Survey on the causes of evil.

[josephpalazzo]

Evil is an inherently religious concept. Some things described as evil are not. Real evil is the deliberate act of harming someone for no purpose other than to cause harm.

still a human construct...

[Jmpty]

Perspective is the only cause of the perception of something as evil.

[camouflage]

In the light of everyone's response.. I want to ask one question.

Are we restricting or suppressing some inherent parts of human nature by punishing what we consider to be evil with the help of law?

[Plu]

Are we restricting or suppressing some inherent parts of human nature by punishing what we consider to be evil with the help of law?

Probably, yes. And a few more not by law but social acceptance, and more of those constructs. Not all (read: barely any) of our natural traits were designed to help us live in relative harmony in a society numbering the millions. So it takes a bit of work.

[Shol'va]

Nationalism is not inherently evil. While others listed (sexism, racism) have explicit implications of a basis for discrimination, hate, etc, nationalism can have different meanings:

1. patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts.

2. an extreme form of this, esp. marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries.

3. advocacy of political independence for a particular country

1 and 3 are fine, while 2 is not. Wars of independence from oppressors begin with nationalist feelings.

So it's not that somebody is a nationalist that makes it negative, but what they mean by it and what they do with it.

And I don't think religion is inherently evil either. It depends on what the tenets of that religion dictate and the distinction between the creeds and the actions of its followers.