On Evil

“Some art of mensuration is required in order to show us pleasures and pains in their true proportion. This art of mensuration is a kind of knowledge, and knowledge is thus proved once more to be the governing principle of human life, and ignorance the origin of all evil: for no one prefers the less pleasure to the greater, or the greater pain to the less, except from ignorance.” ~Plato

Evil Is normally understood by most people in the context of the biblical representation of badness or wickedness, in other words, evil is equivalent to sin or the devil. This is of course a very vague way of identifying evil, as sin and the devil are not innate representations in the mind. The closes representation we have to identifying or relating to evil is our notions of pain and pleasure, as most people would consider pain, either physical or mental harm, to be the expression or representation of evil. For, other than the Bible’s notion of evil, we have other myths and doctrines that present their own idea of evil, but all lead back to our notion of pain and pleasure.

If life were purely pleasant, i.e. all affections on the brain resulted with pleasure, then there would be no way of identifying evil, wickedness, deficiency, inadequacy, imperfection, harm to the body, degradation, etc. and the like. For instance, if the happening of losing an arm resulted with a pleasant sensation, lets say every animal had a feeling of bliss from what we presently consider as pain, it is impossible, for me at least, to imagine animals not willingly doing harm to themselves for the mere sake of receiving pleasure. Much of a living thing’s actions are dictated by pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, and even the more intelligent creatures must start with this demeanor. Death itself would be but a joke to all living things without pain, which we perceive it to be the opposite. We would not be able to say that killing another living being was a terrible act without pain; because there would be no discomfort to either the victim nor to anyone who valued the victim’s life, nor any hope of empathy from the murderer. Clearly, whatever moral doctrines are presented to the mind, must find their foundations in the innate mental ideas of pleasure and pain.

Yet, good and evil can not be merely viewed as a pursuit of pleasure(being good) versus an avoidance of pain(being evil). The reason being that other animals do base their actions on a pursuit of pleasure and an avoidance of pain, yet it is only with ourselves that we label certain actions as moral and others as immoral. If a lion kills another lion, it is viewed simply as the actions performed by an animal, but if a man kills another man, it is murder. Now without going too deep into detail, I can only perceive the most significant difference between a lion and a man to be that of intelligence, which was probably not so clear during ancient times, but is undeniably obvious in today’s world, with our clear advances in technology and the unmistakable environment which a man lives in compared to that of other animals. Thus, like Plato, I believe morals and ethics begin and end with knowledge. For it is also clear that other intelligent creatures have some notion of ethical actions, as shown by science.

No one is innately evil, every being is a product of their circumstances, this is a notion i believe is extremely important. It sickens me that many religions would have humans believe that they are not in control of their own actions, they are incapable of performing virtuous actions through their own abilities, and that everyone is evil who does not comply with their particular group. We are born with innate abilities, but not innate intentions, notions, and ideas. No human has shown an inborn disposition to do evil, whom has not also shown a pathological incapacity, which indicates an imperfect and undeveloped mind or brain. However, instead of an opposition to that which is undoubtedly evil, religions manage to put good people in conflict with each other, as the human race is no longer separated into those who can do and those who need help, but into those who comply and those who do not. What is good and evil is quite ambiguous, it is our relations with each other that give these ideas concreteness. Those who put themselves above all others, but not due to more beneficial and efficient notions of the world, rather through dubious and problematic traditions, are committing a great evil.

If a God was the one to dictate universal rules, it should be impossible to break them. This seems to be the case for life in general, that no being can go against the rules dictated by logic; such as the rules that guide physics, biology, and chemistry; though we are still working on these concepts. Actions that are logically impossible can not be performed, no matter how much we wish or will illogical actions to be done. Yet, immoral actions can be performed merely by us willing these actions. Why would we be incapable of performing actions that are logically impossible, when we willfully want to perform them, yet have unenforced laws opposing particular actions that can still be performed regardless, even though no sane person willfully desires immoral actions? If a God exist, it is certainly preventing particularly extraordinary and supernatural actions by force from being actualized, such as a human beings having the ability to move faster than the speed of light using only our legs. If such a divine being is allowing immoral/evil actions to be done, but is punishing those who do it, even though clearly no immoral action is done willingly(because an insufficiency in the mind or circumstances of a creature always leads to an immoral action, but no immoral action is done for the mere end of doing evil itself; it’s always to avoid pain or pursue pleasure), such a being would be completely unreasonable and unjust. I can not believe in a world where an unreasonable ruler reigns over all, especially since science and logic demonstrate a rather justified and principled existence.