The Problem of Evil

Really, this entry should be kind of short. The entry should read that there is no force of evil at work in the world. Problems stem from lots of people interacting and making decisions with imperfect information or even ill intent. Some problems emerge from systemic situations, which are still human created and whose solutions rest with we the people.

However, more does need to be said because there are any number of religious people out there who think that demons and Satan himself roam the earth tempting everyone away from the Truth and leading us to sin. Now, I've already talked about how I reject the concept of sin, a nebulous notion that concerns not only our actions but our thoughts and indeed all our imperfections which make Yahweh angry or sad, depending. It's not only sinful to cause harm to another person but it is sinful even to think of causing harm (without even addressing the issue of sexual sin). Sin just stems from our nature as imperfect beings. So this supposed benevolent god created us all in his image, just imperfect, and our very imperfection is what makes him unhappy.

Just as I reject the concept of sin, I also reject the concept of evil forces at work in the world. Even setting aside the notion that evil forces would be leading us to sin specifically, I don't see any evidence that evil forces are leading people to any action.

What this amounts to is a way to avoid responsibility for one's actual choices. Sure, you're accountable for your "sin," but the cause was succumbing to temptation not because of bad intentions, ignorance or a combination of the two. Evil forces remove any need for real reflection or reasoning. The world becomes a simple war between supernatural forces, and any attempt at nuance about people's circumstances, needs, desires and so on is rejected.

I used to completely reject the word evil in discussions about current events. I remember after 9/11 when pretty much everyone was calling the hijackers evil, I wanted to find a different word to describe them. One socially conservative person took real issue with my point and did not want to explore the connotations associated with the word evil. Instead, she mocked me and refused to engage the discussion. She was happy with the label of evil and didn't want to think further about it.

Later in a discussion with a more liberal-minded friend, I explored the meaning more. He listened to my main objection that evil referenced a religious realm and countered with his own idea: that evil emerges from a choice to engage in actions that cause a great deal of pain, suffering, and anguish. This is a definition I can accept because it places the onus of responsibility over the acting agent. We can begin to examine their motivations and the outcomes of their real actions. We are no longer engaging a discussion about some supernatural (and undetectable) war for souls and afterlives.

The problem generally, though, is that the connotations can just glom on to your message. You say something is evil, with your mind firmly set on the earthly realm, and your interlocutor interprets your words with theirs aimed at a more religious bent. Words and expressions come with baggage, and it can be hard to clear it all away in a casual discussion without getting bogged down in details.

I wish I could have more conversations like the one I had with my liberal-minded friend. We didn't agree on everything, but we listened and considered the other person's point of view. He didn't immediately dismiss my idea, and I didn't come out of the conversation 100% changed. It gave me some more thinking to do.

And really, more thinking, more exchange of views is what we need. In part, we need to question the bases for our concepts. Until such time as someone can show that there is a supernatural realm with forces of evil battling all that is good, we should discard those notions. In order to solve our problems, we need to look to what causes harm, pain, and suffering and try to alleviate that.