Does Evil Exist On Earth?

Evil
Photo Source: MorgueFile

There are a lot of things that look the same but aren't and a lot of things that look different but are really the same. A good example of this is probably a book. One book can be a real piece of trash and another an award-winning tome, yet both might look exactly the same on the outside. The same holds true for people. Why is it that one person can be peace loving and another of vicious murderer? Both look pretty much the same on the outside and after talking to both people you still might think that both of them are just about the same even in personality, but that would be far from true. We have all heard the saying that some people have no conscience, but what does this really mean? Does it mean that somebody just has no remorse for any of their actions, or does it mean that they have some sort of system of priorities that allows them to do vicious things to get other things that they need? Some people say that there are people on this Earth that are just plain evil and they love to point to people like Adolph Hitler, Napoleon and even Joseph Stalin. Students of history know that even with these three it seems that Stalin was the worst. I say that because there is a famous story about him. It states that he went up in an airplane and hated it so much that when he landed he had the designer of the plane killed. I don't even think Hitler went that far with people he was working with. On the other hand both Hitler and Stalin thought nothing of killing millions of people. Napoleon may have been less brutal when compared to these two people, but he did run out on his own army the when he saw that they were not going to win in Russia, thus leaving them all to die or be captured.

Stalin
Photo Source: Public Domain

I think that we have all known some people that were just plain mean. Some started out that way as children. They were the ones that did such cruel things to animals like strangling cats, setting dogs on the fire and other terrible things. Usually these kinds of kids had a terrible home life, but that wasn't always true. As they grow they became even meaner towards other human beings . They were easy to spot, because they were the ones that were the bullies that always tried to pick fights with weaker people and then do them great bodily harm. Every once in a while you see a terrible story about somebody that is in law enforcement that has done some really bad things to somebody arrested. These are usually the same people I am talking about. They got themselves in a position where they felt they had power and they used it in such a way as to harm others, perhaps with an eye towards collecting money for one thing or another, or just for enjoyment. Most kids do one or two really bad things in their life, because they don't realize how bad they really are, but as they get older they grow out of it. Others continue on and many times enter a life of crime. In today's day and age these types of people have found a home in the many street gangs that exist in this country. Sometimes they even have to kill somebody to become a member.

Exorcism
Graphic Source: Public Domain

Some psychologists believe that there is good and bad in all of us and that the only difference is that some of us can suppress that badness. There are those people that actually believe that there are things like demons that inhabit some of the bodies of ordinary people and that is why they have ceremonies like exorcisms to try to cleanse the body of the evil spirits. Others scoff at this notion. There certainly have been strange things reported during exorcisms that don't seem to be able to be explained in any ordinary way, but those that do not believe in evil spirits claim that our brain is far more powerful than we give it credit for and they believe that under severe distress we can actually accomplish things that we could not ordinarily. What exactly are they talking about? They are referring to extreme strength, range of voices and perhaps even things like levitation. The problem is that all of these ideas are unproven and yet we have seen some of these strange things happen. I guess at this stage I would have to say that we really don't know what is going on, but I do know it certainly isn't normal.

There is another way that one can be bad, or if you would rather call it evil and pretty much hide the fact and that is by doing it politically. Take for example those politicians that have recently passed a law allowing US citizens to be put in jail forever without even a trial or a lawyer. It seems to me that this was an evil act, I don't know how anyone else would describe it. These are the same people that just turn their back while torture is being used on anyone we even suspect of being an enemy. They would have you believe that torture is a successful way to get in formation, and any intelligent person knows that a person being tortured will tell you anything to get out of the torture. Then there are those who want to balance the budget on the backs of schoolchildren by eliminating their lunches or cutting down the measly pensions of the aged. Even now when we have pulled out of Iraq they would not even consider lowering the defense budget by one penny and even want to ever increase it on the backs of the middle class who are suffering terribly in a lot of areas.

Raven, Symbol Of Evil
Photo Source: MorgueFile

Is it possible that some people's brains work completely different than others? For years scientists have been debating the fact of which has more impact on the human brain, environment, education, or heredity? They haven't found an answer yet, but I think it can be all three. It has been shown that if somebody comes from a household where the father beat the mother consistently, there is a good chance that a boy child will grow up to do the same thing. It is also probable that if someone grows up in a household where there is a lot of prejudice, they will continue that prejudice during their adult life. The situations I just mentioned are environmental. As far as education goes one has only to look at Germany just before and during World War II. Whole generations of children were taught to hate Jews and inferior races. When speaking about genetics, it is entirely possible for one's ancestor to have had some sort of brain disease and for a descendent to have gotten it. People with things like brain tumors can do some very strange things and even some very mean ones.

Lastly there is the person that is in constant pain. Pain can drive people to do things that they never would have ordinarily done, just as mental illness can also drive them. When we talk about mental illness we have to realize that most people that are mentally ill are not dangerous to others, but there are a small percentage that are. That small percentage believes that when they hurt someone else, they are doing it to protect themselves, or they are doing God's work.

Is there evil in the world, I think there probably is. Are there people that just seem not to have a conscience, again I have to say yes as demonstrated by the many bad things we have all seen.