Late Night Philosophy

Thoughts on the Nature of Evil

The thing about Satan and other personified evil forces in the universe is that they can't be pinned down to any one persona, agenda or motive. If one were to say, I believe in Satan, then, logically, one would be able to avoid the temptations of Satan. If one were to say that they don't believe in Satan then others would say that one was falling right into the grasp of Satan. However, if Satan is out to get us all, he would trick the one who does believe in him to do something "evil" in the name of God or simply for that person's definition of "good". For those who don't believe, some would consider those people to already be evil and corrupt.

My point is, it's impossible to say who is evil and who is not because evil plays both sides. Most religious texts and spiritual athorities say so. Satan will prey on those with false faith and those with no faith at all. While it is easier to see who has no faith, how does one find out who has false faith? What is false faith anyway? I suppose it would be someone pretending to keep the faith that one belongs to. More extreme is someone who beleives something one does not and that belief is opposed to one's own.

But how does one tell the true beleivers from the false ones? Both beleivers think that what they are doing is correct and "good". If that person belongs to one's faith and you respect their opinion and trusted that person with your spiritual guidance, then one would be inclined to follow what the person has advised. If that person were corrupted by evil, then what they advise one to do would not be a devious plot on their part to lie and decieve one; that person believes that he is right, after all.

If enough of those respected and virtuous people were corrupted and worked together, then even the general believers would come to accept those corrput values as virtuous and "good". In the end, the entire community of believers think that they are doing God's work because those in power have decided what is good and what is not. Again, those in power, even if those persons would be considered evil to someone elses values, would think that what they were preaching was God's word. And because the worshippers also believe that the leaders can do no wrong, they trust those in power not to steer them onto the path of evil. What you end up with are suicide bombers, pedophile priests, murders of abortion doctors, the Holocaust (and Catholasim's deniel of it even as it occured), the bombing of the World Trade Center, and many more perversions against human rights. None of these terrible acts could have been committed if those commiting them had any doubt in thier minds that they were doing God's work. In the name of God, they furthered the cause of Satan, but only in the eyes of those to whom the crime was commited, which, in the above examples, was the whole of humanity.

So how is anyone supposed to fight against Satan when Satan plays both sides against each other? Who is to say that Satan (or equivilant) even exists? Every side claims not to be the tool of Satan, after all. The only being who can decide who does and does not work for evil is God and God alone. But there lies the problem again. Who is speaking for God and who is speaking for Satan? Each would speak almost the same message at first. Hell, those religous leaders could all be speaking for God or all speaking for Satan or some unknown mix of both. Unfortunately, I don't believe that anyone is equipped to tell the difference.

"I can't imagine a God who would care."
"Every moment we are alive is a moment that we have cheated Death."
Myself
Please read my journal "Late Night Philosophy"