What Evil Means to Me

Evil.  What is it?  Where does it come from?  Is it from within us or an outside force?  What created it?  Did something create it or does it just exist?  The past few weeks I have been challenged to think about and answer all of these questions and more.  Are these questions truly possible to answer?

            Before I started the course, The Monsters We Make, I had a pretty simple view on evil; things such as murder and rape were evil and the devil was evil.  Evil first came into the world in the Garden of Eden when Eve took the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and committed the first sin.  Other than that I really didn’t think about evil much. 

Then, I began this class and began reading The Thinker’s Guide to Evil.  The class really challenged me to think critically and objectively while the book really forced me to put into action the critical thinking and objectivity.  At first all I wanted to do was tell myself how wrong almost everyone, who was talked about in the book, is.  But I forced myself to relax and read the book, analyzing what was being said.  I really began to question how I saw evil, and what I really believed evil is and how it began.

It’s really hard to put what I think and feel about evil into words.  I believe that God created everything, and therefore created evil and allows evil things to occur.  As I said before I also believe that evil first entered the world when the first sin occurred in the Garden of Eden.  Basically, I agree with the Christian view of evil that was stated in the book.  I also somewhat agree with the view of John Hick.  One of his beliefs was that “God…uses evil to bring about the highest good, (Vardy 61).”  He also believed that “through suffering individuals are made aware of the need for God and can grow spiritually to be closer to God, (Vardy 62).”  I agree with both views.

That explains how I think evil began and why I believe an all loving God allows it, but what is evil?  Is it only the horrific acts against humanity, such as murder, rape, etc...?  Or is it more complex than that?  Could evil be something as seemingly insignificant as lying, or having the urge to hit someone when they irritate you?  These are all questions that I have been struggling with.  I believe evil does include all of these things, but evil is very difficult to put into a simple definition.

If I had to define evil, I would have to define it as an action that is destructive, whether to yourself or others.  That can mean lying, cheating, abuse, or murder.

            You might think, “People lie all the time, does that make them evil?”  I don’t consider someone who merely lies to be truly evil, or “monstrous.”  It’s what they do to keep their lie from being found out that can cause them to become evil.  It is when a person starts a destructive pattern and keeps following that pattern, until they are so deeply buried in what they’ve done and are doing that there doesn’t seem to be a way to escape, unless that person completely turns around their life.  If they choose not to and instead keep living their destructive lives, without remorse, then I believe they have become evil.

            History is filled with “monstrous” people.  Even now, there are many people who have chosen to live destructive lives.  People who use and abuse drugs, abuse people, serial killers, pedophiles; you name it, the world has it.  So, are only the really “bad” people evil?  I feel that everyone has a little evil in them, but that there are few truly evil people. 

I used to think of evil in simple terms, but is it really that simple?  Can something that is so broad be put in simple terms?  Perhaps no one can really say what evil is, or maybe my belief that evil is an action that is destructive to yourself or others, is just one of many types of evil.  Only by analyzing yourself and your beliefs can you figure out what evil means to you.

Works Cited

Vardy, Peter, and Julie Arliss. The Thinker's Guide to Evil. Alresford, UK: John Hunt Publishing Ltd, 2003.