What is evil and why is it important?
We live in a world where we are told every day that we must be tolerant. We are told that the range of human behavior is very broad and that we should accept and embrace people, ideas, and acts that are different from us. For the most part this is good counsel. We should not reject an idea or person simply because they are different. But, I think that we have become victims of “tolerance creep”. The idea of tolerance has spread to mean that we should tolerate just about everything. And this is wrong.
Tolerance in itself is neither good nor bad. It all depends on just exactly what we are tolerating. Tolerating evil is not good. We tolerated Hitler in the 30’s and got WW 2 for our mistake. The people at NAMBLA say that we should tolerate adult men sexually abusing boys. This type of tolerance is misguided.
We should not tolerate evil. But, to do this we must be able to accurately identify evil. This is no small task. Every day someone gets on our TV, our cellphone, our computer and tells us that someone or some idea is evil. Why…….because THEY don’t like it. The sad truth is that there are thousands of lists of evils floating around. Some of these lists are good and some are not. Paradoxically, some of the lists of evil being sold to us are so bad that you could argue that the list itself is evil.
How do we navigate this minefield? If our list of evils is too short, we risk being recruited into somebody else’s evil. If our list of evils is too long, we become angry and judgmental……and we alienate those around us.
We can make up our own list……..but, unfortunately, we are basically dishonest……..every last one of us. The sad truth is that anything that we really want to do is going to be absent from OUR list of evils. Our list then becomes nothing more than a tool for beating up the other guy. One guideline that I can offer……..if you are exploring a list of evils and it doesn’t include something that tempts you, then you are either a saint or the list is suspect.
Or…..we can adopt somebody else’s list. This calls for discernment. The most widely sold lists in American culture come from our political parties and the media talking heads that speak for them. I distrust these lists from both the right and the left because they are typically being promoted by someone with a political agenda (Hannity, Acosta, etc.).
I have tried out many lists in my life. My home grown lists have been failures. So, I have looked around. I have come to the conclusion that the most widely accepted and reliable list of good and evil available today is the Bible. I believe that the Bible is the most reliable moral code available to us. It offers the most comprehensive understanding of good and evil available to us today.
Obviously, this is a huge document. Nevertheless, I recommend reading it cover to cover. Check out a smart phone app like “bible in a year”. Meanwhile, to get you started, here is the “Cliff notes” version:
Love God
Love your neighbor
Don’t lie
Don’t steal
Don’t murder
Honor your parents
Sex is for husbands and wives
Don’t covet
Rest on Sunday
God, NIV (abridged)
Master this list and you are well on your way to living a good life and escaping evil.
FWIW………mastering this list…….is a lifetime undertaking.