I think that evil is a real definition. It's pre-meditated wrong-doings. Crimes against people. Dis-regard for other people's lives. Committing actions intended to harm the innocent.

I think that some people can be classified as evil based upon the things that they do.

Nature, nurture, things people can't cope with - it doesn't matter, these are explanations, not excuses. 

I find it so weird that people think neuroscience is going to undermine the basis of law, that the basis of criminal law is free will. Like yeah, if a mass murderer was basically predetermined to torture and kill as many people as he could, then we wouldn't lock him up? We would imprison tsunamis if we could, protecting society from harm has nothing to do with some abstract concept of freedom from our own brains (which makes no sense anyway). The metaphysical baggage of the terms good and evil is very problematic, but, I still find the term evil very useful. Sometimes there is nothing else you can say. 

"bad" 

with regards to language or communication - well you can pick just about any word, say it 100 times and it begins to sound like meaningless nonsense. 

And what does that prove? 

I just mean that if one were to say that there was no such thing as 'evil', one could just as easily say that there is no such thing as 'carrot', or something to that effect..... 

Evil is an abstract concept. A carrot is an object. What are you trying to say? 

"It's pre-meditated wrong-doings."

Evil is a tricky subject.

Your cat will willingly do very mean things to smaller creatures and do it for fun.

So is every Mr. Bigglesworth evil?

Well ... if kitties are evil, there is an another example: children.

"Evil" is oddly a relative thing with a variable definition that varies from circumstance to circumstance.

But that's boring.

What is far more exciting is what is the definition of "good"? That one has intricacies that are fascinating. 

doesn't it all come down to a matter of harm or benefit to sentient beings, basically causing benefits is helpful, while causing harm is evil (I argue that it is even if it's not deliberate, as the consequences of actions, not the "intentions" behind them, are why things are evil - as a side note I'm extremely biased in this argument since I feel like basing morality on intentions gives people the excuse of stupidity or, more likely, willful ignorance, "I didn't know my western lifestyle had all these consequences" etc, and I just really hate that idea).

answer: bigglesworth is evil if mice are sentient, and it doesn't matter that he's doing it for food or for fun, etc... nature contains and causes a huge amount of suffering, there's this idea called abolitionism in ethics, which proposes using technology to eliminate all suffering of sentient beings including nonhuman species, in theory though of course it'll never be possible. interesting idea. our noninterventionist ideals in nature are kind of inconsistent, not just because we obviously intervene anyway in our own interest, but because nature left to its own devices causes endless suffering. end rant. 

Careful with putting children and evil in the same sentence.

This belief (put into writing by Sigmund Freud as a main example - according to him children are born evil, want sex with their parents, and must be educated to become good) has led to very misguided ways of upbringing and education. Black pedagogy etc.

Just careful with putting "evil" together with random other terms, ok.

BTW if you're interested, Freud's interpretation of the classical Greek King Oedipus drama has been thoroughly dismantled by other scientists. I suggest reading the original and then reading Freud, and drawing your own conclusions. 

where did Freud come up again?
I agree entirely, Freud isn't taken seriously in psychology at all anymore, and thus he shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone; it'd be like choosing Lamarck's ideas over those of Darwin or rather the modern neoDarwinian synthesis in biology.

Children are selfish, absolutely. But they also have very little direct impact on the world: ie they don't design policies, start wars, run economies. Thus, in a consequence-based view, however underdeveloped their empathy may be, they aren't evil.

Freud wasn't a scientist. He was a cokehead careerist fraud who convinced people for a few decades that he was. 

he was still better than Jung 

@Tronyn

"I argue that it is even if it's not deliberate, as the consequences of actions, not the "intentions" behind them, are why things are evil"

Intentions are all we have (on the individual level).

I agree that the results/consequences of actions are everything, but that becomes tricky on the individual level.

as a side note I'm extremely biased in this argument since I feel like basing morality on intentions gives people the excuse of stupidity or, more likely, willful ignorance

That's where meritocracy and social engineering come in. If done right, it softly removes freedoms from those not qualified to have them and subtly grants freedoms to those qualified for more freedoms.

On the individual level, omniscience is obviously impossible. As a result, no matter how high an individuals intelligence or expertise is, no one ever reaches peak human mastery of, say, the medical sciences and astronomy and mechanics and resource management at the same time.

But perhaps above all of those is self-awareness and humility, which is knowledge that "you" can help others and that others have things to give that can help "you".

[Social engineer types of sciences are extremely important because lesser educated humans tend to destroy their environment and it is a constant risk in society.] 

Meant to use the quote markup, ended up using the bold markup on accident. 

no one even proposes that creationists shouldn't be allowed to vote, but in my view public policy has to be based on evidence from the real world, and if you look at the scientific evidence for evolution, or global warming, and conclude "Naaah" then I think the more freedoms you have (to vote, to have 12 kids and brainwash them), the more society suffers.

Few social phenomena are more disturbing than those without morality rallying those without intelligence. But, to cite Carlin, I don't have kids and therefore I'm not bound to have a stake in the outcome, much as I'd like it to be positive. I guess my views are extreme, but when you realize that we actually live in a world where corruption, insanity and stupidity dominate to such a degree (yep, there's still witch hunts going on, still slavery, etc) it's hard to be moderate about it. 

Representative democracy to some degree insulates a democracy from the less intelligent ever being able to obtain political power. Versus, say, a dictatorship where an uneducated Saudi Royal family guy or a Kim Jong guy are free to be as ignorant and dumb as they choose.

And as a general rule of thumb, it is very hard to achieve any kind of corporate position of status or power if ignorant.

The idea of voting should never be based on intelligence or qualifications.

The purpose of voting is to have a voice through a peaceful process. If dumb people couldn't vote, they would not be able to voice their priorities through a peaceful process and would be denied the social contract of representation for all.

All your concerns about the corruption, insanity and such are valid and it is a bit disappointing to think we live in such a world.

At the same time, life is meant to be a constant struggle and society would actually be worse for not having those problems.

Civilization has to earn advancement through enduring challenging times and developing successful solutions to the problems.

This modern problem is caused by the YouTube, reality TV, camera phone, Facebook era enabling much more accurate and quick communication and we get to see the world for what it is without rose colored glasses.

This is new to us.

10 years ago, a bonehead could only get a voice on TV through public access television programs at 4 am.

[And boneheads are very social in nature as a survival strategy because they would never be able to survive as individuals without a support group to help them through bad times that they will have several times when they screw up again and again in life.]