Does Evil Exist?
abracad, · Categories: spiritualityThough we all have our own concepts of good and bad, right and wrong, when we think objectively the concept of morality is a slippery one, if it any concrete existence at all. Just look at how laws, organized society's embodiment of morality, differ from culture to culture and even over (a short) time within the same culture.
In England homosexuality was illegal until 1967. Now, even daring to voice anything remotely critical of the practice is sufficient to warrant a visit from the authorities (TIMESONLINE Dec 23, 2005). Normally killing a fellow human being is a serious crime. But do it in a war and you'll get a medal. Be a government-employed executioner and you'll get a paycheck and pension. And how many doctors assist the passage of suffering patients, believing they are acting out of compassion. Members of the same profession regularly carry out "abortion".....
But having recognized moral fluidity, is there any such thing as absolute evil? In the extreme, what of those who start wars? A single stroke of their pen condemns hundreds of thousands to pointless slaughter.
Given we all come to earth for experiential growth the indiscriminate mass slaughter that is war surely ends the adventure of life prematurely for a large number. Their journey, though not exactly pointless, is certainly under-fulfilled. And that destruction, that wasted potential, is as close as we get to evil in that it frustrates rather than serves the Will of Spirit.
Which raises the question of whether such "evil" is part of God's plan, or the result of individual (ab)use of free will leading the party concerned too far from their intended path. Perhaps we cannot answer this with certainty in our incarnate form. In most cases I'd tentatively suggest it is free will gone wrong. But maybe, occasionally, one is born whose purpose is not primarily to experience but to act as a catalyst enabling the greater experience of many others.
So continue to hold, and refine, your personal concepts of right and wrong. Also oppose in whatever ways you can those things that appear to be truly evil. You may not always be successful, but you and the world will be the better for your efforts.
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