Is it right to hate bad people?

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Thank you for proving my theory.

If you are correct about nothing in the Bible supporting that concept, you just made dealing with bad people a lot easier for me.

Well, I think he's right that its possible but - to be in such a situation and keep your wits means that you have a lot of support or reinforcement from other directions, either other people in your life or enough history of healthier pastures where someone else's recklessness or stupidity as intertwined with your own affairs fazes you less. Obviously if you still have some cards in your hand or if you know that if it came to all out confrontation they wouldn't stand a chance against you that helps as well.

I voted 'No, but it's understandable to hate them', because I believe it is typical of human nature to come to hate that which one fears. If we fear something we will come to hate it for inspiring bad feelings within us. I read that when one person is afraid of another, their mind can invent false memories of bad things a person has done, or greatly exagerate a slight incident, so as to build a reason to hate the other person and validate their fears. Examining why a person is 'bad' and the causes of their behaviour alleviates fear of others in me. I imagine the root of many incidences of human 'badness' being in the fear and hatred of those who are perpetrated against.

Ask me after a few months of not being robbed, having vandalism occur constantly, and to top it off even (as I found out just recently) a friend of my brother-in-law was murdered on Saturday. I'm not really in the mood to answer such questions with theological correctness, as right now I would much rather be a vigilante than to be forgiving. Time will eventually heal wounds, though if these "fundamentally good" people give doing wrong a rest for a few months it would help to expedite the recovery of my ability to forgive.

I have not been monitoring -

Has it been determined that it is right to decide certain people are bad, and if so has it been decided what will be the definition of "bad people"?

Maybe hate is the last resort, but that doesn't mean it is always useless. Obviously if you have the upper hand and there is no real emotional injury, hate is unneeded and will not even occur. I know some people like to boast that they have never felt completely cornered and powerless. However, you can't deny that this world can be truly f****d up at times. If a serial killer randomly kills a family member there is nothing you can do to get that family member back. An act of evil has caused a hurt that you have no power over.

And hate fixes that how?

I have in my time hated, believe me. Never changed the situation and made my internal state worse.

Forgiving is the only way anyone could overcome something like that. Which is why it is so hard to be a victim of something of that nature.

I would attempt definition of 'bad people' as: a group of people who are defined by their actions, through personal or cultural prejudice, to be not good. Reading that, it does not seem to cover very well the context of the OP, but at least the broadness of scope neatly allows all to be on the spectrum.

I'm probably the minority in this, but I judge people more by their heart than by their actions. Of course, actions reflect the heart, but very imperfectly. I would respect a remorseful war criminal more than I would respect an unrepentant common bully.

I've given this some more thought.

You are correct that the Bible does not expressly teach loving the sinner but hating the sin, but the Bible must be examined as a whole work.

Got hates sin. God has hated sinners, but if you look at everything from Adam & Eve, to the law of Moses, to the dispensation of Grace we now live in, if God "hated" sinners, He would not have made provision for them to find forgiveness and mercy.

God might hate us when we sin, but there is still love. After all, do not parents love their kids even when they do something they don't approve of? I've taken the position that the opposite of love is not hate...it is indifference. If you don't care, you feel nothing. If you get angry, it's because you do care.

God, being perfect, can hate a person when they sin but not loose sight of the love that motivates Him to make the means to find grace.

Humans, being imperfect, would quickly persecute the sinner and offer no hope because we have a hard time remembering to love.

It is fine to hate the evil person.

A person who stole a TV set from Best Buy may or may not be evil, so evil is the sum totality of that persons's actions since he/she was old enough to take responsibility for their actions. A person who murders after a long life free of sin is still evil, since murder is so heavily weighted in comparison to other sins. Rape is heavily weighted as well but not to the extent of murder. In other words, there are gradations of evil, and a truly evil person deserves the sympathy of no one.

I don't agree with measuring a person's evilness by their actions, I think it has more to do with what is in the heart. Actions are a mirror of the heart, but they shine an imperfect reflection.

What about a person who murdered someone at age 20 but then saved 100 people afterwards over the rest of their life and felt extreme sorrow for their murder and served 15 years in prison for it and received forgiveness from the family? Are they evil?