I often think that evil indirectly proves the existence of God. Howso, you ask? The amount of evil in the world seems to be so great, that a supernatural explanation is called for. I don't want to fall into the fallacy of petitio principii here, that is, assuming God or the Devil to be behind events. I'm wondering, is the evil in our lives and the world at-large natural and proper?
Examples of evil: a tsunami kills a hundred thousand people, a little girl is kidnapped and held captive in atrocious circumstances for some eighteen years, a person has a bad habit and is not able to stop it. Are such things proper to our world? Imagine a life, a world without evil. Is such possible?
I guess it's not currently possible with our mathematical knowledge and computer technology to label things good or evil on a cosmic scale and tabulate them and compare to see which is greater. What if they are in perfect balance? What if the number of good things is equal to the number of bad things? What does that tell us? Such an outcome (of a rational, moral analysis of reality) wouldn't seem to indicate we live in a chaotic, randomly organized world.
Examine the concepts, good and evil. Are they legitimate? They are useful or seem to be practical in our quest to understand ourselves, gain final wisdom. Yet they don't seem to be scientific, that is, based on facts which can be explained in a manner that is provable. Take an example from above, a tsunami that has killed a hundred thousand people. From the viewpoint of global overpopulation by our species, one might say, could in fact say, that such an event is good. Even, "let's have more of such events, especially in southeast Asia, where overpopulation is a particular problem, so the planet can recover from the effects of pollution." Or one might justify destroying Saudi Arabia's oil industry, since it fuels economies that are 'endangering the Earth.' However I don't think a healthy individual would like to number himself among the victims of such disasters. Of course, there are suicide bombers.
Good and evil are malleable. Like beauty, they exist in the mind of the beholder and like beauty, we would not want to throw them out. How could a nation defend itself from attack without a notion of right and wrong, good and bad?
What is the source of good and evil? A universe has come into existence; is this good or evil? I say it's good. Who am I? I'm not the creator of the universe. So good and its opposite are simply human judgments with practical utility; useful for getting on in the world. Questions about morality, in the end, revert to questions about moral agents, that's us. Who are we?
