The Problem of Sins And Evil - Essay Example

The Problem of Sins And Evil When I mention the word ‘evil’ ideas such as bad, harmful, malicious acts which result in harm and sin, negative thoughts which can be characterized by cruelty, unjust and selfish comes to my mind. Evil is the negative powerful force utilized in battle against the positive good. The word ‘evil’ was used by the Anglo Saxons which represented harm, crime and disease. God created the earth without sin and evil. The first act of evil was demonstrated by Satan who due to jealously became a fallen angel. God created angels to be His spiritual messengers and granted them free will. Satan utilized this free will to disobey and rebel against God. Revelations chapter 12, verse 9 and chapter 20 verses 2 provides the meaning of Satan as ‘accuser’ as well as Beelzebub (lord of the flies), devil, serpent, tempter and Lucifer. (Hurault, 1996) This prideful rebellion and the greed for power made Satan into a self-proclaimed foe of God. In the Bible the Revelations, chapter 12, versus7-8 state, “And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.” (Hurault, 1996 ) Having established evil the next step was revenge on God and to destroy His works, as the gospel according to Peter, chapter 5 verse 8 states, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”. The gospel according to Luke, chapter 10 verses 19 to 20 states, “But God gives us authority over the evil of this enemy as Jesus tells us. (Hurault, 1996) The production of this twisted evil can be accompanied with enlightenment and choice, as stated in the Gospel according to Mathew, chapter 25 versus 41 “All created beings have two choices, to accept this authority over the evil enemy or to follow Satan into "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Hurault, 1996). The second disobedience was of our first parents i.e. Adam and Eve. Satan epitomizes evil and sin and to disobey God was to initiate evil. When I ponder over this ‘evil’ I realized that evil is void of righteousness and evil cannot be created since evil does not exist as a separate entity nor does it exist in reality. Free will accompanied by temptation was utilized in this situation and till date human beings always do the same thing- thousands of years ago, today, and thousands of years later- and the decision has always been to decide the ‘want’ or motivation and the kind of effort that individual inputs to achieve the want (free will). Free will augments evil to exist wherein a soul consciously chooses to the wrong path in the aim of obtaining sustained pleasure. Such wicked acts lead to destruction and injury for the executor. The question which arises here is if God created all things in his likeness and beauty and when evil arose and began to exist then why did God allow evil to grow and horrible events to follow or perhaps God is not all powerful because He did not stop and prevent bad things from occurring. But then again when I ponder over this aspect I feel God had indeed extended ‘free will’ to all of mankind with the hope that His creation will resent evil. As C.S. Lewis stated, “My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?” (Hurault, 1996) According to Plato man is naturally good and evil is not willingly performed. Evil can be characterized by the absence of goodness that is desired by mankind. The duality theory states that good and evil are interrelated and cannot exist without the other. The fact is that good and evil is the interconnected opposites of one species of the basic duality that is the essence of manifestation and its functioning called life. Therefore let us establish the fact that ‘good’ is that which brings peace and harmony and evil is that prevents peace and harmony from occurring. Buddha provided a solution for this existing problem of hatred that led to evil by stating, “Events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof” (Balsekar, 2006) In ‘Republic’ book II, line 382b, the character enters the idea of ‘true lie’ which is also known as the ‘lie in the soul’ wherein Plato states that no man willingly believes in wrongly acts but when one does begin to believe in wrong then they begin to behave in a horrible manner. The interesting aspect of Plato position is when he states that man does not behave badly on account of evil but rather because man is unable to understand that he has a ‘wrong belief’ and that he is unaware that he is behaving badly. The solution Plato provides for this illiteracy is education wherein man would learn to utilize this free will rightly and would provide love and enable pursuit of wisdom that would free man from this ‘lie in the soul’. (Durant, 1961) I believe evil begins in the mind as it began in the mind of Satan. Ego, jealously and pride feed and thrived on evil thus initiating and motivating evil to become reality as the creature chooses to disobey. Therefore it is necessary to establish the fact that evil does not have any substance or an entity but instead evil is a lack of perfection. (Balsekar, 2006) Since the evil thought starts in the mind perhaps we should examine the working of the mind. Every individual has a hard time accepting the fact that this free will does not provide any control over the outcome of the decisions made because man is destined to use his mind only partially. This is the reason why man feels jealousy, addicted to comparison and competition and creating distinctions between good and evil. (Balsekar, 2006) This partial mind of man is tortured by a sense of emptiness, which it tries to contemplate by identification with possessions, power and status, and is thus responsible for evils such as greed, avarice and vanity. (Balsekar, 2006) So how does the whole mind work? The partial mind considers ‘me’- the thinker, the knower, the experiencer- to be necessary in daily life and living, because without it life would mean a stream of experiences, and the partial mind is frightened of having to float aimlessly in such a stream……The conditioned or partial mind is stale, bored, and pursues stimulants in attempting something new which can therefore lead to evil. (Balsekar, 2006) The activity of the partial mind causes wastage of energy and time because it tries to form the ‘what is’ into imaginary ‘what should be’ and this experimentation can lead to evil deeds. Adolf Hitler, the German dictator who in his book “Mein Kampf,” which meant ‘My Struggle’ or ‘My Battle’ segregated human beings into categories which were based on physical features thus establishing higher and lower orders. The highest order, according to Hitler, was the Germanic man because of his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes and was termed as ‘Aryan’. Aryan was the supreme form of human beings. This thought which was initiated within and was generated from Hitler’s mind thus producing a series of evil acts. Therefore Hitler began to think that if a supreme form of humanity existed then the less supreme, the Untermenschen, become the inferior beings and thus the Jews along with the Slavic community, the Czechs, Poles and Russians became the inferior form. As Hitler stated, “.it by no means believes in an equality of races, but along with their difference it recognizes their higher or lesser value and feels itself obligated to promote the victory of the better and stronger, and demand the subordination of the inferior and weaker in accordance with the eternal will that dominates this universe.” (Manheim, 1998) In Mein Kampf Hitler addresses the Jews as ‘parasites, lairs, dirty, crafty, sly, wily, void of culture, a maggot, eternal blood suckers, monsters, blood thirsty, avaricious etc. Thus one can see that this evil thought that originated from Hitler’s mind grew into an evil and rapacious deed wherein Hitler began his extermination of the entire Jewish population. When I begin to ponder and examine the reasons behind the conducting and performing of evil along with its evil deeds the only answer I can think of is pain. For in life pain becomes an undeniable issue. Aristotle said “the wise man seeks not pleasure, but freedom from care and plain.” Life is evil because “as soon as want and suffering permit rest to a man, ennui is at once so near that he necessarily requires diversion……life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and ennui…..After man had transformed all pains and torments into the conception of hell, there remained nothing for heaven except ennui”(Durant, 1961) Pain cannot be removed but can be endured and I view pain from two perspectives. Pain can either be constructive wherein pain and suffering can be seen as stepping stones to success or pain viewed in the negative sense wherein mankind in the need to shun away and forget pain turn towards short term pleasurable evil deeds. For example in order to escape from their daily toils and pains of life many youngsters and men turn towards drugs, alcohol and smoking wherein their addiction leads them to death. Take the present situation of our world wherein in the name of religion mankind organizes wars, killings, killing people with words and murders of innocent people. This violence, brutality and arrogance which ultimately lead to thought and action only establishes the fact that evil lessens goodness. Hinduism portrays karma to function to explain the problem of evil in the world. The word ‘Karma’ means act which characterizes the principles of cause and effect, action and reaction that governs life. One must understand that Karma does not indicate fate as man acts on free will thus creating his own destiny. Karma further implies the totality of man’s actions and their associated reactions in relation to the present and previous lives, all which determine the future. Intelligent actions and dispassionate reactions can assist in the conquering of Karma. Further Karma is not punishment instead karma is an extended expression of natural actions. (Natrajan, 2000) Finally I believe that morals are absolute and not relative to our individual opinions and beliefs. The word Freedom has become a byword for autonomy in our present world. Man constantly wants to become 'the law' and dictate his terms and like Hitler expects everyone to follow his way. The question everyone needs to ask is, Who should decide what is evil? Hitler's actions and morals were relative but he did absolutely believe in. Didn't he? Therefore our lives are in our hands and God has given us free will to be utilized in the right manner. One day when we do meet God, we should be able to return this free will with confidence that we had utilized it correctly and to the best of our ability thus avoiding wandering towards the evil side of life. References Balsekar, S. Ramesh. The only way to live. Yogi Impressions Books Pvt. Ltd. 2006. Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy. Pocket Books. 1961. Hurault, Bernardo. New Testament and Selected Psalms. Claretian Publication. New Delhi. 1996. Manheim, Ralph. Mein Kamph. Mariner Books. 1998. Natrajan, A.R. Self Discovery- Understanding the Mind: The Ramana Way. Ramana Maharshi Centre For Learning. 2000. Read More