Does Evil Exist?
This guy gets it.
From an Artical "Does Evil Exist"
By John R. Mabry
Humans like to categorize; we especially like to polarize ("He's a nice man"/He's a bad man" "That was a great meal"/"Dinner really sucked!" etc.). Things are seldom considered unless we tack on a moral or evaluative judgement, often unconsciously. This is especially true when we consider one another, and one another's traits. We appreciate the 'good' and condemn the 'evil'. Evil, as defined by Webster, is "1. Morally bad or wrong; wicked; malevolent; sinful. 2.Causing an undesirable condition, as ruin, injury or pain."
But is the concept of evil in man valid? Do we have an evil streak? Are there such things as 'wholly evil' persons?
Let us first question whether evil exists outside the human race, in nature. The word 'nature' these days is almost synonymous with 'wholesome' and 'good'. We understand that animals do violent things, injurous things, painful things. Like fighting and killing for legitimate purposes: Dominance and Survival. These traits are not learned, they are instincts; as much a part of the animal as it's teeth or fur. Is man any different-or are the motivations found in nature (dominance & survival) also found in us?
Animals fight to survive. Once flight proves impossible, fangs are bared and claws wielded, often unto death. They hunt, and kill for food. In some instances, larger predators kill for sport, leaving the carcasses for other animals to dispose of. They also kill to protect their families and territories. Is this wrong? The animals, so faras we know, have no moral delimas. They do what they must to survive, and often it involves 'ruin, injury and pain'.
Man is a meat eater (for the most part), and few people have qualms about the animal who suffered death to fill their digestive cavities. How about killing another human, though? Self-defense is certainly legitimate. A man may steal because he must eat. This, too, is survival. Many animals are natural thieves (crows for example), indicating that perhaps thievery is a valid occupation in the natural order of things. All these are not exclusive to human beings--the instinct to survive is indicative of all creation.
How about wars, then? What about the great holocausts that have been endured for the sake of a tract of land, a difference of opinion or an opposing ideal? is this not a struggle for dominance? Why is one government fighting another for possession of a certain real estate any different than the wolf defending to the death a territory he has carefully designated as his? Why is a man shooting another man who has been caught in adultery with the wife of the first any different than two bucks knocking themselves into oblivion as they butt antlers to decide the prize of a doe? Are not wars a struggle for a basically animal dominance? Holy wars are waged over the dominance of one idea over another.
Dominance is also a necessary factor for any sort of organized society. There must be leaders (this, too, is natural) and would-be leaders must fight for dominance, whether it be tooth and claw or the political arena.
But, the reader might protest, what about Hitler? Or the Son of Sam? It could be argued that Hitler is guilty of no evil. He believed in the dominance of his race and pursued it. He may have been wrong, but since when does being wrong make one evil? Here we must also take into account the factor of mental illness. There are simply people who are hostile and irrationally destructive to themselves and society as a result of some internal defect. Are these people evil? Probably, no. Simply ill, for which they can bear no responsibility.
So what of this thing called evil? This malignant force we attribute to the darker nature of man? It is no more existent in us than in our brothers of the lower animal orders. Let us say, rather, that in spite of all of our righteous self-examination, we are, in fact, living up to nature's standards. We may dominate, but we govern ourselves. We may kill, but we survive. We may think, but we are, at our best, still animals.