Evil

I believe the first thing one must work out when defining evil is what the official definition of evil is according to none other than the most reliable source of all knowledge ‘Google’. Google defines evil as ‘profoundly immoral and wicked’ when used as an adjective or ‘profound immortality and wickedness, especially when regarded as a supernatural force’. While these definitions may satisfy some people, I find them a bit to vague, and basically a matter of replacing and rearranging some words.

I believe the root source of evil is not the supernatural however, although that is a theme in ‘The Shining’, nor is it mental disability, as is suggested in ‘In Cold Blood’. I don’t overly believe in the supernatural influencing our actions, yet I still here of numerous evil deeds and people every day, which leads to only one conclusion; it is to do with somebody’s circumstances. These people usually do not like these circumstances, which leads to them looking to other avenues to escape, often taking the easiest and most ‘evil’ path.

I believe that evil has however already been defined by many people, with the most famous being the 10 commandments.

You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make idols.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet.
If you disobeyed these, you were classified as evil, and till this day the majority are still relevant.

Learning and Thinking

Learning and Thinking

‘Are you here to learn or think?’ one finds them asking themselves as Ms Carroll prompts us. Most of us students have never really pondered this ourselves, as it requires self-reflection, which we have little or no time for in our ‘busy’ lives. I believe that we are here to not merely do one but both, as they eternally entwined with each other, as whenever you learn it requires basic thinking, and when one thinks they often learn about themselves. I’d even go as far as saying one learns more when they think than when they have specific ‘learning’ tasks, and one thinks more when they learn as it requires more effort and doesn’t come as freely. Almost everybody has the ability to do both however not knowing they are being completed simultaneously. I believe everybody’s reality on earth is more to learn than think, as learning is how we decide what to do in life, and what actions we take when something occurs. Thinking occurs inside our brains and is not as public, they’re are ways to test what one has learnt, but it is infinitely harder to test what somebody is thinking. At any one moment in time a human can be thinking about a lot more than one thing, are you hungry, what’s the teacher saying, have you got a funny joke to tell a mate etc. where as learning a skill requires almost all of your external and internal focus. Learning requires more focus as it is not a process which you can subconsciously do, as in you don’t learn in your sleep or while your day dreaming, where as you undertake deep thinking in both of these processes. In summary you are here to learn and think, and are often unable to do one fully without the other.

Pat Cassidy