Ignorance isn't bliss, in fact, I've come to the realization lately that being unaware may be the origin of most evils. From the knowledge stemming from the concept of unawareness, deception can be born. How is one to behave if they "simply don't know better"?
If you're like me and wonder what's so worthy of a virgin sacrifice to begin with—you might want to blur those lines you have between what you deem good and evil. In order to truly know what one is, you must be able to fully identify the other. And as lovely as it might sound, you absolutely cannot understand that which you do not know yourself. To fully learn, one must have in possession the first-hand experience.
The one who is polite and admirable was once rude and disrespectful.
The one who succeeded was once the one who failed.
The one who behaves as a saint once acted like the devil.
Now how can I be so sure of all of this? This isn't an immutable answer, just the one which makes the most sense. How would you know what the right thing to do is, if you didn't already know the wrong thing? You can read, make observations of those around you, follow society or media, but these "first-hand theories", are nothing more than a second-hand experience. What you do in life has a weight, but why you do something will always be heavier.
I believe that for every evil deed there is an act of kindness equal of magnitude. Just like an atom made of protons and electrons, for every positive charge there is an equal negative charge. What would this imply? That a person is only as good as they are evil. A saint without a drop of a shadow, or to be a virgin completely exempt from temptation can only exist in a fairytale of ignorance. As one does not know a path to take, the probability of always picking correctly through chance is unheard of. Eventually, curiousity gets the better, and motion takes place.
They eat the apple or take the bargain—not because it is the wrong thing to do, but rather they have yet to learn what the right thing is. The only way to know what the right thing to do is to do the wrong thing first, and that's an uncomfortable topic for those still learning about themselves.
We want to be the hero without first acknowledging the villain in us. We ingrain virtue and morale within ourselves without first understanding the personal meanings they have to us. We shift blame and want a rewarding life free of fault, thus play the victim of our environment when it is truly us who creates it.
If you view yourself as having 0% evil, then, unfortunately, you are also 0% good.
This counterintuitive perspective is desirable to obtain. For to understand it, you must move beyond the ego and the ID of; "It's not my fault this happens to me," and "Why is it always like this?" Nobody wants to be the bad guy, but in order to become the good guy, you must first see the badness within yourself. It's always scary at first, everything that's new remains this way until familiarized—but once it is, the only thing that awaits you is the power of your true potential.
Let's open the Emerald Tablet shall we?
Can I comment something about how I think there's no "real" evil and good, but instead some rules based on the culture and personal views?
Different types of environments, surroundings, and upbringings definitely do shape what we think about ourselves and the world around us. For anyone looking into self discovery, the path is always through struggle. Everything is an opinion at best.