Edit: To the people who are downvoting the thread, Please downvote and then tell me why you did it. If possible mention how you see these acts. I don’t want to assume the worst in people (especially you people) unless I have a goddamn good reason for it. I don’t feel like this post deserves your scorn. Please tell me what you don’t agree with in the post. I am trying this in a good spirited way, I want to understand, I am pretty sure you have different life experiences. I think nothing justifies the actions of Hamas, if you feel like something does, well, please comment it and don’t forget to mention the things you agree or disagree with what Hamas is doing.
Let’s say hypothetically a terrorist organization, let’s call them Hamas, attacks a community they hate, let’s say the jews, kill civilians indiscriminately, rape women and then kill them, parade them naked where they live and then spit on their dead bodies. They take hostages and force some women among the hostages into sex slavery. Let’s just they follow a extremist version of a repressive 7th century ideology which grants them permission to do all these things during war and let’s just hypothetically assume that I know what I am talking about because I have read the book I am talking about.
Well, how do you deal with this? They think their evil has a stamp of approval of God (the one with a big G). What punishment apart from death penalty would you prescribe to these distinguished gentlemen who kill, rape & kill, torture innocent people in the name of God?
I am against the death penalty, and I won’t want any of them put to death (I feel like I should make exceptions,but I won’t). But, I sure don’t want them free ever again unless evidence contradicts/exonerates them.
How should a country who was attacked deal with these people? I think they know, but I was wondering if we know.
[NOTHING IMPORTANT FROM THERE, UNLESS YOU WANT TO JUSTIFY THIS, THEN READ AHEAD]
Now, for those who will try to justify these actions by whataboutery, I just want you to know that I don’t approve of the disgusting Israeli settlements of Jews in Palestine either. I think they should end it “a few decades ago”. But, this was not the reason Hamas attacked Israel. They didn’t aim for military aims, no matter what they tell you, their actions betrays what they say their supposed intention is. I notice that this isn’t the behavior you engage in if you even want military victories. You don’t rape women and kill them because the country the woman belongs to has occupied your land (Gaza hasn’t been under Israeli control since 2003, btw)
How do you deal with people actually believe 100% in texts that were written centuries ago. These aren’t Christians selectively picking and choosing stuff and opposing abortion. These aren’t Jewish settlers who are occupying the West Bank for religious reasons, they don’t believe completely in the Torah, or at least they don’t act that way (or else we would have had another problem coming). So yeah, how do you deal with terrorists who are just plain EVIL?
Downvoting because this is not about evil, this is about your opinion on a specific news issue, and is also not particularly NSFW by the definition everyone else uses.
Also, no, they’re not just evil. Israeli settlers do the same shit (claiming justification from roughly the same God), they just have the luxury of sort-of covering it up. How could nearly everyone in Palestine just be spontaneously born evil? This is normal human behavior, typical in history and expected under that much duress.
“The problem of evil” traditionally means theodicy, the section of theology that attempts to reconcile the existence of evil with belief in an omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent god.
Notably, “evil” in this sense includes both “moral evil” (wickedness) and “natural evil” (disasters): it seems a benevolent god not only shouldn’t permit wicked people to win, but also shouldn’t tolerate hurricanes and earthquakes that cause innocent people to suffer.
If you don’t believe in a god, there is no particular reason to do theodicy. If there is, in fact, no benevolent god in charge of the universe, then there’s nothing to reconcile.
Instead, we can regard “evil” as a moral judgment that humans sometimes make of others’ actions. Much of the point of making moral judgments is to coordinate social action to promote the sorts of things we call “good” and deter or impede “evil”.
We make moral judgments when we accuse or punish someone for wrongdoing; when we praise or reward someone for doing good; when we boycott or withdraw cooperation from a company or person who promotes injustice; even when we decide whether to hang out with someone based on whether they’re nice or mean. Making moral judgments is a normal part of human social behavior, and we shouldn’t stop doing it.
Deal with as in how? Politically? I don’t think it’s wrong for a country to defend itself and protect the interest of its constituents. Philosophically? I don’t know, these people are so far gone it would require years and years of effort to move their beliefs away from extreme. I don’t really see the point in trying to appease a group of people that won’t really stop at just this or just that. So yeah fight back I’d say is the best you can do
Deal with as in how? Politically?
Militarily, politically and morally. The crime we know of and I think it’s evil. What should be the punishment? edit: Yeah, your comment makes sense. I think I would agree with ya there.
Well I upvoted because this is an excellent question that has applications and relevance far beyond just the current Hamas atrocities.
Facing up to and dealing with the fact that a small percentage of any population is psychopathic (which is a rough clinical descriptor/ analogue for what the man in the street would call evil -lacking in conscience, empathy or morality) is something we do not do well, at least in the Western world, and it is something which we do need to grapple with. And when evil men gain power and set the social and cultural norms - as in 1930’s Germany - the larger population can be persuaded or at least coerced into doing evil. We’ve seen this before, from the Armenian genocide, the Nazi regime, Rwanda and now this
