Where does evil come from?

Throughout human existence, many have asked themselves where evil came from, and most end up more confused than before they asked.  Let’s look at some great examples of futile thinking about evil (the titles provided in bold for easy memorization), and then proceed to some truth.

1) Authority and Situation

Philip Zimbardo, elected the president of the American Psychological Association in 2002, would say that evil comes from a combination between authority and situation, citing the Milgram experiments, the incidence at Abu Ghraib, and the suicides at Jonestown as prime examples.  But if you look a little closer, all Zimbardo and his psychologist friends are saying is that circumstances give an ability to express the evil that already exists within the human mind.  And what’s so “intellectual” about that?  Of COURSE evil can present itself when given a chance: without the situational potential to commit physical evil, you can’t commit evil.  Just like when you don’t have a car, you can’t drive into a tree.

2) Culture and Tradition

Some would blame culture and tradition as the source of evil, claiming that our corrupted cultures–and religions!–are polluting our minds and making us incapable of reaching forward into an intangible utopia.  Unfortunately for them, they didn’t ask themselves where the cultural corruption came from.  Wouldn’t humans have had to corrupt their societies in the first place in order for their cultures to become corrupt? Or did that corruption perhaps come from some other non-human source?  And is the solution therefore to change an ever-changing culture that will change anyway in a world of constant change?  Will one ever arrive at a perfect cultural destination?

3) Poverty and Lack of Opportunity

And what of poverty and a lack of education?  Prominent liberal leaders, programs, and media outlets would have you believe that a person engages in evil because their material needs aren’t met, but this can’t be true.  If it was, then all rehabilitation programs would involve massive transfers of wealth to criminals.  A home for every burglar, if you will.

And what of educating a thief?  It’s been said before that educating a thief will only give you an educated thief, entirely because a thief isn’t a thief because he doesn’t know how to be an accountant.  A thief robs people because he wants other people’s things and doesn’t feel like asking for them or working for them.  And furthermore, how does this explain evil rich people?

4) Balance in the Universe

Some would say that balance between good and evil is absolutely necessary in the universe, since all universal principles involve some sort of balance.  Then they invent karma systems involving behavior that–when applied disproportionately in the direction of good–advances the purporter of “good” into some higher form of existence.  But this wouldn’t make any sense, because if we’re all connected to the ultimate being, and the ultimate being requires balance, then striving to unbalance the cosmos in order to achieve unity with that being would be contradictory to the original statement of balance.  How can you “win” a game to become more like the universally good being when evil is part of that being and/or a direct creation of that thing?

And furthermore, there is no karma game in a universe created by a “good” supernatural being.  If there were, there would be no sense of absolute personal justice.  What we’d end up with is a system in which you mug one person and the next day feed another person, which would somehow make things better… for you.  But if all human experience consists of a first-person perspective, and your person suffers pain due to another person’s evil, then how does this negate the pain experienced by the violated person?  Justice would then be completely unnecessary in a spiritual sense, which negates any sort of practical value system in a physical sense, especially since the spiritual realm is the foundation for the physical realm.

So where does evil come from?

Since evil doesn’t come from authority, situation, culture, tradition, poverty, lack of opportunity, or necessary universal balance, we must understand that evil comes from being separated from God himself.  It is absolutely necessary for free will and all the problems that come from chemical existence to exist in order to have autonomy from Him.  Without this autonomy, there can be no free will, there can be no love, and there can be no justice or hope.  We would simply be robots in a totalitarian state in which we didn’t choose to live.  Our existence as humans simply requires that we exist separately from our Creator for the time being.

This is why Christ is important: because the human heart is base beyond measure, capable of inflicting unspeakable evils against his neighbor and against God Himself, with or without reason.  Even those who believe they are good because they “cause no harm” must look deep within themselves and recognize that evil isn’t just an action you take.  It is the thoughts you have.  It is the original drive to corrupt, to destroy, to pillage, to rape, to steal, to lie, to murder.  And this is what makes us evil.  As such, you may be able to control some of your evil, but it still exists within you. 

And even more disturbing, God knows this.  Jesus Himself stated that looking at a woman lustfully is committing adultery, and having hatred for your brother is murder.  Simply stated, we’re all adulterous murderers in God’s eyes.

This is why as humans, we’re damned to hell.  Because there simply isn’t any reason for a heaven to exist in which there exists any drive for evil; or for us to worship a God who IS evil, who doesn’t believe in justice, who doesn’t love us enough to want us to be free of evil, who doesn’t think that liars and rapists and thieves should be banned from His presence. This would be no God to worship, nor a heaven for which to strive (imagine a heaven in which evil existed, and rapists roamed the streets).  And for those of you who feel pretty good about your moral behavior, just know that beyond your actions lies a being so complexly evil that it refuses to acknowledge wrongdoing, even justifying and rationalizing evil by–almost comically–using the other moral standards that God gave us in the first place.

So if you realize that no other comparable explanation for evil and God exists in the universe and you’d like to see if this is in fact true, consider the incredibly popular false theories I’ve stated above.  When you realize those options don’t really explain anything, read your Bible and pray that the Holy Spirit convict you of truth as He has with this writer, and continue to do that.  This will not be an easy process, nor will it be painless, since it involves a light of truth being shone upon a darkened and perverted heart, but recognizing this evil is the first step toward receiving a full pardon in Christ.  The Lord Himself said this would be the first step in becoming saved.

And feel free to study the other religions, too, but keep in mind that other religions (including Islam) have no actual claim to a just and righteous God, because he either engenders evil itself or pardons it without any sense of justice due to some sort of arbitrary “points” system.  Within the Christian world, however, Christ has made a payment for our sins, first convicting us of our evil nature, and then paying the price for it with His own blood.  When we accept Him as Lord and invite Him to change us from within, he begins the miraculous work of molding our heart into His own and allowing us communion with a (rather, the) completely righteous Jehovah, in a completely perfect heaven, free from evil.

And this is why real Christians are joyful: not because they’re perfect, but because they don’t have to be.  Our joy doesn’t come from our own works or from a buddhistic negation of will and reality, but rather from grace, a pardon from the very thing we can’t save ourselves from: ourselves.  It is this salvation that gives us a future to look forward to, and a God in whom we can truly take refuge.

May He bless you all this day.
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1) Philip Zimbardo on the source of evil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFEV35tWsg

2) Philip Zimbardo Wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zimbardo

3) The section 8 housing progra, its purpose, and failure

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/memphis-crime

4) National Geographic explains how poverty makes us evil

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0113_050113_world.html

5) Hinduism on God, good, and evil

http://hinduism.suite101.com/article.cfm/faqs__god__religion_and_soul

6) Human heart base beyond measure

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%203:9-20&version=31

7)  The Lord promises to give us truth when we ask

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205:21-30;&version=31;

8) The conviction of sin leads to salvation

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2016:5-11;&version=50;

9) Islam requires good deeds for salvation

http://ipaki.com/content/html/27/430.html

This entry was posted on 6. June 2009 at 15:27 and is filed under philosophy, Theology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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