Evil

Evil is understood to be of three kinds: 1) moral evil, 2) natural evil, and 3) metaphysical evil. Moral evil is evil human beings volitionally and intentionally originate, and its examples are their cruel, vicious, and unjust thoughts and actions. Natural evil is evil which occurs independently of human thoughts and actions but which causes pain and suffering, and it refers to earthquakes, volcanos, storms, droughts, disease bacilli, etc. "Metaphysical evil," a term coined by Gottfried Leibniz, refers to the finite and limited condition of the created world of time and space, thus being usually understood not to be evil in and by itself.

The monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam usually have a standatd of good and a standard of evil centering on a good God and tend to stress the seriousness of moral evil according to these standards, basically treating other kinds of evil only in the context of moral evil. By contrast, non-monotheistic religions are inclined to pay more attention to natural and metaphysical evil, saying that evil (i.e., natural and metaphysical evil) is ultimately unreal. Today, evil is much discussed in psychology, sociology, business, and politics, and evil in these areas tends to refer to moral evil.

The monotheistic traditions, however, sometimes treat moral evil as something not necessarily negative. There are two ways in which they treat it so: 1)

Etymology

The modern English word 'Evil' (Old English Yfel) and its current living cognates such as the German 'Übel' are widely considered to come from a Proto-Germanic reconstructed form *Ubilaz, comparable to the Hittite huwapp- ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European form *wap- and suffixed zero-grade form *up-elo-. Other later Germanic forms include Middle English evel, ifel, ufel Old Frisian evel (adjective & noun), Old Saxon ubil, Old High German ubil, and Gothic ubils. The root meaning is of obscure origin though shown to be akin to modern English 'over' (OE ofer) and 'up' (OE up, upp) with the basic idea of "transgressing".

World Religions on Evil

There is one thing in common among all religions: they are all aware of the presence of evil, and none of them glorifies evil. But their understandings of evil are diverse. The monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam believe that God as a God of omnipotence and benevolence has not created evil (perhaps with the exception of an angel called Satan in Judaism), that the presence of evil is due to the moral downfall of human beings in connection with a temptation from a personal identity called Satan, and that God permits natural evil to be incurred either as a punishement for our moral downfall or as a test for our growth.

Dualistic religions such as Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism attribute evil in the world to the God of evil as opposed to the God of good, but believe that the struggle between good and evil in the world will eventually come to an end. One difference between Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism is that the former talks about our moral evil which could still be avoidable, while the latter does not on account of its fatalistic view of humans as a commingling of good soul and evil matter.

Dharmic religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism in the East teach that evil unavoidably manifests in the world because of our karma, but that evil is unreal in this unreal world of suffering, as long as we are to transcend it by overcoming our ignorance of the karma. When evil is unreal, if unavoidable, in this unreal world, no distinction has to be made between moral and natural evil. This notion of evil even seems to allude also to what is called metaphysical evil. Taoism in the Far East, in its view of evil as basically unreal, thus seems to resemble the Dharmic religions. Another major religion of the Far East, Confucianism, is quite different from other religions in the East, because it is more thisworldly, focusing on moral evil and good in society.

Monotheistic religions

• Judaism — In Judaism, evil is the result of dissociating from God's will expressed in his laws. Judaism stresses obedience to the God's laws as written in the Torah and the laws and rituals laid down in the Mishnah and the Talmud. In the Hebrew Bible, evil is related to the concept of sin, which means "to miss the mark" (chata in Hebrew). The mark in question is the laws of God. Human beings have God-given free will, the ability to choose between good and evil. They are expected not to choose evil, but God created an angel called Satan (haSatan), whose God-given mission is to tempt them to choose evil. (Satan himself has no free will as he works as a servant of God.) Humans are given a great opportunity to exert their free will to overcome Satan and choose good, so that they may be able to inherit the good world in the end. God's purpose of creation is good, and his creation of Satan, after all, is to serve this good purpose by testing humans. According to Judaism, therefore, God created both good and evil for his good purpose: "See, I [i.e., God] have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil Deuteronomy 30:15, KJV); and "I [i.e., God] form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (Isaiah 45:7, KJV). Natural evils such as severe weather events and diseases are understood to be permitted by God to happen as punishment for the moral evil of disobeying God's will (Deuteronomy 28:15-43; 31:17-18).

• Christianity — Christianity also teaches that evil results from disuniting with God's will. God's will is, of course, expressed in his laws of the Old Testament era; but, it is newly expressed in the teachings of Christ, especially in his teaching of love, which is the whole of the law. But we commit moral evil (sin), by disobeying God's will. God as a good and omnipotent God created us and the whole world as good creatures (Genesis 1:31), but we humans were given free will or free choice of the will (liberum arbitrium). Unlike Judaism, Christianity teaches that Satan was never created as a bad angel of temptation from the beginning but as a good angel with free will. The Fall of Adam and Eve centering on this good angel with free will consisted in their volitional disobedience to God's commandment not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The sin of Adam and Eve has been inherited to all their offspring as "original sin," which is so binding that according to many Christians, we are in depravity, having lost our ability to choose to follow God, and therefore are in need of Christ's grace and forgiveness. According to Augustine, natural evils take place as a rebellion of nature against humans because humans have rebelled against God. This Augustinian position is a standard view in Christianity on the relationship between moral and natural evil. But a question arises: Why is it that a good and omnipotent God did not prevent evil from occurring? A variety of answers have been given to this theodicy question. Augustine's free-will defense, developed during the time of his involvement with the Manichaean controversy, is based on his understanding that rational creatures are endowed with free will. But, another answer given by him argues in a largely Neo-Platonic way that evil is far from serious because it is simply "privation of good" (privatio boni), "non-substance" (non substantia), or "non-being" (non esse). It led him to say that evil, as understood this way, does not necessarily contradict the goodness and omnipotence of God. This position seems to have been favorably received in Christianity.

• Islam — According to Islam, evil arises when a person endowed with free will chooses to serve himself/herself instead of God. God is an almighty God of benevolence who teaches that we have to serve God as our supreme being and also love our fellow humans. These teachings are shown in the Qur'an. We commit sin when we, through the lure of Satan (Shaitan), selfishly choose to feel that we are important and not to take seriously the overwhelming importance of God. (Satan is not an fallen angel as is taught in Christianity but a fallen member of the jinn, a race of supernatural creatures. He with his free will refused to bow to Adam when God told him to do so.) We are to totally uphold God's teachings, even though God may let Satan tempt us or inflict evil and suffering on us in order to test us, or sometimes in order to punish our sin. Our vicroty over all these difficulties in total obedience to God will eventually enable us to enter into paradise where no evil exists, only the peaceful satisfaction of our senses. Here, evil, whether moral or natural, as long as it is brought to us by God, seems to be a little more positively understood than in Judaism and Christianity, and the theodicy question can basically be answered by the rather positive role of evil for our spiritual growth and development.

Dualistic religions

• Zoroastrianism — In the originally Persian religion of Zoroastrianism, the world is a battle ground between the God of good, Ahura Mazda, and the God of evil, Angra Mainyu or Ahriman. All kinds of evil in the world are attributed to Angra Mainyu. Human beings, originally created by Ahura Mazda as allies in the struggle against Angra Mainyu, are free to choose between good and evil, but their acts, words and thoughts will affect their lives after death. The final resolution of the struggle between good and evil is supposed to occur on a Day of Judgment, in which a savior, Saoshyant, will come and the dead will rise for their final reward or punishment. Zoroatrianism is quasi-dualistic and not totally dualistic, since it talks about the ultimate victory of Ahura Mazda over Angra Mainyu.

• Manichaeism — Manichaeim, founded by Mani in the third century C.E., is an entirely dualistic religion that teaches the eternal conflict between the bright, spiritual realm of God and the dark, material realm of Satan. God in this context is a finite God. The creation of this world resulted from a commingling of the two opposing realms. Each human being is in the same way composed of two opposing things: soul (good) and matter (evil). There is no moral evil in the sense of free will choosing evil. Therefore, there is no such thing as the Christian notion of the fall. Evil is rather physical in the sense of the soul suffering from contact with matter. But in the last days, good and evil will return to their proper, separate realms, as they were in the beginning.

Eastern religions

• Hinduism — According to Hinduism, our karma is shaped by our desires. It is these desires that cause evil and bind us to the world as we experience it. This world is not real. What is real is beyond desires and the confusions that exist as a consequence of such desires. The dharma necessary to stop both desire and ignorance is described differently in the various branches of Hinduism. Common to many of these branches is the necessity to live our state of life to the fullest. The consequence of this is many times described as our place in the caste system. Three different paths are found to escape evil: the way of action (karma yoga), the way of devotion (bhakti yoga) and the way of knowledge (jnana yoga). Following these paths perfectly result in the destruction of individual evil and the individual as he/she now exists.

• Theravada Buddhism — The teaching of Siddhartha, the Buddha, begins by facing those evils in life that cause suffering: birth, decay, illness, death, the presence of who and what we hate, separation from who and what we love, the inability to obtain what we desire. These evils, and their consequent suffering, will only disappear when we realize that they are unavoidable. We will always suffer. To rid ourselves of all suffering and evil, we must rid ourselves of all desires – including the desire for existence. If we can rid ourselves of all desires, we disappear into ''Nirvana'' – beyond all being and non-being. The means to Nirvana is the eightfold path: correct belief, aspirations, speech, conduct, means of livelihood, endeavor, mindfulness and meditation. This Buddhist approach, perhaps as well as the Hindu approach, does not have to differentiate between moral and natural evil, and even seems to confuse moral and natural evil with the simple finitute of the world (metaphysical evil).

• Taoism — Nothing in the world is essentially evil, since the world as the manifestation of the eternal Tao participates in the the Yin and Yang principles. Of course, Yin is a negative principle that could at least imply some kind of evil; but, it alone is not manifested, since it is manifested only with Yang, a positive principle. What is usually called evil may result from a lack of balance between Yin and Yang constituted by a bigger participation of the Yin principle. In this sense, evil belongs to the nature of the world, but it is still just a conceptual abstraction, having no permanent existence. We as part of the world have to subscribe to the harmony of the two opposing principles. There seems to be no real distinction between moral and natural evil.

• Confucianism — Confucianism teaches that individual humans each have free will by which they are to make good virtuous choices. Evils such as warring nations, non-loving families, envious business people, and destructive farming practices come from the lack of virtues in individuals and a society that does not provide fertile ground for the growth of such virtues. We are our living connections to other people and the entire universe. To live a virtuous life results in harmony and peace. To destroy or disfigure these relations introduces evil into societal living. There are, according to Confucianism, both inner and outer virtues enable us to live a harmonious life. The primary inner virtue, for example, is ''jen'' (humaneness). Those who live this virtue continually think of the other person’s good rather than their own. An example of outer virtue is li which is acting properly in our relationships with each other: parents and children; men and women; those in authority and those without such authority. Living a virtuous life results in a society without evil. Thus, the main focus of Confucianism is on moral good or evil.

Moral Evil in Various Areas of Human Life

Many different experiences of moral evil in human life have been pointed out by experts in psychiatry, sociology, business, politics, etc. Already, moral evil has been dealt with primarily in monotheistic religions. However, it would be of use to study those experiences of moral evil dealt with in the secular desciplines, which usually have no reference to a personal identity called Satan.

Evil from a psychiatric viewpoint

M. Scott Peck (1936-2005) discusses evil in his book People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil. Most of his conclusions about the psychiatric condition he designates evil are derived from his close study of one patient he names Charlene. Although Charlene is not dangerous, she is ultimately unable to have empathy for others in any way. According to Peck, people like her see others as play things or tools to be manipulated for their uses or entertainment. He claims that these people are rarely seen by psychiatrists and have never been treated successfully.

He gives some identifying characteristics for evil persons. An evil person:

• Projects his or her evils and sins onto others and tries to remove them from others;
• Maintains a high level of respectability and lies incessantly in order to do so;
• Is consistent in his or her sins. Evil persons are characterized not so much by the magnitude of their sins, but by their consistency;
• Is unable to think from other people's viewpoints.

Most evil people realize their evil deep within themselves but are unable to tolerate the pain of introspection or admit to themselves that they are evil. Thus, they constantly run away from their evil by putting themselves in a position of "moral superiority" and putting the locus of evil on others. Evil is an extreme form of character disorder.

Scott Peck makes great efforts to keep much of his discussion on a scientific basis. He says that evil arises out of "free choice." He describes it thus: Every person stands at a crossroads, with one path leading to God, and the other path leading to the devil. The path of God is the right path, and accepting this path is akin to submission to a higher power. However, if a person wants to convince himself and others that he has free choice, he would rather take a path which cannot be attributed to its being the right path. Thus, he chooses the path of evil. In this it is close to the original Judeo-Christian concept of "sin" as a consistent process that leads to failure to reach one's true goals.

Sociopaths

A sociopath is a person with "antisocial" personality disorder, which is a bit more serious than M. Scott Peck's notion of evil above. The basic characteristic of a sociopath is a disregard for the rights of others. It is typified by extreme self-serving behavior and a lack of conscience as well as an inability to empathize with others and to restrain him or herself from, or to feel remorse for, harm personally caused to others. Very often the sociopath may look very charming, friendly, and considerate, but these attitudes turn out to be superficial and even deceptice. They are used as a way of pulling and blinding others to the personal sociopathic agenda behind the surface. Many sociopaths are engaged in alchohol or drug use as a way of heightening their antisocial personality. They want to heighten their antisocial personality because they usually have a low self-esteem, for which they try to compensate through the use of these substrances.

Some sociologists, psychiatrists and neuroscientists have attempted to construct scientific explanations for the development of antisocial personality disorder. Although any diagnosis of sociopathy is sometimes criticized as being, at the present time, no more scientific than calling a person "evil," nevertheless it seems that sociopathy has something to do with moral evil, as long is its basic characteristic is a disregard for the rights of other people.

Evil in business

In business, evil refers to unfair business practices. The most widely agreed on unfair practices are sweatshops and monopolies, but recently the term "evil" has been applied much more broadly, especially in the technology and intellectual property industries. One of the slogans of Google is "Don't Be Evil," in response to much-criticized technology companies such as Microsoft and AOL, and the tagline of independent music recording company Magnatune is "we are not evil," referring to the alleged evils of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The economist David Korten has argued that industrial corporations, set up as fictive individuals by law, are required to work only according to the criteria of making profits for their shareholders, meaning they function as sociopathic organizations that inherently do evil in damaging the environment, denying labor justice and exploiting the powerless.

Evil in a political context

In liberal-democratic societies, many associate evil in politics, as revolving around authoritarian and especially totalitarian regimes, and demagogue leaders, such as the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in Germany for its mass genocide of Jews in the Holocaust, war crimes, as well as political and cultural persecution. In World War II and the post war years to present liberal-democratic societies view Hitler as a symbol of political and social evil in the modern world and is portrayed as such in most media presentations and representations of him. The Communist regime of the Soviet Union has also been considered to be evil by a number of western liberal democracies, especially under the rule of Joseph Stalin for its mass persecutions of political opponents, religious, and cultural minorities (e.g., the Cossacks).

The political writings of Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) in The Prince often used by Hitler and Mussolini, are considered to be a source of evil in politics, as they often speak of ignoring accepted morals for the pursuit of ultimate power, as "the ends justifies the means." Machiavelli favoured a prince creating a climate of fear in order to rule a population, rather than relying on popular support. Machiavelli supports the use of deception and manipulation as means to increase a prince's personal power. All these show little concern for traditional moral and ethical considerations in the thinking of Machiavelli. Thus when the term Machiavellian is used to describe politicians or political policy, it is often being used in a negative context, referring to Machiavelli's support of deception and manipulation to attain and preserve power.

On the other hand, authoritarian, totalitarian, and elements of religious fundamentalism regimes tend to hold a common view that liberal-democratic regimes are evil and blame liberal democracy for high crime rates, profiteering, corporate crime, materialist individualism replacing common bonds of similar people, destruction of culture and its replacement with sleaze. All of which, the regimes claim will result in the destruction of humanity if liberal democracy is not restrained.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cenkner, William. 1998. Evil and the Response of World Religion. Continuum International. ISBN 1557787530
• Kelly, Joseph F. 2003. The Problem of Evil in the Western Tradition: From the Book of Job to Modern Genetics. Liturgical Press. ISBN 0-8146-5104-6
• Marc-Alain Ouaknin, Marc-Alain, Levenson, Claude B., Le Gall, Dom Robert, Chebel, Malek, Ouaknin Marc-Alain. 2005. The Great Religions: Essential Questions. Assouline. ISBN 2843236118
• Smith, Huston. 1997. Good and Evil in the World's Religions. Chautauqua audio cassette program, 97-139. Chautauqua Institution. OCLC 39783291
• Rosenberg, Shalom. 1989. Good and Evil in Jewish Thought. Tel Aviv: MOD Books. ISBN 9650504486
• Kushner, Harold S. 2000. When Bad Things Happen to Good People. London: Pan. ISBN 0330268279
• Shermer, M. 2004. The Science of Good & Evil. New York: Time Books. ISBN 0-8050-7520-8
• Ferré, Nels F. S. 1971. Evil and the Christian Faith. Essay index reprint series. Books for Libraries Press. ISBN 0836923936
• McCloskey, H. J. 1974. God and Evil. The Hague: Nijhoff. ISBN 9024716047
• Wilson, William McF., and Julian N. Hartt. "Farrer's Theodicy." In David Hein and Edward Hugh Henderson (eds), Captured by the Crucified: The Practical Theology of Austin Farrer. New York and London: T & T Clark / Continuum, 2004. ISBN 0-567-02510-1
• Peterson, Michael L. 1998. God and Evil: An Introduction to the Issues. Boulder, Colo: Westview Press. ISBN 0813328497
• Rosenberg, Marshall B. 2003. Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Create Your Life, Your Relationships, and Your World in Harmony with Your Values. Puddledancer Press ISBN 1892005034
• Rosenberg, Marshall B. 2005. Speak Peace in a World of Conflict : What You Say Next Will Change Your World. PuddleDancer Press. ISBN 1892005174
• Ellis, Albert, and Robert Allan Harper. 1975. A New Guide to Rational Living. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 013614909X
• Wolman, Benjamin B. 1971. The Psychoanalytic Interpretation of History. Basic Books. ISBN 0465065937
• Plantinga, Alvin. 1997. God, Freedom, and Evil. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company ISBN 0802817319
• Peck, M. Scott. 1983. People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671454927
• Oppenheimer, Paul (1996). Evil and the Demonic: A New Theory of Monstrous Behavior. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-6193-3. 
• Nelson, Marie Coleman, and Michael Eigen. 1984. Evil:Self and Culture. Human Sciences Press. ISBN 0898851432

External links

• Robinson, B.A. 2005. http://www.religioustolerance.org/reac_ter3.htm Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Theodicy: Why Doesn't God Prevent Evil. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
• http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword.asp?kid=1229 Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center. (2001-2007) Chabad.org. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
• Valea, Ernest. 2007. http://www.comparativereligion.com/evil.html The Problem of Evil in World Religions. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
• Faulkner, Joyce. 2003. http://www.curledup.com/religion.htm Curled up With a Good Book. Review of When Religion Becomes Evil. Retrieved March 13, 2007.
• Eby, Lloyd. http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Talks/Eby/Eby-Theodicy-c.htm Unification Sermon The Problem of Evil and the Goodness of God (Part 3). Retrieved March 13, 2007.

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Evi  ^history
• M._Scott_Peck  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Evil"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.