Muse Four - Evil

Good and Evil Angels by William Blake,
Tate Gallery, UK

Cain killed Abel, of that there is no doubt,

But for heaven's sake, who left knives lying about?

David Attenborough said that he could not conceive of a loving God who creates worms that blind young children.

The Christian response is that it was never supposed to be this way.  Evil entered the world, and we were the ones who opened the door.  But this paradox is not so easily explained away.

Terence the Roman Comic Playwright is quoted as saying "I am a man; I count nothing human foreign to me".

The evil things that exist in the world have all come from the capacity created and imprinted into the fabric of the world.  All of this can be present in my brain.  

This might be through my own evil volition,  such as 'I desire harm to come to my enemy.'  But conversely, it can be through 'negative automatic thoughts' that just jump into my mind, such as 'I could push that person in front of a tube train', which rather shocks me, and I quickly shoo away. "Where did that come from?"

The capacity for good and evil we see about us is part of the array of all that has been created.  Like Miss Flight's birds in 'Bleak House', they range from the inspirational, to the mundane, to the horrific.

Light is defined by darkness.  The creator has allowed for unbelievable beauty and goodness, and the converse, despair and degradation.  But to study evolutional biology is the study the intertwining of good and evil in all things.  It can be argued that nature is without morality, we see bullying, rape, deceit, and torture.  On top of this there is plenty of infanticide, and general male violence and aggression.  This path is witnessed from the beginning of time.  It's not peace and harmony, then 'the fall', and then behaviours that make us wince when we witness them.

In Eastern traditions, evil is accepted as part of the balance of life.  It is a necessary 'anti-matter' to balance the 'matter'.  The Creator is a remote force, or being, who we can attempt to influence.  But the thought of a personal connection is seen as somewhat egocentric.  Like the ocean, we may find ourselves floating and exploring the wonders about us, or we might be flipped over and drown in an instant.

The big difference I notice in amongst this confusing mess comes  in the form desire or inclination.  The wonderful thing to be discovered is that goodness (or Godness) is to only desire  wholesome and liberty, despite what is going on about me.  As in the metaphor offered by South American 'Liberation Theology', the jackboot is pressing my head into the mud, but I have the ability to be freed from my head, and rise up into the air, and observe my oppressor down below.   For a moment I am not there in my wretched body, and I up here, floating freely in the breeze.