I found myself musing about Evil, need I say why?
Was Evil a fact, like a stone or tree, or an interpretation – a noun or an adjective? Inherent or inherited? Deliberate or inadvertent? Ghoulish or foolish? On my definition must depend my response to it. If a disease, mightn’t it be cured? If error, corrected? Or if an ineluctable force, how repelled or contained?
The quandary’s hardly new. Some religions posit Evil as an equivalent power opposed to God. Monotheistic religions turn somersaults trying to explain Evil’s persistence. As David Hume put it, who put so much so elegantly (oh, for the day when thinkers could write!): “Is (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?”
In Eden, the serpent seems evil – but why is it there? Is Eve evil to accept its invitation or just a dope? Adam, in either case, is done in by female inadequacy (the Bible was written by men).
And what is Evil anyway? Pain and suffering, as some argue? Or malignant intent? I opt for the latter. Pain and suffering, in my history, have often proved educational, therapeutic, redemptive; while I yelped, I’m glad to have endured them, for they improved my result. Deliberate harm – merciless cruelty – I’ve encountered less frequently. Such evildoers one must either fight or flee.
The Nameless One presently installed as leader of my nation I take to be evil. If God made him, God made a mistake. At first I misread him as misled, but now I’ve given up any hope of repair. I’d flee him if I could, but he holds me captive, my family, language, and history corralled as hostages. I might decamp, I guess, to a foreign shore, but my life would be only a shadow, hardly worth preserving.
Since surrender’s unthinkable, I’m stuck in opposition. He’s out to get me, so I to get him. Our individual strengths are incomparable – but I’ve got, I’m convinced, what he hasn’t: right on my side. He seeks to make things worse for humanity to advantage himself, I the opposite. This is not vanity on my part, but faith, which derives from God. I’m rock-sure our duty on earth is to help our fellow creatures. I can defend my faith with logic but even if I couldn’t, it’s sure. That Evil possesses power does not mean It deserves it. The endless war between Good and Evil must be waged. In this respect, my faith resembles the Manichean more than the Christian, but who needs labels? I know what I know.
Does my certainty make me a religious fanatic? You bet. Any firm faith turns fanatic under attack. I will not bow down to Evil, though I be shoved – at least, I hope I won’t. Am I prepared to face martyrdom? I’d prefer not, but if it comes to that, mustn’t I accept the consequences of my faith? What’s a belief worth if it melts under fire?
How do I propose to oppose? However I can, consistent with my conscience, which includes (for the time being) obeying the law. A day may come when the law is an instrument of Evil, making crime one’s moral responsibility, but we’re not there yet – quite. (I keep thinking of the German pastors who plotted to rid their state of Evil by whatever means.)
Discussing convictions fortifies them. Politics is a difference of opinion; our present war is existential. My soul is in training for a grapple which, pray, never comes.