vibe, are generally just as good of people as you are on a regular basis, with every bit as good intentions.

[taekwondave]

As for the sensing of "evil spirit" that is something I just don't buy. Again, if there are people on the "other side" like we commonly believe, and these people are still just PEOPLE, although now disembodies physically, then again I would suppose that what you're picking up on and calling evil is just a temporary state of negativity that they're carrying with them, which probably ebbs and flows like the tide the same as it does with the rest of us, depending on how we're interpreting our lives and our experiences at the moment. I think the term evil would be unfair to use regarding something you understand so little. So the hair stands up on the back of your neck. So some dishes rattle at weird times. So your cat gets picked up and thrown across the room by some unseen spirit. For all you know, the unseen guy is just trying to mess with you and is playing on your cultural traditions which give rise to fear to do so. And on the off chance that such an unseen person IS in fact, angry, and you are sensing that, there is no telling how that unseen person will feel tomorrow, when he gets a good nights sleep and realizes how immature he was behaving, like the rest of us commonly do.

[LA Ute]

I will don my believer/apologist hat and note that it's basic to Mormonism that evil exists, that Satan is a real being, and that through the gift of the Holy Ghost people can discern spirits. I.e., it's a spiritual gift. So to me it seems quite natural, wuap, that the Holy Ghost may well have been warning you of nearby evil.

This talk by James E. Faust addresses generally the subject of evil and evil spirits and how to respond. Not much hocus-pocus, just practical teaching. Some of Joseph Smith's teachings on the discernment of spirits are at the very end of this lesson. Sorry, that's correlated material, but it does come straight from the History of the Church.

[TripletDaddy]

It is all around us

http://www.cougaruteforum.com/showpo...3&postcount=27

[Tim]

I will don my believer/apologist hat and note that it's basic to Mormonism that evil exists, that Satan is a real being, and that through the gift of the Holy Ghost people can discern spirits. I.e., it's a spiritual gift. So to me it seems quite natural, wuap, that the Holy Ghost may well have been warning you of nearby evil.

This talk by James E. Faust addresses generally the subject of evil and evil spirits and how to respond. Not much hocus-pocus, just practical teaching. Some of Joseph Smith's teachings on the discernment of spirits are at the very end of this lesson. Sorry, that's correlated material, but it does come straight from the History of the Church.

Why not answer with your own opinion rather than quoting doctrine? Everyone here knows the doctrine. He asked what WE think.