EVIL

 

 

The concept of “evil” has disappeared from Western language and thought, overshadowed by other ideas like, “Love conquers all” or “Education and therapy will correct our miguided anti-social impulses.”

 

I too believed had this way. After seeing a number of highly recommended psychotherapists, I became convinced that my inherent selfishness was merely a product of how I had been raised. If it could be undone, I would naturally love others. Evil, therefore, became an unnecessary and unreal category like demons and angels.

 

However, to eliminate this necessary concept is to leave us defenseless against evil. If we cannot identify the threat, we will not be prepared to counteract it. Without this concept, police, the criminal justice system, and the military become unnecessary. We need only show our “enemies” that we are willing to give them what they need and to love them freely.

 

Sometimes, the enemy will reciprocate friendship for friendship, but often it does not happen as we might expect. Think Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao—the idealists who wanted to build a better world, right! No amount of love, therapy, or re-education would have made a difference. Evil had convinced them of the correctness of their course.

 

Does evil exist? Is it resistant to therapy and re-education? As a probation supervisor, I had been required to attend a conference on prison intervention for sex offenders. At first glance, it seemed to be a promising intervention. Women who had been horribly ravaged by sexual offenders spoke to the prisoners about how being raped had ruined their lives! However, the results were mixed, some offenders reported that they had been helped by learning about the other side. However, a large number seem to have become excited about the damage they had done and were determined to continue to ravage women. If this is not evil, then what is?

 

Today, it is not uncommon to regard humans as just another animal—no more valuable than any others. If we believe this way, we will eventually treat our fellow humans just like another animal, to be eaten, thrown into a cage, or even exterminated.

 

A placard reading, “SAVE THE PLANET, KILL YOURSELF,” was being paraded by intelligent looking university students. If suicide is the right thing to do, then too is murder.

 

In The Death of Humanity, historian Richard Weikart relates an incident from 2006, which reflects how our beliefs can set free our evil impulses:

 

·       A biologist and professor at a major research university…received a prestigious prize for being an outstanding scientist. While accepting the award, he gave a shocking speech in which he suggested it would be beneficial if 90 percent of the world’s human population was wiped out by Ebola. Indeed, he told the audience he hoped this would occur. He also suggested that humans were no better than bacteria. When he completed his lecture, he received a standing ovation.

 

This speech was presented before the Texas Academy of Science. The standing ovation indicated that this educated audience agreed. Doesn’t this suggest that re-education is necessary to control our evil impulses? However, it doesn’t seem to help. The highly educated nations do not seem to be less prone to commit atrocities.

 

Weikart offers the case of:

 

·       …serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer arrested in 1991 for brutal sex crimes. He explained in a TV interview how his actions didn’t occur randomly, but were influenced by his worldview. He had always believed that “the theory of evolution is truth, that we all just came from the slime, and when we died . . . that was it, there was nothing—so the whole theory cheapens life.” With this vision, he saw no reason not to kill and eat other men. As he confessed, “If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point in trying to modify your behavior to keep it in acceptable ranges?”

 

Eric Harris was the co-conspirator behind the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Just prior to this, he had been wearing a tee-shirt reading “Natural Selection.” In his diary, he had written:

 

·       “I say, ‘KILL MANKIND’ no one should survive,” he also remarked, “theres no such thing as True Good or True Evil, its all relative to the observer. its just all nature, chemistry, and math. deal with it.” Earlier he had written, “just because your mommy and daddy told you blood and violence is bad, you think its a law of nature? wrong, only science and math are true, everything, and I mean everything else is man made.” (Weikart)

 

Re-education is clearly important. Many of our beliefs have unlocked the evil within.

Pekka-Eric Auvinen had nicknamed himself “Natural Selector.” His behavior fell in line with his beliefs. He murdered eight students at a high school in Finland in 2007. He explained:

 

·       Humans are just a species among other animals and world does not exist only for humans. Death and killing is not a tragedy, it happens in nature all the time between all species. Not all human lives are important or worth saving. Only superior (intelligent, self-aware, strong-minded) individuals should survive while inferior (stupid, retarded, weak-minded masses) should perish. (Weikart)

 

Most evolutionists do not regard themselves as “Natural Selectors” and act upon it. However, the National Socialists, believing that they were creating the master race, did act upon their beliefs, demonstrating the close relationship between what we believe and do.

 

Although humans are endowed with compassion, this resource can be easily overruled by our beliefs and evil impulses. While few will become murderers, lacking an objective and assured morality and purpose, they are more vulnerable to temptations and pressures. They have no resources to resist, once compassion erodes. Why not cheat and lie for your department head if this will buy you tenure and security for your family. You might argue, “I have my principles. I wouldn’t lie” But without a principled universe, there is no basis for objective principles, just personal preferences. Standing for principles might enable you to feel better about yourself, but tenure will make you feel even better!

 

Weikart cites the case of the software engineer and musician Gil Dodgen, who was raised by an atheistic professor of chemistry. Dodgen revealed that, from his youth, “[I] believed that I was just a complex piece of biochemistry that came about by chance.” As a result, he had contemplated suicide for the next 36 years. Weikart relates that:

 

·       All this changed for him in 1994 when at age forty-three he converted to Christ. From that time forward he was filled with joy, recognizing that he was created for a purpose and his life had meaning. Never since that time has he contemplated suicide.

 

Kidnapper, rapist, and serial killer, Ted Bundy, admitted:

 

·       “I learned that all moral judgments are ‘value judgments,’ that all value judgments are subjective, and that none can be proved to be either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’…I discovered that to become truly free, truly unfettered, I had to become truly uninhibited. And I quickly discovered that the greatest obstacle to my freedom, the greatest block and limitation to it, consists in the insupportable value judgment that I was bound to respect the rights of others. I asked myself, who were these ‘others?’ Other human beings with human rights? Why is it more wrong to kill a human animal than any other animal, a pig or a sheep or a steer? Is your life more to you than a hog’s life to a hog? Why should I be willing to sacrifice my pleasure more for the one than for the other? Surely, you would not, in this age of scientific enlightenment, declare that God or nature has marked some pleasures as ‘moral’ or ‘good’ and others as ‘immoral’ or ‘bad’? In any case, let me assure you, my dear young lady, that there is absolutely no comparison between the pleasure I might take in eating ham and the pleasure I anticipate in raping and murdering you. That is the honest conclusion to which my education has led me – after the most conscientious examination of my spontaneous and uninhibited self.” (“Christian Research Journal,” Vol 33, No 2, 2010, 32)

 

Why not call these impulses and actions evil? Few of us might want to eat other humans, but all of us are tempted by evil, even if it is just a matter of denigrating another. If we do not label it, we will not recognize our own evil and resist it. Recognizing it within ourselves is not easy. Evil often disguises itself as virtue. Just ask Hitler and Mao! Our idealists have fallen prey to this self-deception even as they murdered millions to create their “better world.” However, I have met several entities who have completely given themselves over to their dark side. Many years ago at a family reunion, my family of atheists and agnostics coaxed our frightened cousins to give us all a demonstration on the Ouija Board. We were all astounded. These two little girls were able to spell out answers to our adult questions and responded in an adult manner. Even after they were blindfolded, they spelled out their answers (reflecting events couldn’t have possibly known about) with equal speed. To this day, none of my family have a naturalistic explanation for what they had witnessed. Since this didn’t fit into their materialistic framework, they locked this experience away in their draw to put it out of sight and mind.

I was so intrigued that my girlfriend and I began to do Ouija. While the spirits my cousins had conjured posed as grandmotherly types, ours were crude and rude. Nevertheless, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, believing that they were ascended beings.

 

I asked them who had burglarized my parents’ home. The spirits gladly gave us the names and address of their neighbors. Naively (and evilly), I wanted revenge. However, before I could, the police apprehended the real perps. It was only much later that I concluded that these spirits were truly evil.

 

While the West denies evil, every major religion recognizes it. What compelling reason then do we have to deny its existence!