What is Evil?

I asked the QC this question last night. I’d been mulling it over in my head for several days. Evil is not just when something is bad; some things are bad without being evil. Evil has an element of intent; it is a humanly-oriented phenomenon; although (as the QC pointed out), evil has a supra-human dimension as well.

If we are going to talk about evil, we must know what it is. We can’t rely on the “I know it when I see it” approach. The problem with defining and discussing evil, as we will see, is that such an effort assumes a common understanding of the nature of human existence. The notion of Evil, along with the notion of Good, assumes affirmation of absolutes. In a contingent universe, the idea of Evil is absurd. Does accepting the concept of absolutes—and from there, Evil—imply accepting the existence of the Divine? I think it does. Some atheists, like John Derbyshire over at NRO, aver that it does not. Perhaps we’ll get to that discussion, too. However, I base my acceptance and understanding of absolutes in my belief in God, for I do not see how humans alone can ever agree on absolutes.

From American Thinker, September 16, 2008
Article: Obama's Foul Weather Friends
By Scott Swett and Roger Canfield

"As a gesture of solidarity, the Vietnamese who [Bernardine] Dohrn met in Budapest presented her with a ring made from an American aircraft shot down over North Vietnam. Bill Ayers would receive a similar ring while meeting with Vietnamese communists in Toronto. He later recalled being so moved by the gesture that he 'left the room to cry.' "

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/obamas_foul_weather_friends.html
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Video:

Undercover agent Larry Grathwohl discusses the Weather Underground's post-revolution governing plans for the United States:

Larry Grathwohl:

"I asked, 'well what is going to happen to those people we can't reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?' and the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated. And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers. And when I say 'eliminate,' I mean 'kill.' Twenty-five million people. I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people. And they were dead serious."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWMIwziGrAQ
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From David Horowitz's FrontPageMag.com/DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
"FBI files from 1976, recently made public under the Freedom of Information Act, confirm the connections between Weatherman, Havana, and Moscow. Weatherman leaders like Mark Rudd traveled illegally to Havana in 1968 to engage in terrorist training. There, camps set up by Soviet KGB Colonel Vadim Kotchergine were educating Westerners both in Marxist philosophy and urban warfare."
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6808
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From the Chicago Sun Times, November 13, 2008:

Ayers: Obama was 'family friend'
New afterword to 2001 book, Ayers describes Barack Obama as 'family friend'

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1278532,bill-ayers-barack-obama-book-111308.article#
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"God D*** America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11"
--Rev Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for twenty years

"America’s chickens... are coming home... to ROOST!"

If evil has a supernatural element, then it is not left up to man to define evil. In turn, since a supernatural element is beyond us, we must define evil as being “of our definition”.

This is not such an extraordinary thing, as the Constitution of the United States has the same general axiom—that it was not written in heaven, or infallible, but by the hand of man, for man. Heaven may influence man, but we assume our laws were written by men, and so can be changed. To change the constitution is not heretical.

So what is evil as defined by man?

It cannot be “to cause suffering”, because suffering is a voluntary act. A person may be terrible to another person, but it always remains the voluntary act of the oppressed person to suffer it, or not.

It cannot be “what causes guilt”, because there are many people who are incapable of feeling guilt for their actions, like Bill Clinton, and many or even most of them refrain from evil. Other people overuse guilt for very petty reasons, or feel guilty for no reason at all.

It cannot be pure action, because to paraphrase the poster, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Acts of commission or omission need intent behind them. Even if criminally or civilly liable, there may be responsibility, but no real evil behind it.

Yet intent without action may not be evil in an of itself. As the saying goes, “If God listened to every shepherd’s curse, there would be no sheep.” We cannot deny our feelings, even as we do not act on them. And we cannot look into each others hearts, as this enters into the supernatural again.

So this is what evil is not, as least unto itself. So what is evil?

In its most fundamental form, evil is to kill for no reason or purpose. In this there is general agreement. Reason or purpose are easy to find, which makes this a rarer event.

But it is from this that evil grows outward. But this is its true center.

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