Badness

How can we explain the presence of evil in a world created by an all-powerful, all-knowing, and loving God?

If you don’t believe there is a God, or gods, then you are not seeking an explanation. Evolutionists theorize that humans are a clever and exceptionally successful breed of animal, well equipped to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. Natural selection extolls the survival of the fittest. In a stratified and hierarchical group of animals, dominance is won and maintained by the strongest and most ruthless beasts. The struggle for supremacy among the strong is perpetual. Kingdoms and Empires rise and fall. There is never a shortage of pretenders to the throne. Less competitive members of the species are the spoils of war. Oligarchs (the few) reap substantial dividends from the labor of the many. In the case of advanced species such as homo sapiens, authority maintains its grip with an iron fist that, in peacetime, is politely concealed within a velvet glove. In times of crises, however, this velvet glove is plucked off. Times of trouble, when the few engage in a desperate struggle to control the souls of many, regularly punctuate the typically uneventful annals of history. Peace is never assured. Behind the scenes, ruthless people are continually scheming to gain control over the inhabitants of the world. 

All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1 by William Shakespeare

We are not animals, but spiritual beings who are not satisfied with explanations that deny life of its joy, purpose, and meaning. We feel assured that we were formed for purposes higher than our basic need to survive and reproduce. Life, for better or worse, is a good thing. Death is an evil, be it our own death, our neighbor’s, or the death of the entire universe.

Before modern science and philosophy proclaimed life to be purposeless and meaningless, humankind wondered why evil polluted our souls. Why are people so cruel to each other? Why do some regard themselves as being better than others? Where can justice be discovered in an unjust world? Who will defend the weak from their bondage to the strong? What higher power, or powers, will conquer the evil in this world, and the evil that lurks within us?

Judaism does not emphasize evil as a concept personified by an evil entity, but disobedience to God’s commands is assuredly regarded a bad, bad thing. A life passed in conformance to God’s will iand commandments is a good life. Examples of good men and women are relatively rare in the Hebrew Bible. Tales of evil deeds and their doers are abundant. A longsuffering God suspends judgement upon His chosen people with the expectation that these stiffnecked and rebellious folk will ultimately repent of their sins and mend their wicked ways. God promises blessings upon those that do align themselves with His will, and curses upon those who fail to do so. Just to play it safe, the collective sins of Israel were purged once a year, but not without the sheding of blood.

Three thousand years ago in Persia a man named Zoroaster consolidated a multitude of gods into only two: good Ahura Mazda (meaning “illuminating wisdom”) and evil Angra Mainyu (meaning “destructive spirit”). Reality is shaped by the struggle between these two opponents, a perpetual struggle between good and evil.

This streamlined theology gave rise to variations that believed matter (stuff) was evil and spirit (non-stuff) was good. This variants are collectivelly called Gnosticism. “Gnosis” (Greek for “knowledge”) referred to potential states of enlightenment, salvation, emancipation, or unity with God. These higher states might be attained by practicing philanthropy until one’s resources became completely exhausted, abstaining partially or (ideally) completely from sex, and gaining wisdom and merit by selfless devotion to the needs of others. A variety of gnostic belief systems arose in the era of the early Christian Church. Since matter was regarded as evil, the concept of God coming to earth in the form of a man offended the Gnostics.

In ancient Egypt, there was good Ma’at (symbolic of justice, order, and cohesion) and evil Isfet (sower of chaos, disorder, and decay). One could not exist without the other. They were "codependant." Their eternal feud powered the various cycles of reality.

In the religion of ancient Mesopotamia, good Marduk emerged to become the top god and patron deity of Babylon. The goddess Tiamat, originally regarded as benign, evolved to become the evil embodiment of primordial chaos.

Ancient Greek philosophers, despite maintaining the traditional forms of homage to their pantheon of gods and demigods, were the creators of our modern world. Gods were no longer needed. The wisdom of humanity was considered to be unsurpassable. Sages like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle became elevated to godlike status by succeeding generations until a more investagative and unbiased generation discovered that they were not omniscient and infallible.

Democritus, a sage despised by Plato, believed goodness is the result of practice and discipline but is not the natural condition of human beings. Evil is extremely natural. Evil people must, therefore, be entirely avoided. Bad people are easily identified identified by their bad tempers, the pleasure they experience when others suffer, their idleness and emphasis upon self-gratification, and their envy. Democritus did not recommend that seekers of the good lead lives of continual self-denial. Festivals and celebrations were periodically needed to relieve life’s pressure, to let off a little steam.

As was the case with ancient Greece, conceptions of evil in the Middle Ages were dominated by pronouncements from venerable doctors of the church, notably Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas. They were, and continue to be regarded as infallible within the context of Roman Catholicism. Bishop Augustine’s classical definition of sin is “a word, deed, or desire in opposition to the eternal law of God.” This definition aligns with its biblical source. Sub-definitions by the scholastics could be fanciful and, sometimes, controversial. Thomas Aquinas is remembered for having proclaimed rape to be less of a sin than autoeroticism, but this hierarchy of sins was based on how far a sexual sin strayed from the divinely ordained purpose for sex; procreation.

The variety of sins condemned by testaments old and new were condensed by the Desert Fathers (early Christian hermits, ascetics, and monks who dwelt in an Egyptian desert from around the 3rd century AD) to the seven deadliest, major sins from which all lesser sins are derived. Abridgements of scripture, like carvings and stained-glass windows, were instructive to a populace that was largely illiterate. Dante Alighieri ranked these in his epic poem The Divine Comedy from lesser to greater in the following order: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and (worst of all) pride.

William of Occam recognized the shortcomings of Thomas Aquinas’s system and its hierarchy of sins and penalties, and an assumed authority that established the church as the bridge between the secular world and divinity. Occam proposed the bridge be replaced by revelation, covenant, and a reliance on God’s faithfulness alone. An omnipotent deity is free to do as He chooses, but has promised to abide by the rules of His covenant with mankind. God defined what He regards as sin, as evil. Evil men, and evil spirits, are lawbreakers. Like Aquinas, William of Occam believed that the practice of doing good, and of being good would make us more like God, and less like ourselves. Whereas Aquinas believed God’s grace empowers us to merit God’s favor, William of Occam declared that God’s gift of grace overshadowed any pathetic attempts by ourselves to merit it. The best that we can do is to try to do the best we can. Doing one’s best means forsaking evil and embracing good.

Martin Luther struggled to prove that he was good enough to merit God’s grace. His attempts to prove his worthiness failed. He experienced an epiphany; justification is not based on human righteousness, but on that of God as revealed and confirmed in Jesus Christ. One cannot gain God’s favor by purchasing forgiveness for sins from salesmen who are raising funds for the reconstruction of St. Peter’s Basilica. Regarding our own reconstruction in the wake of salvation by grace, we must work to decrease the evil that lies within. As sinfulness becomes depleted, goodness and justice will replace it.

Luther proposed that there are times where a little evil is a positive good, writing, “Seek out the society of your boon companions, drink, play, talk bawdy, and amuse yourself. One must sometimes commit 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.”

Evil spirits are commonplace in folklore throughout the world. In the Orient, advanced belief systems do not emphasis the duality of good and evil. Confucianism is more concerned with proper social relationships and the way polished gentlemen should conduct themselves. Boorish behavior, opposite to what is considered appropriate, is therefore evil, but perhaps not to the degree of mass genocide.

Good versus evil is even less evident in Taoism, despite duality being central to its cosmology. Yin and yang are believed by Taoists to be complementary extremes that continually interact with each other. One cannot exist independently of the other, similar to the codependency of Egyptian gods Ma’at (good) and Isfet (evil). Taoism encourages compassion, moderation, and humility. We can presume that the absence of the qualities, or presence of their opposites (apathy, excess, and pride) are regarded as evil.

Buddhists concern themselves with the distinction between suffering and enlightenment, rather than good and evil. The teachings of Buddha list the causes of suffering, which are arguably evils. Worst are desire, hate, delusion and the words and deeds that spring from these selfish and prideful trio. Evil means whatever obstructs happiness in this life. Happiness is a better life upon being reincarnated, liberation from cycle of continual rebirths, and the complete enlightenment of a Buddha that liberates one from the necessity of being reborn.

In Hinduism the concept of dharma (righteousness) splits reality into good and evil, and that war is justifiable in the defense of dharma. Hinduism spotlights bad actions, rather than bad people. The Hindu holy text, the Bhagavad Gita, reveals that when good and evil get out of balance, divine incarnations appear to restore the balance.

Sikhism believes that we evolve spiritually, so definitions of evil change relative to our position on the path to liberation. To initiates, good and evil may seem neatly separated. As one advances the concept of evil vanishes as truth is revealed. The fifth of ten Sikh gurus, Arjan, believed that because God is the source of everything, what we regard as evil as coming from God. Since God is the ultimate source of absolute good, nothing truly evil can originate from God. The principle scripture for Sikhs, however, the Guru Granth Sahib, makes frequent use of the Punjabi word for “evil”.

The Baháʼí faith does not believe in evil. When good is not present, nothing exists to fill the void. What we regard as evil is subjective. It is relative to one’s point of view. Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of the founder of Baháʼí, wrote:

“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, 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.”

Evil is, therefore, an abstract concept, and not a reality. Baháʼí is an Abrahamic faith, as is Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, so it cites Genesis 1:31 to support its view that God’s creation is good: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good…” Baháʼí is upbeat and optimistic, a medley of all that that is positive drawn from the less syncretic belief systems. Any mention of evil would be out of place, Chapter 3 of Genesis, for example: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made…” The unification of mankind, this religion’s mandate, requires that it hear no evil, see no evil, nor speak no evil.

As is the case with Baháʼí, there is there is no concept of absolute evil in Islam. Muslims believe that all comes from God, whether it is perceived as being good or evil by individuals. Imagined evil is either a natural phenomenon such as earthquake or illness, or the penalty for violating the commandments of God. Evil is not a thing, but merely the absence of good. Like the relatively sophisticated religions of the Far East, however, Islamic beliefs coalesced amidst less sophisticated folk religions. To the peasants plagued by war and famine, it is easy to regard evil as a tangible or ethereal force to be reckoned with.

Judaism recognizes that evil does exist but believes that no individual can be defined as absolutely good or evil. People are too complicated. God provided Jews the Torah so that they might overcome evil. Medieval Jewish philosophers believed that people who do good deeds will be rewarded in the afterlife, but the afterlife is not emphasized in Hebraic canonical scriptures. The primary focus is on this life. Evil exists because of man’s evil deeds. A second, somewhat conflicting view states that a monotheistic God (as is the case with Sikhism) cannot be fragmented into good and evil. What humanity considers evil may be due to its extremely limited ability to see the big picture. The Book of Job highlights this concept.

Spiritual blindness remains a feature of Christianity, which augments Hebrew scripture with the New Testament. Christians believe that clear vision is acheived only when the Holy Spirit serves as interpreter, guide, and optometrist. As was the case with Job, however, Christians acknowlege that only God sees all, knows all, and is all. The Apostle Paul wrote this in 1st Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see through a glass [mirror], darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Perfect understanding is denied to the inhabitants of the earth, so perceptions of evil are misperceptions relative to those of God. Evil undeniably exists, however, and is abetted by created, spiritual beings, a legion of fallen angels that the Bible designates as being “demons”, and the once highly favored angel, Lucifer, who instigated the fall of angels and the fall of humankind. Remain calm! This is only a test.

Does evil exist as a thing outside the confines of the social order? Is there such a thing as absolute evil? Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Hindus believe there is. Other belief systems regard evil only as the absence of good, and no malevolent force or entity. Many contemporary theorists regard evil as relative (cultural relativism), and not absolute. Individuals are even encouraged to act according to their personal definitions of right and wrong (“moral relativism”).

Quotable Christian apologist C. S. Lewis thought that there are certain acts that are universally recognized as being evil, such as rape and murder. Slavery was regarded as evil by most people when it was a legal to own slaves. Those who defended it were those who stood to profit by it. Slavery continues to exist in our present age and remains extremely profitable. Bondage to others, in advanced nations, is ostensibly voluntary, but we are pressured to expend funds we have not yet earned. Obtaining goods and services immediately, and then paying for them in monthly installments is a form of bondage. We voluntarily become enslaved to debt. There is lots of money to be made by producing consumer goods, by vending them, and (especiially) by financing them.

Money can fuel both good and evil, but principally fuels evil. Evildoers, psychopaths, easily justify evil deeds perpetrated in the pursuit of monetary gain.: “I’m only trying to earn a living!” Money can purchase influence, or power. Political and institutional power can demand that money, tribute, be paid to them. Once upon a time, wealth was falsely regarded as a mark of divine favor, a blessing that God entrusted to those who were most worthy to properly expend it. Once upon a time, power was sanctified and ratified by divinity. Presently, very few wealthy people reflect upon the primary source of their fortunes. They attribute it either to their own cunning or to the providence of their forebears. When relatively powerless European monarchs are crowned, lip service is extended to relatively much, much higher powers. Monarchs no longer rule, as did King David, or Louis XIV. They merely reign.

When power is obtained by force, the people and property conquered are the property of the conqueror. Conditions could improve (liberation) or conditions become worse (sustained oppression). The Nazis once blitzed much of Europe, then promulgated much evil in the name of Aryan pride. The subject peoples were regarded as being subhuman. WWII was an instance of evil, and its victorious opposition by a lesser evil on a colossal, global scale, The annals of history are replete with instances of murder, pillage, and plunder at every conceivable scale, In the 19th century, scientist and philosophers first sought to justify and defend mayhem, and even to celebrate it. At present, this celebratory faction persists. Does might make right?

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, was a tender-hearted and sensitive man, but his books Beyond Good and Evil and On the Genealogy of Morals stood conventional morality on its head. He wrote that the absence of good had been transformed into the religious concept of evil because of the slave mentality of the weak and oppressed masses who resented their strong masters (the strong). He also believed that those who regard themselves as good, moral beings are actually cowards who fear the consequences of doing evil.

Martin Luther’s concept of “necessary evil” was adapted to politics by Niccolò Machiavelli, a Florentine whose 16th-century treatise The Prince informed tyrants that “it is far safer to be feared than loved.” Treachery, deceit, eliminating political rivals, and the usage of fear are offered as methods of consolidating and securing a prince’s security and power. Centuries later, Realpolitik was a term coined in the 19th-century by Ludwig von Rochau to describe politics or diplomacy adapted to circumstances, rather than conformance to ideology, morality, and ethical premises. Evil is permitted because it is expedient. The end justifies the means.

Baruch Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardic extraction, wrote that “good” is anything that is useful. “Evil” is whatever keeps one from obtaining what is good. Proposition 65 of Part IV of his book Ethics states, “According to the guidance of reason, of two things which are good, we shall follow the greater good, and of two evils, follow the less.” Life places us in situations where we are often constrained to choose the lesser of two evils. In the 1982 movie Sophie’s Choice, the protagonist and her two children arrive at Auschwitz, a concentration camp. She is forced a Nazi officer to choose which one of her children will be gassed and which one will be consigned to a labor camp. To avoid having both children killed she chooses that her son survive. Her daughter is sent to her death. In this case, even the lesser of two evils is huge. Hobson’s Choice is defined as an apparently free choice when there is no real alternative but refusing to choose at all, even should this refusal prove fatal.

Moral Evil results from an intentional act (or failure to act) by an individual or group. This could be murder, war or any other evil event for which someone can be held responsible.

Natural Evil is what insurance underwriters term an “act of God” that actually refers to what is commonly believed to be acts of nature (earthquakes. hurricanes, epidemics). Christian theologians reject this definition, believing instead that natural evil is an indirect result of original sin (as is moral evil). Some theologians (and every primitive culture past and present) assert that natural evil is directly perpetrated by demonic agents. Atheists argue that the existence of natural evil is a challenge to belief in the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent of God (or gods).

The first line of this webpage statws "How do you explain the presence of evil in a world created by an all-powerful, all-knowing, and loving God?"

Wherever the answer may lie, a much better question might be, :How can evil be permanently eradicated?"

Experienced human beings believe that eliminating evil in this world is immpossible. Throughout every age, less experienced humans have proposed lots of solutions, most of which have failed to work when put into practice. Evil is ubiquitous in this world. It is on your smartphone, on your television, and lurking just beneath the surface of everybody you meet, however friendly and attractive they may appear to be. Evil has plagued our world since the dawn of time, Christianity promises that evil will not gain entry to eternity.