OF GOOD AND EVIL
Good and evil have been discussed repeatedly, interpreted differently, viewed from various perspectives, and have been the cynosure of discussion of both ordinary and elite people across the history of mankind. As far as people were cognizant of the dark and light, so were they familiar with good and evil. As a matter of fact, darkness was viewed as a negative thing, having been a threat and trepidation to the people. Good has been viewed as a source of light and happiness.
Good and evil, the most polemical and controversial concepts, are commonplace terms used repeatedly in our daily verbal and written language, and their examples are shown in various thoughts, actions, behaviors, and our daily affairs.
To define evil in terms of standing, it is a miasma of despair and bitterness. It is infamous, whose notoriety is displayed and felt as much in the same way as buildings are burned to the ground, people are murdered, women are raped, crimes are committed, robberies are perpetrated, and all other enormities are performed. To define evil as an entity, it is overwhelming in terms of nastiness, poverty, and horror. It engenders corruption enormously but nefariously. Anywhere it goes, it pollutes. Anywhere it stays, it contaminates. Whatever it performs, it fouls and brings blight. It eats poison, and it spawns plague…. As an artist, it is so wily that all it does is depravation and sin; however, despite its all enormity, it is such an attraction that its fans are increasing every moment, and they are ignoring its crimes as if they are spellbound or absentminded of its consequences. Its attraction resembles that of pyrethrums killing their victims, or that of sirens luring unwary sailors onto rocks. It is already in extreme despair strait, and the more evil is added, its desperation augmented. Evil has many signs and sources to be cognizant of: a bad action, an ugly behavior, a corrupt decision, a conspiracy, and all obnoxious plans are of such examples. There are a myriad of examples for each one of those categories that account for evil phenomena, and each single individual can commit as many atrocities as possible, performing as many obnoxious behaviors as possible.
Etymologically, good and evil have been used as adjective and noun, and sometimes informally as an adverb. As an adjective, good means fine, excellent, virtuous, obedient, well-behaved, right, proper, capable, close and intimate, healthy, pleasant, kind, convenient, safe to eat, valuable, clear and sunny, etc. As a noun, it signifies virtue, goodness, honesty, truth, purity, etc. As an adverb, it is used informally as healthy and in good mood. For example, I feel good. The correct form of use is: I feel well, which means I am healthy.
Evil as an adjective means bad, wrong, immoral, sinful, corrupt dark, despicable, etc. As a noun, it denotes badness, sin, immorality, hardship, misery, affliction, etc.
In literature, good and evil have been used a great deal explicitly, implicitly, metaphorically, and similely. Good has usually presented sound, sophisticated, positive character and characteristic; evil has portrayed ugly, unfair, cruel, and stupid characters. Conflicts and inconsistencies portray forces of evil and good in literature. These conflicts could be human vs. himself or herself, human vs. nature, human vs. human, human vs. the Devil, etc. In Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, the conflict happens between Dorian and society on the one hand, and between Dorian and himself on the other. In Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, the conflict surfaces between good and evil. Dr. Faustus, though highly educated and intelligent, relinquishes his soul to the devil in exchange for power and knowledge. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the conflict happens between Hamlet and his uncle Claudius. In Cinderella, beauty stands for good, ugliness for evil. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, good and evil live together inside Macbeth. Evil defeats good when Macbeth murders the king. Good defeats evil when Macbeth is slain. As we notice, all these conflicts transpire between good and evil. In the same way, this is also true of the Greek and Roman imaginary gods who are either in conflict with themselves or with human beings for different causes to avenge each other in some way.
The main question about good and evil arises to ask whether they are real or just unreal, nominal, or symbolic. As it was mentioned, good and evil are used both symbolically as common nouns and realistically as proper nouns. For example, when we are saying sin, oppression, robbery, rape, murder, etc. are evil or acts of evil, we are making use of symbolism, similes, or metaphors. The same is true of goodness, justice, truth, virtue, integrity, decency, etc. But once we are using good and evil subjectively, then their presence becomes real and convincing. It is then that God stands for good and the Devil or the Evil One stands for evilness or evil. Of course, the expression of the Devil taking stand against the transgressors make sense, but the Devil versus God is absurd and false, because one is the Creator, the other the creature; one is all mighty, all knowing, all seeing, all hearing, the other cursed, ignorant, and fallen. Therefore, to get into a showdown with God is stupid.
In fact, evil is as real as transgressions like murder, rape, robbery, tyranny, fraud, etc. As far as those misdeeds exist, so does evil. As about the reality of God, He is so universal, so manifest that His manifestation spreads from micro to macro. And it is again the work of the Devil who deludes those people whose eyes and minds have been screened from the sight of such manifestation
To define and introduce good and evil in terms of theological and divine account is very crucial. The moment of truth arrived when God created man to put the Devil to test, and he failed it. In fact,
Lucifer (known as the Satan, the Devil, the Evil One, or Iblis), who was enjoying the angelic kingdom among the angels, lost the trial of God by rejecting His command: He did not deign to prostrate before Adam. Once he disobeyed, God cursed him and expelled him from the heaven. Thus, Lucifer turns into evil, vowing to take his revenge from humanity by attacking them mentally and emotionally. Therefore, evil stands for wickedness, misery, sin, badness, villainy, and dishonesty. In this context, good stands for goodness, truth, honesty, etc. As a matter of fact, good the absolute stands for God, and evil stands for the Devil. Writers usually have put one above the other. For example, in many cases, a bad character or characteristic has prevailed against the good one or vice versa. However, in reality, good has been considered a light, evil darkness. In fact, light overwhelms darkness, not the other way round. Of course, to compare the power of the Devil with that of human is of no consequence. One may triumph over the other, depending upon the human qualities and personality. As about comparing the power of the Devil with God results from ignorance. Such comparison will be true of those who have no idea bout the Creator in the first place, or those who misestimate Him in the second place.
When we are left undefended and vulnerable, Evil not only overwhelms us like darkness and attacks us like miseries, but also confines us like a prison. He will mentally and spiritually defeat us, making us completely deluded, so that we will be at our wits’ end, and by committing crimes and breaking the established norms, we are sent into the jails, our hands cuffed, our feet chained.
It is ironic that we do not know we are confined by the evil, in the first place, and that being in prison in real life has been the cause of the Devil’s conspiracies, in the second place. As a matter of fact, we are spiritually imprisoned when we have sinned. We lose our freedom by becoming a servant of the Devil. We give the rein of our life to him and he drags us anywhere he wants. Once we are his servant, we become a servant of our desire, our passion, our greed, our pride, our ambitions, etc. We become a servant of greed, for example, by hoarding up wealth illegally, unconscientiously, and immorally.
There are certain abilities and desires in human beings to which the Evil One appeals and thereby enslaves us. For example, our pride provokes us to aspire to ambitions even at times at the cost of trespassing fairness. We lust to possess power to gallop the horse of desire, no matter how evil it is.
Love of money leads to greed and unfairness. Self-indulgence in eating and having sex is another evil that leads to enormous miseries and health dilemmas. Freedom is another phenomenon that has been mostly abused and therefore has unleashed catastrophic impacts.
To be sure, it is not viable to defeat the Devil without the help of Providence. Therefore, the more we are away from the care and protection of God, the closer we are to the grasp of the Devil. Although the Devil has no advantage to attack or affect us physically, he does have an upper hand to attack us mentally and emotionally. Have you thought how Eve was deceived into eating the forbidden fruit? Have you thought how Cain was persuaded to kill his brother Able? Have you though how Abraham could not convince his father to accept his religion? Have you thought how Noah failed to convince his sun to board the ship? All this has happened through the conspiracies of the Devil.
Thus, all the transgressions are inspired by the Devil. There is not even a single sin that has not been shared or supported by the Devil. In fact, he has a share in all crimes committed by the humanity: homicides, rapes, robberies, assaults, hate crimes, arsons, briberies, batteries, child abuse, child pornography, conspiracies, misbehaviors, disturbing the peace, burglaries, distortions, forgeries, frauds, kidnapping, prostitutions, sexual assaults, etc.
This does not mean that we can dodge accountabilities for these transgressions. In fact, we have not been forced into these transgressions to find an excuse to stop shouldering those responsibilities. We have been induced and seduced into them, in which there is no indication of compulsion. As far as we are free committing things, we are responsible for them, and we will pay for our wrongs.