Do you believe Evil exists?

[cyberangel]

Here is my 2 part question:

a)Do you believe "Evil" exists? if so b) where did it come from and what is its purpose?

I am just curious to see peoples views on this topic. I will be posting my beliefs on this topic later.

Thank you
L&L

[Leon]

We did this question in an earlier post. First I do not believe in the Devil, I feel it is man made. Just because there is a God a creative intelligence, it does not mean there has to be an opposite, a destroyer, especially something called the Devil. Now I might be totally wrong, as who am I to pretend that I know it all, but if you believe in the Devil, you bring the Devil to life in your mind. You give that thought credibility and from that negativity grows.

That negative thought will serve you no good while you try to dispel the ills of the world.

You ask where did it come from and what purpose does it have, so just in that statement, you admit that you believe in evil yourself, for you would not want to know where something came from that you had no belief in yourself. Yes there is positive and a negative scale to everything, but the darkness is just a lack of light, it does not mean that there is a fight against good and evil, just a lack of light.

A child is not born evil, through choices, experiences and influences, it end up walking a path that is cloaked in darkness, a path with a lack of understanding and care for anything but itself. In a sense the person becomes selfish, for when no light enters a person, that person cannot see beyond itself, how can it, as it would need light to see with. Such a person cannot see properly because their world is dark, not evil, dark. They were born innocent and life due to many reasons, left them in the dark.

If Adolf Hitler was born to a loving family, in a loving world, where peace surrounded him and he got an abundance of love, without no disruptions, do you really think he would of turned into a cruel dictator. No he would not of done, for he would not of seen hatred towards Jewish people, he would not have felt downtrodden, he would have no cause to stand up for the rights of his countrymen.

He would have no need to complain, he would have no need for hatred, because his world would of been full of love. He became like he did due to circumstances and choices he made.

As to your last question, is there a purpose for evil. The only answer that makes sense, is when wrong things happen, it brings the good people of this world to life. It gives people the chance to learn the difference between right and wrong.

This life is multifaceted, and you will not learn that an apple tastes nice, until you have also eaten an apple that tastes bad. As I have said, there is no evil, you have people who have lost their way, they may have mental and emotional problems, but they are sat in the dark. They are not the devils henchmen, or his evil little workers. If someone thinks such things, they seriously need to see a doctor. Too many people suffer with disillusions, probably due to a lack of light and understanding or ill treatment.

Remember all are born innocent, they just lose their way.

[Ishtahota]

Good and Evil is just a product of our duality consciousness. IT is an illusion, so that many can do what ever without taking responsibility for their actions. It and other things are the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Our duality is like a main opperating program for our brains.
Lucifer was the most beatiful and prized Angel of the Creator, the bearer of light. When we choose duality consciousness someone had to play the darkest of the dark for us. When in duality if we have a Christ we must have an anti-christ.
Tiny men and women with greatr big egos use good and evil as an excuse not to take responsibility for their actions and/or their lack of actions. When we take the time to do our personal clearing work, we can awaken and start to build the new world, a world that uses non-duality consciiousness. The illusion of good and evil will be gone.

[gruntal]

I was in a chat chamber some years ago and startled a Christain by making the observation that since G*d was omnipitent He must also be the devil. And that the premise would of necessary have to follow since we tend to think there is only one god anyway . I found later an interesting allegory by Gregg Braden who claimed to have seen Lucifer as a crying child - besieged by hate and animosity for giving mankind the knowledge to do good or evil as they made choices. Talk about being the whipping boy! Poor Lucifer.

I still stubornly think my generation - the "love generation" i.e. the Baby Boomers - made a mistake in assuming that love was all that was and that love would conquer all. Again choices had to be made and in the absence of hard and fast commitments - sometimes not allways pleasant - things could go terribly wrong all by themselves. But evil had far less to do with objects and banning "bad things" did little or nothing to prevent us from still making bad choices.

I think evil does exist as a ingrown tendency to destroy or ruin when it has nothing to do with survival or growth. It only exists among beings capable of doing it and choosing not to. But it still exists as an alturnitive. One of my favorite quotes by Thomas Sowell (known for brutally honest sayings) is: "each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late".

Notice he didn't suggest humans were inherently evil and needed to be scoured for their own salvation. But utterly evil outcomes would follow by default unless we instilled an attitude that everything we create would only turn out bad unless we made a constant choice to make it better. And that our humanity could only be defined by our freedom to make those choices.

[bluestarman1]

I was going to do a posting similar to this Cyber, but you beat me to it. Here's my take on your question. In the KJV version of the Old Testament Isaiah 45:7 says "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things." Do I take this verse literally. Absolutely. If we believe in a Divine Creator that has create everything, then that has to include everything, not just what we like.

But who decides what's good and what's evil? Leon brings up a good example with Hitler. When Hitler was considering his Final Solution where eventually 6 million Jews were exterminated, do you think he weighted the evidence and tried to decide if his actions were going to be "good" or "evil". Or do you think in his twisted mind that this was just another step to his reaching his destiny, so, to him, it was necessary? But in our sane minds would we decide that killing any innocent human being is evil? Hopefully. So I believe that everyone of us has to decide what is good and evil. Also I believe we consciously decide to choose to do good or to do evil.

So what's the purpose of evil? I believe that evil, as we define it, exists so that we can choose to be better people by choosing good.

[cyberangel]

My answer is...Yes, I do believe Evil exists but I don’t believe IN Evil, therefore it can have no power over me.

I also think just because you are aware of something does not necessarily bring it into your life... if I think about dying for instance it doesn’t mean I am inviting death to take my life does it?...Sure, if you take anything out of perspective you may be able to invoke a negative reaction but on the other hand, by using the ‘ostrich syndrome’ does not mean that Evil does not exist either!

My own personal belief is...
"what greater illusion or power Evil to have over people than to fool/trick them into thinking it does not exist!"

I was brought up catholic and went to catholic school where I was taught (conditioned) into thinking a certain way, and it is only these past 10 years or so that I am discovering my own way through life and spirituality. I am also aware that sometimes it’s hard to decipher my own beliefs from those installed in me in those early and impressionable years...but I have personally met Evil once in human form (when I was a child) then later when I was a young adult, but it did not appear in a physical form that time. So I absolutely, have no doubt, Evil exists.

[gatesofgrace]

Just as one might contemplate the scripture of various religions wondering who inspired the writing, evil leaves one with the same type of reflections. Neither appears to be born of mankind. Yet, most of mankind will serve some aspect of each... over their lifetime.

We can draw on the few who were not challenged so, as they were enabled in the glory of spirit, they contemplated no evil. Mary the daughter of Anna and Joachim was one of these who lived in the temple of the Lord from childhood. Thecla was another who was so enamored by the virtue's of Yeshua as taught by Paul the Apostle she "witnessed" several miracles.

More come to mind, yet we can all imagine the latitude of possibilities if each interaction summoned before us was born of righteousness and holiness. For to serve this Master is wise. Yet, how many would be free from their own ego that lies within, to accept and to comply fully to this truth. For any challenge to this, any form of discontent opposing this truth, must serve another Master.

[elisa]

I believe there are evil deeds not evil people. It is the act that is wrong, it is the thoughts behind the act and it is the life a person has led behind the thought and act that is wrong. Evil deeds flourish where there is a lack of love and light.

Namaste
Elisa

[jesusrose]

For me, evil is simply an absence of good. Just as without light there is darkness, without love, there is evil. When we call God (The Light) to a place of evil, evil is no more.

[cyberangel]

Thank you all. L & L

[jessiethecorgi]

this has been a very enlightening post for me. my heart is pounding from quantumn spiritual growth. i am starting to understand that duality is ignorance of the light. Equinimity was summed up by elisa as all people are good (have the godspark) but don't have the light because we didn't explain it to them or tell them. This post concurs with my post about the divine masquerade in the main section. God is so hard on me. i can't take much more of this. he certaintly has found a way to make me surrender...lol