I really don’t believe in evil. If anyone or anything is evil, then the rest of us have to decide what that is. To believe in the concept of evil presupposes that we can detect it in our world, and that we can separate good from evil. The concept of evil thus conditions us to judge between the good and the bad. If we believe in evil, it’s more likely we’ll make judgments to decide who is evil from who isn’t. And that means we have to form our own exclusive clubs of us versus them, kind of like Stalin and his henchmen did during the Great Terror, or like Hitler did once he assumed power. The other side had to be evil, and that which is evil is below human. It must be destroyed. Witches were considered evil, and they were burned alive, since that was the only way to destroy them. Today, it may be someone on the other side of the political aisle. If you look back in history, many of its horrors can be traced to pogroms and genocides in which the persecuted were righteously classified as evil.
The ability to discern good from evil comes to us because we believe we have the capacity to make accurate judgments about what’s good or right for ourselves, for others, and for the world. And we don’t really have that ability to judge, because none of us has the objective capability to see things as they really are. If an objective reality exists, you and I can’t see it. We can see part, and not the whole, because we ourselves are only a part of the whole. If we think we can see the objective reality, we’re deluding ourselves. Our perceptions, and the thoughts and judgments which are founded upon those perceptions, are distorted by our subjective experiences and our individual natures, by time, and by the unique point in space, in time, and in history which each one of us inhabits. Each of us has different concepts of what should be called evil. Yet none of us has complete or even accurate information dating back to the beginnings of the universe in time. We’re unable to trace every cause and effect. We see parts, and not the whole. Therefore, none of us really has the capacity to judge anything with objectivity. Laboring under our own peculiar distortions of an unreliable, truncated, selective and incomplete memory, our thoughts and perceptions, our judgments of evil can be dangerously off-target.
The way out is to realize there really is no such thing as evil.
© 2022 by Michael C. Just
Mike’s novel, The Dirt: The Journey of a Mystic Cowboy, is available in softcover or eBook formats through Amazon.
You can purchase the book through this website. Or go straight to amazon at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+dirt+journey+of+a+mystic+cowboy&crid=1S40Q4BXSUWJ6&sprefix=the+dirt%3A+journey+of+a+m%2Caps%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_23
Mike’s other titles, including The Crippy, The Mind Altar, and Canyon Calls, are available through this website or through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002
Four of his short stories have recently been published online:
Lies, Ltd. has been published by The Mystery Tribune @ Lies, Ltd.: Literary Short Fiction by Michael C. Just (mysterytribune.com)
The Obligate Carnivore has been published by the Scarlet Leaf Review @ Category: MICHAEL JUST – SCARLET LEAF REVIEW
I See You, Too has been published by the 96th of October @ I See You, Too – 96th of October
Offload, a short story about a man who can heal any disease, is now live and can be read at The Worlds Within at Offload – The Worlds Within