Evil: What Is It

God's 'evil' was of and is of teaching is it not?

Ah, "EVIL"...is in the eye of the beholder. Lucifer has a far piece to go to catch up with the Church in the evil department, doesn't he?

The dichotomy between good and evil in religion began with the Zoroastrian religion, I've read...dualism, I guess they call it. I believe that good and evil are ideals, just ideas and not reality. Like the colors 'black & white' or 'hot & cold', they only appear in reality as points on a gradient...an infinite gradient where the endpoints don't exist except as an imaginary standard.

I don't believe in an interventionist God...that's a Nick Cave lyric, by the way. The facts bear me out, I believe. But no one knows what the game is...we can only guess & ponder.

Have to disagree with issimae..."God" DOESN'T teach; we teach ourselves - hopefully - by making errors in choice and correcting in a constructive and cosmic-conscious way.

MamaMac, I don't believe in an "interventionist GOD" either. However, I do believe there were interventionist gods, who created life on this planet. Us included. Techno-gods! God as most call it, the prime creator is the stuff all energy is made of. Simplistic, I know, but why complicate things, after all, I am not a theologian.

I like your similes of color and temperature to explain the idea of good vs evil. But just like a point on a gradient, a physical and 3-dimensional gradient has a physical point. That is how good and evil are measured in this realm; in the physical, not the abstract.
jim

That's what makes this such a very good article, it really makes you think through what might just otherwise be casually accepted - What actually is the concept and reality of 'Evil'.

A personal concept or the universal church establishment concept. When you think about it, how often do the personal and universal takes on evil really equate with each other?

So, is evil essentially in the eye of the beholder?

"So, is evil essentially in the eye of the beholder?"

It is really ironic that most of us pride ourselves on our independence and, yet, allow the thoughts of our equals dictate what we accept as truth and how we view ourselves and others.

Wouldn't it be just peachy if everything was black and white...We would easily know "evil" when we spotted it. There would be a distinct and undeniable line of demarcation to guide us. Alas, there is no such line and life is not black and white but rather omni-colored. And, as for gradients of "evil", isn't THAT in the eye of the beholder? "What is one man's meat is another man's poison." Incest was accepted and revered in ancient Egypt, Inca Peru and Hawaii but is prosecuted in today's world. Where did Adam and Eve's sons get their wives? Why was Lot - also in the Hebrew Bible - considered by their God to be a "righteous man"? Exactly WHEN did it become 'EVIL"?? For Hawaii, it was when Christianity arrived at it's shores, around 1778. In fact, for all, it was when monotheism took control of the mind of mankind.

I used incest as an example because it is a modern era taboo that resonates with great discord within most of us. It could have been cannibalism, human sacrifice, drug use, and much more. All these practices are condemned today but were once quite acceptable. Exactly WHEN did they become "evil"? Exactly WHEN did they become "sinful"? Religious men seem to know that answer...or do they?

From the book "The Milk Is White" now being prepared for this site:

Darkness and The Devil.

Without light there can be no darkness,
Without darkness there is light.

There is light and that light makes shadows and darkness possible. Light is energy (matter) in vibration; darkness is nothing. Similarly, it is love, i.e. Christ consciousness, enlightenment, which makes 'the Devil' possible through our expression of the Anti-Christ, i.e. the opposites of love such as hate, greed, fear, self-interest etc.
Darkness and the Devil do not exist in fact. They only 'exist' as does the shaded face of a coin held up to the light. It is the coin that exists ............. with one face in shadow. Love is fundamental to each one of us; its opposites we create and then build on, hold on to, or eliminate.
The Devil does not exist any more than the shadow on the unlit hemisphere of a white ball exists when light shines on the ball. The entire ball is still white and it is only the absence of light on the dark side that makes it dark.
Darkness is an illusion created by the absence of the physical reality - light. Similarly, 'Devil' is the illusion and Spirit the light.
"Quo Vadis?"

This extract, also from "The Milk Is White", sheds a little more light on this subject. It is the final two paragraphs that are relevant; the rest is to give these context.

The "american" Ideal.
The "american Ideal" originated in 'the mists of time' and was transported to America by the migrants from Europe. This did not happen by chance; it was caused by the collective thoughts of many and the time and site for this to manifest and be tested became due. For whatever complex reasons the continent of America was the most suitable site for the institution and proliferation of this thought pattern, or ideal, and its subsequent development and testing. Subsequently, it was seized upon by others on Earth as their ideal, and today it is the religion of many, with many more aspiring to conversion.
This ideal is, however, flawed in that the system set up to achieve it creates imbalance because it is driven by selfish and base motivation. It is ideal only for some; the others suffer exploitation, indifference, deprivation of human rights, etc. It creates multi-million dollar salaries and incomes on the one hand and unemployment and poverty on the other; exploitation of the environment; manipulation of the world economy to the benefit of a few in the developed nations at the expense of the others; waste, self-indulgence, excesses and the pursuit of pleasure as opposed to the pursuit of happiness. It controls, or seeks to control, the economy of the world - many countries no longer control their economies, whilst globalisation and its offshoots are merely the tools of those with financial power to further increase their power and riches with scant regard for the misery it causes. It is financially solvent as a whole but morally bankrupt because the 'whole' (all people) does not benefit from the solvency. It is unsustainable because it is immoral and against the basic principles of love and justice - it is out of balance, and imbalance is an unnatural, unsustainable state.
There are two forces at play, and these are the forces of light and darkness or "good" and "evil", enlightened thinking and ignorance. In human terms the former means those who see this system as destroying a goal, and those who see it as fulfilling a goal - the goal of equity, compassion, moderation and love of people and, the latter, those who see it as fulfilling goals involving love of money and self-interest.
There is, however, a tide of change on the move worldwide which is a positive force; it is people power - the collective power, a moral power, held by individuals consciously or unconsciously aware of the moral bankruptcy of the system, and this collective moral tide will bring change because it is a truth that darkness cannot extinguish light but light can eliminate darkness.
"Quo Vadis?"

Did Hitler and the Nazis decide one day to be evil and exterminate the Jewish people. Or was their decision grounded in a paradigm that pushed them into defending the Fatherland and the German community from a perceived evil that the Jewish community presented. Had the Germans won, wouldn't we be studying the brave efforts represented by the Brown Shirts and German patriots in putting down economic enslavement by the Jewish minority. The strong and powerful are given the authority by the multitudes to define what is good and what is evil, and popular ignorance plays into this.

Look at the US where the teabaggers are redefining liberalism by blending fascism with communism and labeling the Democrats as "socialist, communists, Nazis, etc." Is this evil. The greatest evil is ignorance.