Today I had an interesting conversation on Twitter about evil, but since Twitter doesn't allow me to type very many words I thought I would explain evil here.
If you are religious you probably think evil began when Eve ate the apple from the Tree of Good and Evil. That would make disobedience the first sin.
If you are an atheist you probably think the first evil thing happened when a caveperson raped or killed someone. Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Sapien? I'm not sure which one was sentient enough to know the difference between good and evil, but it doesn't matter. When the first human committed an act of evil that's when evil began.
So what is evil then? Evil is an act of selfishness that crosses the line. I'll give you an example. I might cheat on my taxes because I want more money, but I wouldn't start a war that kills thousands of people so I could make more money by selling weapons. Somewhere along the way, the person who cheated on their taxes decided they were willing to kill for more money. When they crossed that line they became evil. A person becomes evil when they decide to commit an extreme act of selfishness that they know will hurt others and they choose to do it anyway. There are evil people in the world. History is full of them. So are the present and the future.
The first evil was not the sin of disobedience, it was an act of selfishness and it was committed by the Serpent when he/she/it decided that its vision of what the world should be was more important than God's plan and it tricked Eve into eating the apple. The Serpent knew the consequences and did it anyway. Eve's sin was also an act of selfishness. She wanted to be as smart as God but it wasn't evil because she didn't understand the consequences until after she ate the apple.
The Serpent's Deception
The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!
"For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 4-5
The first atheist evil was when homo whatever killed or raped someone knowing they would hurt the other person in order to steal their food or have sex or whatever. An act of selfishness that the person committed even tho they knew it would hurt others. Before that proto-human was aware of the consequences of its actions it was an animal that killed or had sex on instinct. Not evil.
That was when evil began. It did not begin with religion as many millennials believe. Religion does not draw the line between selfishness and evil, it only reminds people that it exists. Evil still exists without religion. If an atheist strangles another atheist is it okay because they don't believe in the 10 Commandments? Of course not. It's humans who draw the line. Even atheists draw the line at murder.
Before Moses came down from the mountain with the 10 Commandments there was another religion. The religion of the Egyptians. Ra; Isis and Osiris, Anubis. I forget the rest. There was also the religion of the Greeks and the religion of the Romans. They all had different lines in the sand that could or could not be crossed. Back then it was perfectly acceptable to throw your baby off a cliff or float it on the Nile when you no longer wanted it. It was common to chop your children up and feed them to your cheating husband in a stew. Horrible by today's standards but the line in the sand was in a different place.
Today it's the future and we know more about evil than ever. We know what causes it and how. We know all about the psychology of evil. Bad parenting, traumatic circumstances, lots of contributing factors, etc... We can explain it and give it names, but does it stop being evil? Just because we know how it's created does that mean it doesn't exist? No, it still exists. Evil is a thing. It has a definition. I just gave it one up above. When a person does something selfish that they know will hurt others and does it anyway. The law makes an allowance for this. If you're completely bonkers and don't know what you're doing you're allowed to plead insanity. The court sends you to a mental hospital instead of jail.
Yes, but psychology. Psychology proves that all bad people are victims of bad parenting and traumatic circumstances. He killed those prostitutes because he wanted revenge on his mother. He killed those innocent villagers for the acceptance of his teammates. He lashed out at her because of misplaced aggression. His act of violence was a release of stress. It all has explanations, but at the heart of each of those explanations is selfishness. Revenge, acceptance, love, a desire for power, an end to his misery. They all wanted something so much they were willing to hurt others to get it. If we use psychology to erase the line in the sand and say no one is evil they're just troubled that doesn't get rid of evil because deleting the rules doesn't erase the consequences. Evil comes into existence when a person, proto-human, animal, or robot, becomes aware of good and evil and chooses to do it anyway.
So now that we know that evil is an extreme form of selfishness what does that mean? It means the war between good and evil that is currently being fought all over America and the world can be won. It has a solution. It isn't unwinnable. What do we need? Empathy? A plan? Self-help books on how to become less selfish? Large quantities of non-profit organizations? The end of capitalism and a change to an altruistic form of government? A reboot of the prison system? All these things already exist we just need to use them. Ending the war of good and evil sounds impossible, doesn't it? Even God can't do that. But if evil is selfishness that's not so hard. That's totally doable. While we're changing the world let's save it too!
Please read my other article for some ideas. How To Save The World
Everything that hurts a living being in any way is evil. If a scammer scams you or a robber robs you, that is evil.