Q: Why is there Evil in the world?
A: Evil is many things to many people. Evil often arises
because of a perceived injustice. However, if people reason
together and learn how to negotiate, what appears
to be Evil is often a matter of unreasonable expectations by an alleged
aggrieved
party (“the victim”).
Evil also arises from stupidity.
Even Nazism can be grasped as an irrational and stupid response
to very specific inequities and perceived injustices.
For others, Evil is the absence of
Good. Which means that if you do not act for the Good (as you perceive
it) in a specific incident, then something Evil often takes its
place. This Evil could have been prevented by your Right Actions.
There is no “Evil god” as
there is no “Good god.” It is best
if humans stop using the terms Good and Evil as
if they were spiritual truths. All can be understood, negotiated,
and justly resolved through human openness, the
application of the skills and insights of Reason,
and if everyone is motivated by goodwill and the
search for a Common Good.
From its historic start, some Secularists have held
the view that humans are moving in a positive direction.
They state, in agreement with Scientism, that
human effort is a progressive force. They assert
that collective human effort will eventually create
an improved society.
For such a progressive Secularist, underneath
John Lennon’s “Imagine” can
be sensed a trust and a steely hope that humans can and will
progress and create at least a near-Utopia here on Earth, e.
g., a Great Society.
This will and can only happen once
humans release themselves from the illusion cast
by the wildly imaginative religious Abrahamics that there is a
sacred space,
that is, a heaven to which they can escape.
Continue—Secularism's roots
