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82-491: A being manifested from all evil in existence, the First is an incorporeal entity that can assume the appearance of any person who has died (however briefly) – including vampires and humans who have been resurrected. Over the course of the series, and depending upon its audience, it takes various guises as a method of deception and manipulation – for example, the First usually appears as Buffy Summers ( Sarah Michelle Gellar ) to

164-531: A Proto-Germanic reconstructed form of *ubilaz , comparable to the Hittite huwapp- ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European form *wap- and suffixed zero-grade form *up-elo- . Other later Germanic forms include Middle English evel , ifel , ufel , Old Frisian evel (adjective and noun), Old Saxon ubil , Old High German ubil , and Gothic ubils . Evil

246-532: A quasi-mathematical style and states these further propositions which he purports to prove or demonstrate from the above definitions in part IV of his Ethics : Carl Jung , in his book Answer to Job and elsewhere, depicted evil as the dark side of God. People tend to believe evil is something external to them, because they project their shadow onto others. Jung interpreted the story of Jesus as an account of God facing his own shadow. In 2007, Philip Zimbardo suggested that people may act in evil ways as

328-463: A complete explanation. Most theorists agree use of the term evil can be harmful but disagree over what response that requires. Some argue it is "more dangerous to ignore evil than to try to understand it". Those who support the usefulness of the term, such as Eve Garrard and David McNaughton , argue that the term evil "captures a distinct part of our moral phenomenology, specifically, 'collect[ing] together those wrongful actions to which we have ...

410-486: A deep understanding of human nature and it uses this knowledge to drive others to madness, murder and/or suicide. The First makes its initial appearance in the series as a monster of the week that Angel must face in the episode " Amends ". It tries to drive the vampire to kill Buffy by reminding him of his "true" nature (Angelus) and it sets about accomplishing this by appearing to him as some of his victims: Daniel, Margaret, Travis and Jenny Calendar . It claims that it

492-581: A duplicate dummy body for him and trap his soul inside. The First Evil has appeared in 16 canonical Buffyverse episodes: Buffy the Vampire Slayer The First appears in the non-canonical video game Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds as the main antagonist, having helped occultist magician Ethan Rayne escape military confinement to enact a plan for world domination. Buffy and her friends pursue

574-427: A fallen one" because of "humans' disobedience and misuse of free will". According to Augustine of Hippo , a god who is perfect is not able to be the "source of evil", just as the "First Evil" does not seem to be able to be the source of any good. According to James B. South, Buffy Summers is not interested in the theological implications of this entity. She merely states: "Alright, I get it, you're evil." He adds that

656-476: A kind of personal "militant ignorance". According to Peck, an evil person is consistently self-deceiving, deceives others, psychologically projects his or her evil onto very specific targets, hates, abuses power, and lies incessantly. Evil people are unable to think from the viewpoint of their victim. Peck considers those he calls evil to be attempting to escape and hide from their own conscience (through self-deception) and views this as being quite distinct from

738-493: A magical amulet, the gang destroy the First's army, the Sunnydale Hellmouth, and the surrounding town. Neither male or female, living or dead, the First is pure power. It is the darkness inside the hearts and souls of all living creatures. While the First has no physical body and is impossible to kill, it also cannot truly interact with the physical world. Certain people are able to interact and even become one with

820-435: A net negative on the world . Evil is commonly seen as the opposite, or sometimes absence , of good . It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good . It is generally seen as taking multiple possible forms, such as the form of personal moral evil commonly associated with the word, or impersonal natural evil (as in

902-766: A person is considered, but also the relational distance. Ten Abominations ("十惡") The Ming Legal Code identifies Ten Abominations - categories of prohibited conduct so abhorrent and heinous that the usual considerations of pardon would not apply - these include plotting rebellion, great sedition, treason, parricide, depravity (the murder of three or more innocent persons or the use of magical curses), great irreverence (lese majeste), lack of filial piety, discord, unrighteousness and incest (fornication with relatives of fourth degree of mourning or less, or relationships with one's father's wife and concubines). Other views As with Buddhism, in Confucianism or Taoism there

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984-409: A plus, and pain as a minus". This is because pain is necessary for survival. Renowned orthopedist and missionary to lepers, Dr. Paul Brand explains that leprosy attacks the nerve cells that feel pain resulting in no more pain for the leper, which leads to ever increasing, often catastrophic, damage to the body of the leper. Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), also known as congenital analgesia,

1066-459: A recognizable counterweight to Buffy and her allies. The character's body serves as a vessel for the superhuman power of the non-corporeal First Evil. The First makes him the commander of its campaign of carnage and mayhem. Caleb likes to re-enact his killings by asking The First to take on the form of the girls he's killed so he may "kill them again." With the exception of Glory , Caleb's strength dwarfs Buffy's previous adversaries. When channeling

1148-586: A response of moral horror'." Claudia Card asserts it is only by understanding the nature of evil that we can preserve humanitarian values and prevent evil in the future. If evils are the worst sorts of moral wrongs, social policy should focus limited energy and resources on reducing evil over other wrongs. Card asserts that by categorizing certain actions and practices as evil, we are better able to recognize and guard against responding to evil with more evil which will "interrupt cycles of hostility generated by past evils". One school of thought holds that no person

1230-714: A result of a collective identity . This hypothesis, based on his previous experience from the Stanford prison experiment , was published in the book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil . In 1961, Stanley Milgram began an experiment to help explain how thousands of ordinary, non-deviant, people could have reconciled themselves to a role in the Holocaust . Participants were led to believe they were assisting in an unrelated experiment in which they had to inflict electric shocks on another person. The experiment unexpectedly found that most could be led to inflict

1312-459: A scorpion is evil in relation to man; a serpent is evil in relation to man; but in relation to themselves they are not evil, for their poison is their weapon, and by their sting they defend themselves." Thus, evil is more of an intellectual concept than a true reality. Since God is good, and upon creating creation he confirmed it by saying it is Good (Genesis 1:31) evil cannot have a true reality. Christian theology draws its concept of evil from

1394-522: A sin out of hate and contempt for the Devil , so as not to give him the chance to make one scrupulous over mere nothings ... " The international relations theories of realism and neorealism , sometimes called realpolitik advise politicians to explicitly ban absolute moral and ethical considerations from international politics, and to focus on self-interest, political survival, and power politics, which they hold to be more accurate in explaining

1476-441: A world they view as explicitly amoral and dangerous. Political realists usually justify their perspectives by stating that morals and politics should be separated as two unrelated things, as exerting authority often involves doing something not moral. Machiavelli wrote: "there will be traits considered good that, if followed, will lead to ruin, while other traits, considered vices which if practiced achieve security and well being for

1558-564: Is " sin " itself. The character quotes the Old Testament more often than the New Testament . For example, the character's misogynistic views are expressed through the story of Adam , Eve , and the forbidden fruit. When asked about the character's religious connections, Whedon said, "I'm not coming down against priests. This guy clearly is not one." Caleb appears in: Caleb appeared as a guest in 5 episodes: Caleb appeared in

1640-600: Is 'something' that occurs in the experience that ought not to be ." There is no concept of absolute evil in Islam , as a fundamental universal principle that is independent from and equal with good in a dualistic sense. Although the Quran mentions the biblical forbidden tree, it never refers to it as the ' tree of knowledge of good and evil '. Within Islam, it is considered essential to believe that all comes from God , whether it

1722-470: Is a neurological disorder that prevents feeling pain. It "leads to ... bone fractures, multiple scars, osteomyelitis, joint deformities, and limb amputation ... Mental retardation is common. Death from hyperpyrexia occurs within the first 3 years of life in almost 20% of the patients." Few with the disorder are able to live into adulthood. Evil cannot be simply defined as all pain and its connected suffering because, as Marcus Singer says: "If something

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1804-465: Is also sometimes perceived in absolute terms as the dualistic antagonistic binary opposite to good, in which good should prevail and evil should be defeated. In cultures with Buddhist spiritual influence, both good and evil are perceived as part of an antagonistic duality that itself must be overcome through achieving Nirvana . The ethical questions regarding good and evil are subsumed into three major areas of study: meta-ethics , concerning

1886-503: Is evil and that only acts may be properly considered evil. Some theorists define an evil action simply as a kind of action an evil person performs, but just as many theorists believe that an evil character is one who is inclined toward evil acts. Luke Russell argues that both evil actions and evil feelings are necessary to identify a person as evil, while Daniel Haybron argues that evil feelings and evil motivations are necessary. American psychiatrist M. Scott Peck describes evil as

1968-445: Is found in every society, and there are more societies that see at least some versions of it, such as marital rape or punitive rape, as normative than there are societies that see all rape as non-normative (a crime). In nearly all societies, killing except for defense or duty is seen as murder. Yet the definition of defense and duty varies from one society to another. Social deviance is not uniformly defined across different cultures, and

2050-634: Is implied that the First's high priest, Caleb , has played an important role in indoctrinating the Bringers. He possesses extensive knowledge of their habits (such as knowing that they pant instead of sweating) and refers to them as "my boys". Indeed, The Harbingers of Death themselves refer to him as their "teacher". The Bringers also have a poisonous aura which is capable of rendering earth and living beings sterile: Despite their apparent disabilities, Bringers are swift assassins capable of highly organized attacks thanks to their collective consciousness, which

2132-468: Is no direct analogue to the way good and evil are opposed although reference to demonic influence is common in Chinese folk religion . Confucianism's primary concern is with correct social relationships and the behavior appropriate to the learned or superior man. Thus evil would correspond to wrong behavior. Still less does it map into Taoism, in spite of the centrality of dualism in that system , but

2214-552: Is not, in all circumstances, necessarily an aspect of evil. Defining evil is complicated by its multiple, often ambiguous, common usages: evil is used to describe the whole range of suffering, including that caused by nature, and it is also used to describe the full range of human immorality from the "evil of genocide to the evil of malicious gossip". It is sometimes thought of as the generic opposite of good. Marcus Singer asserts that these common connotations must be set aside as overgeneralized ideas that do not sufficiently describe

2296-399: Is omnipotent and nothing can exist outside of God's power, God's will determine, whether or not something is evil. In Judaism and Jewish theology, the existence of evil is presented as part of the idea of free will : if humans were created to be perfect, always and only doing good, being good would not mean much. For Jewish theology, it is important for humans to have the ability to choose

2378-452: Is perceived as good or bad by individuals; and things that are perceived as evil or bad are either natural events (natural disasters or illnesses) or caused by humanity's free will. Much more the behavior of beings with free will, then they disobey God's orders, harming others or putting themselves over God or others, is considered to be evil. Evil does not necessarily refer to evil as an ontological or moral category, but often to harm or as

2460-571: Is really evil, it can't be necessary, and if it is really necessary, it can't be evil". The narrow concept of evil involves moral condemnation, therefore it is ascribed only to moral agents and their actions. This eliminates natural disasters and animal suffering from consideration as evil: according to Claudia Card , "When not guided by moral agents, forces of nature are neither "goods" nor "evils". They just are. Their "agency" routinely produces consequences vital to some forms of life and lethal to others". The narrow definition of evil "picks out only

2542-484: Is responsible for Angel's return from Hell , and suggests that Angel can end his sufferings by turning evil again and killing Buffy, but instead he chooses to kill himself using the sunrise. His suicide is only averted by a freak snowstorm unheard of in Southern California. Episodes of the spin-off series Angel later suggest that Angel was returned from hell and his life saved by divine intervention from

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2624-555: Is said that the First lurked in the darkness long before the universe was even created and shall remain long after the universe ends. Few have heard of it and even fewer believe in its existence. The entity cannot affect the world on a physical level. Its power lies in its ability to deceive, torment and manipulate others. It can take the form of anyone who has died (or as an enormous, phantasmic demon with large horns and long, talon-shaped fingers), and it can choose to be seen and heard by just one person or by multiple people. The First has

2706-458: Is still intact. The character periodically delivers quasi- biblical quotes, even frequently making allusions to his belief that the First Evil is actually God , or even superior to God. When The First, in the guise of Buffy, asks him if he thinks it is God, Caleb replies he believes The First is beyond such definition. He states plainly in his debut episode, "I don't truck with Satan , that

2788-412: Is subsumed into three major areas of study: There is debate on how useful the term "evil" is, since it is often associated with spirits and the devil. Some see the term as useless because they say it lacks any real ability to explain what it names. There is also real danger of the harm that being labeled "evil" can do when used in moral, political, and legal contexts. Those who support the usefulness of

2870-426: Is that there is a qualitative, and not merely quantitative, difference between evil acts and other wrongful ones; evil acts are not just very bad or wrongful acts, but rather ones possessing some specially horrific quality". In this context, the concept of evil is one element in a full nexus of moral concepts. Views on the nature of evil belong to the branch of philosophy known as ethics —which in modern philosophy

2952-521: Is translated as 惡 in Chinese. The duty of the emperor and of his officials is to restrain it, thus preserving the cosmic order. The nature of good and evil was also ascertainable by natural faculties without the need for revelation - "one will not achieve a perfect perception of good and evil if one has not exactly examined the nature and reason of things." Offenses against the Three Bonds and

3034-529: Is under the control of the First. Besides their deadly fighting skills, Bringers are also capable of summoning manifestations of the First to haunt people, and create psychic links between dreamers through their dark rituals. In season 7, The First declared war on the Slayer line . The Bringers became assassins of Potential Slayers around the world. When the First set up camp in Sunnydale, Bringers begin to swarm

3116-624: Is used to refer to opposition to God in the human realm. Officially, the Catholic Church extracts its understanding of evil from its canonical antiquity and the Dominican theologian , Thomas Aquinas , who in Summa Theologica defines evil as the absence or privation of good. French-American theologian Henri Blocher describes evil, when viewed as a theological concept, as an "unjustifiable reality. In common parlance, evil

3198-521: The Bhagavad Gita , speaks of the balance of good and evil. When this balance goes off, divine incarnations come to help to restore this balance. In adherence to the core principle of spiritual evolution, the Sikh idea of evil changes depending on one's position on the path to liberation. At the beginning stages of spiritual growth, good and evil may seem neatly separated. Once one's spirit evolves to

3280-452: The Buddha that the catalogued causes of suffering are what correspond in this belief system to 'evil'. Practically this can refer to 1) the three selfish emotions—desire, hate and delusion; and 2) to their expression in physical and verbal actions. Specifically, evil means whatever harms or obstructs the causes for happiness in this life, a better rebirth, liberation from samsara, and

3362-498: The First Evil "meant that we didn't have anything to push against. We needed... a sidekick. Somebody physical that we can see from episode to episode." Whedon describes him as "the creepiest priest ", adding, "he is the most bald-faced misogynist we've had since, well, since last year, with Warren ." As revealed through his conversations with the First Evil , Caleb was a defrocked priest and serial killer responsible for

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3444-462: The Five Thieves , called such due to their propensity to cloud the mind and lead one astray from the prosecution of righteous action. These are: One who gives in to the temptations of the Five Thieves is known as " Manmukh ", or someone who lives selfishly and without virtue. Inversely, the " Gurmukh , who thrive in their reverence toward divine knowledge, rise above vice via the practice of

3526-681: The Old and New Testaments . The Christian Bible exercises "the dominant influence upon ideas about God and evil in the Western world." In the Old Testament, evil is understood to be an opposition to God as well as something unsuitable or inferior such as the leader of the fallen angels Satan . In the New Testament the Greek word poneros is used to indicate unsuitability, while kakos

3608-588: The Buffy's gang, and releasing evil monsters from the Hellmouth. Later in season seven, the audience is introduced to the First's right-hand-man, the supernaturally strong misogynistic ex-priest Caleb , as well as its army of primordial Turok-Han vampires living beneath the Hellmouth. In the series finale, Buffy and her allies take the fight to the First by opening the Hellmouth and using magic to activate every potential Slayer in Buffy's army. With additional help from

3690-411: The First Evil seems to precede good. It is omnipresent and very powerful. With it, Joss Whedon was aiming to create an enemy that was neither human nor demon. It could either appear in a human form or in a demonic form. Evil Evil , by one definition, is being bad and acting out morally incorrect behavior; or it is the condition of causing unnecessary pain and suffering , thus containing

3772-495: The First over multiple realities and across the centuries, eventually "dispersing it across dimensions" to stop its plans to consume the universe with evil. The Bringers of the First Evil, or Harbingers of Death, are the acolytes of the First Evil. They are humans who have been corrupted by the First and undergone rituals that include self-mutilation: their eyes and tongues are removed, and their eyelids covered by rune-like scars; yet they are perfectly aware of their surroundings. It

3854-600: The First, such as Caleb. The First appears in the physical world as dead people, including vampires, humans who have died, and dead people who have been resurrected. This allows the First to impersonate people for the purpose of manipulating others. For instance, the First appears as Warren to get Andrew to kill Jonathan during " Lessons ," as Eve to more easily attack the Potentials during " Showtime ," and as Buffy to amplify Spike's torture throughout Season 7 . The First seems also to know mannerisms, information and details of

3936-612: The Five Constants Chinese cosmology, moral philosophy and law regard offenses against the Five Constants with particular abhorrence - anything that diminished the proper relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger, and between mutual friends was a violation of the cosmic order and heinous. Anything that went against the Way embedded in the order of human relationships

4018-454: The Holocaust. Unlike the perpetrators of the Holocaust, the participants in Milgram's experiment were reassured that their actions would cause little harm and had little time to contemplate their actions. The Baháʼí Faith asserts that evil is non-existent and that it is a concept reflecting lack of good, just as cold is the state of no heat, darkness is the state of no light, forgetfulness

4100-613: The Slayer and her allies, but it also assumes the forms of Warren Mears , Spike , Drusilla and Jonathan Levinson on multiple occasions, among a variety of other forms taken less frequently. Its only real weakness is that it is non-corporeal, and therefore cannot cause any real physical damage. It is expert at psychological manipulation , and can act through its servants, such as the Bringers , Turok-Han , Caleb or whatever person it can manage to influence. The First Evil claims to be

4182-582: The apparent absence of conscience evident in sociopaths . He also considers that certain institutions may be evil, using the My Lai Massacre to illustrate. By this definition, acts of criminal and state terrorism would also be considered evil. Martin Luther argued that there are cases where a little evil is a positive good. He wrote, "Seek out the society of your boon companions, drink, play, talk bawdy, and amuse yourself. One must sometimes commit

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4264-471: The arm of another (Rona), and effortlessly defeats Buffy , Faith , and Spike . Before the Gang retreats, he also violently blinds Xander in one eye by forcing his thumb into his left eye socket. The character later dies in the last two episodes of the series. In " End of Days " and " Chosen ." The character Caleb provided a villain with a physical threat (in contrast to the non-corporeal First Evil), and

4346-455: The case of natural disasters or illnesses), and in religious thought , the form of the demonic or supernatural /eternal. While some religions, world views , and philosophies focus on "good versus evil", others deny evil's existence and usefulness in describing people. Evil can denote profound immorality , but typically not without some basis in the understanding of the human condition , where strife and suffering ( cf. Hinduism ) are

4428-479: The characters get from one fight, that is won to the next. As the evil is an entity that can not be fully defeated, Buffy and their friends have to keep it up with an army of this entity within the last season, which can be defeated by them, while the entity continues to exist. According to J'annine Jobling the First Evil seems to be "a radical reversal of the Christian mythos". "An original graced state gave way to

4510-527: The concept of Dharma or righteousness clearly divides the world into good and evil , and clearly explains that wars have to be waged sometimes to establish and protect Dharma, this war is called Dharmayuddha . This division of good and evil is of major importance in both the Hindu epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata . The main emphasis in Hinduism is on bad action, rather than bad people. The Hindu holy text,

4592-467: The consequence of free will and an individual's struggle against the non-existence embodied by Apep, as evidenced by the fact that it was born from Ra's umbilical cord instead of being recorded in the religion's creation myths. The primal duality in Buddhism is between suffering and enlightenment , so the good vs. evil splitting has no direct analogue in it. One may infer from the general teachings of

4674-477: The current Slayer . When Buffy's allies Giles and Anya query the First's sudden rise in activity with a mystical third party, they learn that the First is able to act in this way because of an anomaly in the Slayer line caused by Buffy's recent resurrection, providing an outlet for the First to wipe out all the Slayers. Though incorporeal, the First is effective in prompting suicides, deceiving various members of

4756-476: The deaths of at least two girls, whom he lured with his sermons and charms. By the time of his appearance in the show, he is acting as a lieutenant to the First. Despite not appearing until the last five episodes of the series, the character is revealed to be one of the prime movers for the events of the seventh season. In an effort to eliminate all threats to the First Evil's resurgence, he directed hordes of Bringers to systematically kill Potential Slayers around

4838-427: The electric shocks, including shocks that would have been fatal if they had been real. The participants tended to be uncomfortable and reluctant in the role. Nearly all stopped at some point to question the experiment, but most continued after being reassured. A 2014 re-assessment of Milgram's work argued that the results should be interpreted with the "engaged followership " model: that people are not simply obeying

4920-464: The heavenly Powers That Be . Later, the First makes its presence known again in the seventh season by tormenting the vampire Spike , who like Angel has come into possession of a soul; tricking the former villain Andrew Wells into awakening the Hellmouth beneath Sunnydale High; and dispatching its agents, the Bringers, to kill young women around the world with the potential to succeed Faith as

5002-468: The high virtues of Sikhism. These are: A fundamental question is whether there is a universal, transcendent definition of evil, or whether one's definition of evil is determined by one's social or cultural background. C. S. Lewis , in The Abolition of Man , maintained that there are certain acts that are universally considered evil, such as rape and murder . However, the rape of women, by men,

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5084-429: The intention and consequence of an action, but also to unlawful actions. Unproductive actions or those who do not produce benefits are also thought of as evil. A typical understanding of evil is reflected by Al-Ash`ari founder of Asharism . Accordingly, qualifying something as evil depends on the circumstances of the observer. An event or an action itself is neutral, but it receives its qualification by God. Since God

5166-486: The lacking of memory, ignorance the lacking of knowledge. All of these are states of lacking and have no real existence. Thus, evil does not exist and is relative to man. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá , son of the founder of the religion, in Some Answered Questions states: "Nevertheless a doubt occurs to the mind—that is, scorpions and serpents are poisonous. Are they good or evil, for they are existing beings? Yes,

5248-406: The life of whoever it imitates. This is best shown in " Conversations with Dead People " as the First appears to Dawn as her mother Joyce, appears to Andrew as Warren and appears to Willow as Cassie Newton, in an attempt to manipulate them all into serving its purpose. As essentially the source of all evil, the First has knowledge of every monster and dark ritual in existence. This was exemplified by

5330-422: The most morally despicable sorts of actions, characters, events, etc. Evil [in this sense] ... is the worst possible term of opprobrium imaginable”. Eve Garrard suggests that evil describes "particularly horrifying kinds of action which we feel are to be contrasted with more ordinary kinds of wrongdoing, as when for example we might say 'that action wasn't just wrong, it was positively evil'. The implication

5412-430: The nature of evil. In contemporary philosophy, there are two basic concepts of evil: a broad concept and a narrow concept. A broad concept defines evil simply as any and all pain and suffering: "any bad state of affairs, wrongful action, or character flaw". Yet, it is also asserted that evil cannot be correctly understood "(as some of the utilitarians once thought) [on] a simple hedonic scale on which pleasure appears as

5494-508: The nature of good and evil; normative ethics , concerning how we ought to behave; and applied ethics , concerning particular moral issues. While the term is applied to events and conditions without agency , the forms of evil addressed in this article presume one or more evildoers . The modern English word evil ( Old English yfel ) and its cognates such as the German Übel and Dutch euvel are widely considered to come from

5576-458: The opposite of the cardinal virtues of Taoism, compassion, moderation, and humility can be inferred to be the analogue of evil in it. In response to the practices of Nazi Germany , Hannah Arendt concluded that "the problem of evil would be the fundamental problem of postwar intellectual life in Europe", although such a focus did not come to fruition. Baruch Spinoza states Spinoza assumes

5658-515: The orders of a leader, but instead are willing to continue the experiment because of their desire to support the scientific goals of the leader and because of a lack of identification with the learner. Thomas Blass argues that the experiment explains how people can be complicit in roles such as "the dispassionate bureaucrat who may have shipped Jews to Auschwitz with the same degree of routinization as potatoes to Bremerhaven". However, like James Waller , he argues that it cannot explain an event like

5740-403: The path of goodness, even in the face of temptation and yetzer hara (the inclination to do evil). Evil in the religion of ancient Egypt is known as Isfet , "disorder/violence". It is the opposite of Maat , "order", and embodied by the serpent god Apep , who routinely attempts to kill the sun god Ra and is stopped by nearly every other deity. Isfet is not a primordial force, but

5822-482: The point where it sees most clearly, the idea of evil vanishes and the truth is revealed. In his writings Guru Arjan explains that, because God is the source of all things, what we believe to be evil must too come from God. And because God is ultimately a source of absolute good, nothing truly evil can originate from God. Sikhism, like many other religions, does incorporate a list of "vices" from which suffering, corruption, and abject negativity arise. These are known as

5904-451: The power of the First Evil, he possesses immense physical strength and durability, greatly exceeding that of most vampires, demons, and Slayers. He effortlessly defeats the combined might of Buffy, Faith, and Spike in their first encounter. In order to maintain this power, Caleb must merge with The First to recharge after extended periods. Power transfusions from The First also allow Caleb the ability to return from death , as long as his body

5986-542: The prince." Notes Further reading Caleb (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Caleb is a fictional character played by Nathan Fillion in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer created by Joss Whedon . The character is a sadistic sociopath with a pathological hatred of women. According to Whedon, the character was introduced because the mutable, non-corporeal nature of

6068-495: The runes the Bringers carved into Spike's chest to summon the Turok-Han. As the First is said to be eternal, existing before time and believed to be the only thing remaining after the end of time, it is infinitely patient. A defeat it suffers is nothing more than a minor setback. In Chaos Bleeds , the First displayed the ability to possess people, open portals, teleport beings across dimensions and, according to Sid , conjure

6150-554: The source and embodiment of all that is evil. For technical purposes, the First Evil is neither male, female, demon, nor god; it is a "power". The First is older than demons, even the Old Ones , who themselves existed long before the first humans; it is older than the written word, the Big Bang and transcends all realities and dimensions; it is older than any other evil being and may even be the very first entity ever to have existed. It

6232-424: The term say there is a secular view of evil that offers plausible analyses without reference to the supernatural. Garrard and Russell argue that evil is as useful an explanation as any moral concept. Garrard adds that evil actions result from a particular kind of motivation, such as taking pleasure in the suffering of others, and this distinctive motivation provides a partial explanation even if it does not provide

6314-472: The town to hunt down arriving Potentials and to unearth the Scythe , a mystic weapon created by Guardians: ancient, powerful women who cared for the Slayer. Picart and Browning describe the First Evil as "evil by definition". According to Gregory Stevenson Whedon's creation of the First Evil shows that evil is persistent. It can never stop nor be fully defeated. There is always a balance between good and evil and

6396-419: The true and complete enlightenment of a buddha (samyaksambodhi). "What is evil? Killing is evil, lying is evil, slandering is evil, abuse is evil, gossip is evil: envy is evil, hatred is evil, to cling to false doctrine is evil; all these things are evil. And what is the root of evil? Desire is the root of evil, illusion is the root of evil." Gautama Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, 563–483 BC. In Hinduism,

6478-435: The true roots of evil. In certain religious contexts, evil has been described as a supernatural force. Definitions of evil vary, as does the analysis of its motives. Elements that are commonly associated with personal forms of evil involve unbalanced behavior, including anger , revenge , hatred , psychological trauma , expediency , selfishness , ignorance , destruction and neglect . In some forms of thought, evil

6560-622: The world. He also ordered the bombing of the Watchers' Council Headquarters in London , causing the deaths of Quentin Travers and all current Watchers and Council Operatives present, and arranged for a prisoner to attack Faith in a Los Angeles prison. In the episode " Dirty Girls ," Caleb attacks the Scooby Gang in person. He murders two potential Slayers, Molly and Dianne. He also breaks

6642-425: Was considered vile, and invited the displeasure of Heaven and ghosts, who were seen as inflicting retribution through the instrumentality of legal punishments on earth. Chinese moral and legal philosophy views the violation of family and kinship order with particular abhorrence, considering it especially heinous. In assessing the degree of evil, not only the severity of the effect against the life, health or dignity of

6724-423: Was just me havin' fun. Satan is a little man." Caleb also comments further on his admiration of The First, when it (under the guise of Buffy) vocalizes its envy of humans' ability to feel lust and engage in primal sexual acts. At the same time, several members of the Scooby Gang engage in such activity elsewhere. He dismisses them all as "sinners," commenting enthusiastically that The First is miles beyond that, for it

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