Oddbean new post about | logout
 #philosophy #war #peace

The belief that evil exists is the root of hate.

And hate is the root of violence and war.

Rather than thinking like a primitive, consider people who do bad things to be afflicted by a condition.  If your dog becomes rabid, you need to put it down. But you don't hate the dog, nor believe it to be evil.

Hate evolved as a way to effectively carry out "putting down the dog", but it, like fear, is supposed to be a short-lived emotion.