The Nature of Evil

Sundays occasionally render me in a contemplative recognition; such is no different at this moment, for I am wont to consider what I call the "nature of evil" which, for me, begs four master questions:

• Is there true Evil?


• Can persons actually be Evil?


• Can one, then, attempt to reason with Evil?


• Can Evil even recognize Reason?

I would care for your thoughts. This has a great deal to do with our current world and worldview philosophies, on many fronts and many levels, national and political.

I myself wholly believe in the existence and prosperance of Evil. I have viewed it, seen its wastes, smelled its stench in the night, known people who canonized its name, seen its carrion-strewn carcasses, looked it directly in the eye and understood when it wished to kill me.

A smattering of the innumerable cases I handled:

- A mother smothered her child by putting her head in a Ziploc bag; she left the child in her crib, called to schedule a nail appointment. The child, sick, kept her from a bowling appointment and a prior nail appointment. We found her stirring soup on a stove with a dead baby in the other room.

- A high schooler, angry at having been fired from a pizza job, returned with a gun and robbed the store, shooting his once-best friend because "he should have quit after I was fired, if he was my friend." In the interview, he was not to blame because "the doctors should have done a better job saving him."

- A couple had decided to split up; in the process of determining who received what, an argument ensued over who owned the batteries in the TV remote. One spouse shot the other in the neck and then removed the batteries from her dead hand. The pulsing arterial spray hit the white apartment wall from a distance of 5 feet away.

- As he had lost face and was losing control of the relationship because his wife was suddenly making more money than he, a former star collegiate football player from an incredibly successful and heavily-monied family (and an obsessive-compulsive neat/control freak) peaked one night when his son would not be quiet. He struck his 5-year-old on the head, caving in his skull and killing him. His pregnant wife walked in seconds later and observed the scene. She too was killed as was the fetus. To obviate his guilt he doused all the bodies with gasoline and lighted them all on fire, blaming an unknown and unseen assailant.

I ask you again:

-- Is there true Evil?

-- Can a person actually be Evil?

-- Can one, then, attempt to reason with Evil?

-- Can Evil even recognize reason?

Your thoughts?

BZ