Without a concept of God, evil does not mean anything beyond the word “bad” with a lot of “really’s” in front of it.
This explains the confusion we see when atrocities are discussed in secular media. Their frame of reference is purposely narrow because they believe it is wrong to talk about spiritual issues in ways that would promote a particular faith.
Sadly this, by default, implies that evil does not really exist, that it comes out of ignorance and superstition. Which, if you follow this hypothesis logically, means that evil can be eradicated by simply removing ignorance through education. And should this not work, then it justifies the use of other forms of societal controls.
Now if you happen to believe there is such a thing as true evil, then you also might see the objective of eradicating the concept of evil as itself an evil act, consistent with the nature of evil, which is to lie about its own existence and intentions.
And what might these be?
The Purpose of Evil:
To destroy everything good in the world.
My point again in the shell of a small nut.
Belief in God opens up the possibility to see and understand the spiritual realm of evil.
By accepting the possibility of a Higher Power, sobriety is possible for the alcoholic or drug addict. It also means that true forgiveness of an actual cleansing nature is available to all who admit they messed up regardless the crime. And it opens up our ability to see a darkness in the human heart we once pretended was, at worst, a small bout of anger or mental illness.
No doubt the mind captured by evil is not normal or well, but sane people are fascinated by it at unnatural and unhealthy levels, so it’s an important subject to discuss.
So now, permit me to share what I believe. It will then be up to you to figure out what makes sense to you.
To begin with I believe the Bible to be the Word of God.
That’s a mouthful.
What do I mean?
I mean that when I come to creating my own explanation about how reality works versus attempting to understand God’s Word I automatically default to His Word — even if I don’t completely understand.
Why would I do such a thing?
Because over time I have seen that the Bible has a better handle on why I do what I do than I do.
Where it is unclear I don’t try to fix it or interpret it to fit my narrative. Instead I accept mystery. There is a lot I will not completely understand (like evil) while living in this world. So I trust God will tell me and you more later.
Until then I will trust that Jesus loves me and died for me.
Ultimately, if I am settled on this one point, then I can live with a lot of mysteries and be okay.
To Be Continued…
Louis Zbinden once said that God's ways are always mysterious, messy and miraculous. Sometimes we just have to believe!