Essay on "Evil What Is the Nature of Evil?"

Essay 8 pages (2945 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

EVIL

What is the nature of Evil?

The question of the existence and nature of evil has concerned philosophers, theologians and thinkers for centuries. The very existence of evil is the central impetus for many major religious worldviews and the nature and origins of evil are factors which often determine the trajectory of religious thinking and faith.

The central thesis that will be suggested in this study is that understanding the nature of evil requires a perspective that includes both external and internal views of the origins and nature of evil. In other words, evil can be understood as being an entity or a force that exists outside of human nature as well as a propensity that is internal or innate in human beings. This refers to the fact that in philosophy and the history of thinking about evil, there have been two important trajectories or strands of thought that have been debated on this subject. This refers to the idea of evil as something that is independent of human nature and human psychology and a contradictory view which sees evil as created by human will and the separation from God and the good.

This paper will therefore explore the question of the nature of evil from two standpoints. The one view to be found in Gnostic and Manichean thought on nature of evil is that it is a separate and distinct entity to good and that it occurs and originates outside of the essence and ambit of good. As such it is to be considered in sharp contrast to good and the concept of God and to the themes of goodness and mercy. This is known as a dualistic view of good and evil and is evident in Gnostic myths and theory about the origins of the universe. This view has also influenced many theologian and philosophers in the West; for example in the writings of St. Augustine.

In seemingly stark contrast is the view that evil is not a separate malicious entity or force but is can rather be understood in terms of the relationship between God and man. In this sense Evil is a measurement of the distance or separation between humanity and God's goodness. Evil is therefore understood as a 'lack' of goodness or rather as a separation from the Good. This view relates to the Christian concept of original sin and the idea that evil takes place in the life of mankind to the extent that mankind becomes distanced from the moral world and law of God. This view, as will be discussed, leads to a more humancentric view of evil and the idea of free will in the works of Kant and others.

In the explication of the central thesis of this paper it will also be suggested that while the latter view that evil can be understood as the degree of distance from God in relation to human will is possibly a more plausible perception from a modern point-of-view, what is needed to understand the nature of evil is a combination or a synthesis of these two central trajectories in the philosophy of evil.

2. Overview of the question of evil

The question of evil, its origins and nature, has concerned philosophers and theological thinkers for a number of obvious reasons. The fact that war, genocide, rape and murder occur as part of human history leads to the question of why these events occur and why they occur in a world that is supposed to be presided over by a caring and benevolent God. One only has to think of names like Auschwitz, the Gulag, Bosnia, and Rwanda to raise the question of evil in the world. Evil revolts us because it contradicts our innate sense of moral order. "Our moral sensibility revolts against them and marks them as being somehow unprecedented, inexcusable, incommensurable with customary forms of immorality…" (The Fragmented Will -- Kant on Evil).)

The realisation that evil exists leads to a feeling of 'moral homelessness' in an age that seems suffused with events and actions that we can only describe as evil. For theologians the question that has required an answer is, how can evil exist at the same time as good? This question "… presupposes that one acknowledges a magisterial god who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good. If such a being exists, then the existence of evil becomes a moral mystery." (Kant, Schopenhauer, and the Problem of Evil) Therefore understanding the nature and the meaning of evil is an essential aspect of modern theological and philosophical thought.

3. The Gnostic view

Gnosticism is a worldview and faith that has in recent years been revived by the discovery of the Nag Hammadi scrolls in Egypt in 1945. The Gnostics were early Christians who questioned many orthodox religious beliefs of the time. The Gnostics believed that spiritual understanding occurred through revelation and though direct knowledge or 'gnosis' of God. "The designation Gnosticism derived from the Greek gnostikos refers to & #8230;one who has gnosis or "secret knowledge." (The Secret Knowledge: Enmity Between Flesh and Spirit)

The Gnostics believed in an extreme form of dualism and a radical difference between good and evil. They were of the view that evil is a distinct and separate entity that exists outside of and in contradistinction to goodness and God, which is referred to as the Pleroma.

This dualism is clearly evident in the Gnostic myths of the origins of the universe and of our world.

Very briefly, the Gnostic view of the Fall and the creation of Adam and Eve is that, in essence, the creation of man originates not from God but for the false 'Demiurge." The significance of this is that, "This idea of the Fall & #8230; goes far beyond the Christian myth of Adam and Eve disobeying God." (The Gnostic Account of the Fall and the Creation of the Material World). Therefore, in this account of man's origins it was a false or evil god who in fact created the world in which we live. The inferior god who created out world was also intent on preventing humanity from obtaining true knowledge of the real God and enslaving mankind in ignorance. Much of the Gnostic doctrine is based on this fundamental premise and concerned with ways of escaping the control of the false creator God of this world through true knowledge or Gnosis. This typical Gnostic view is summarized as follows.

The creator of the world was not the God over all; the absolute power from above was stronger than the weaker & #8230; power of generation, which was symbolized as the power of the impure world-womb, containing heaven and earth within it -- the sensible world. But this sensible world was, as it were, an after-birth & #8230; compared with the true birth from the virgin spiritual womb, the ideal world of the aeons above. (THE SO-CALLED CAINITES)

The myth goes on to describe the divine character of Sophia, who creates an image of herself or an offspring without consent of gods and which result in the birth of the demiurge who rules the word. However, a lengthy overview of the Gnostic myth is outside the parameters of this paper and the central point that needs to be stressed is that evil is seen as the false god who exists and acts outside of the control of mankind. At the same time mankind can escape the demiurge through direct revelation of 'gnosis' of the true God. An important aspect to the nature of evil, which will be seen to relate to the views put forward by Kant, is that Sophia falls prey to the illusion of self-love and this is in effect a cause of evil within the human heart.

In essence, the myth expresses a perennial existential crisis in human creation. The above view therefore attempts to answer the question of why is there evil in the world and directs this question to a false god who is innately evil. While many assume that Gnosticism is a completely dualistic view of good and evil this is not strictly true, as the Gnostics also believed that evil was to a great extent also dependent on the way that men acted and perceived reality. This is a view that deeply influenced theologians and philosophers such as Augustine through the Manichean view of reality.

4. Augustine and the separation from God

St. Augustine was an important figure in Western thought on good and evil and has been described as, "…. one of the towering figures of medieval philosophy whose authority and thought came to exert a pervasive and enduring influence well into the modern period." (Saint Augustine) His thought has influenced many modern thinkers, including Descartes and has had a resounding influence on the development of Christianity. Among the many contributions that he made were his ideas and views on the nature of knowledge and religious insight and illumination; as well as the importance of the human will and the meaning… READ MORE

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