This is the epilogue to a series of 10 blog posts. Please start with part 1 first.
Most people see evil as a flaw of certain people. Of those who fail to adhere to the rules of moral. As the percentage of people affected by such flaws seems to be rather large, I find this view utterly depressing. And even if all humans managed to keep their inner evil at bay by straining themselves constantly, I would still find such a reality deeply sad.
If we see evil rather as a phenomenon which inevitably emerges in an ill-designed society, we don’t need the concept of „evil people“ anymore. And in this I see huge benefits, for both society as the individual. For society it offers a real opportunity for change, even if the process seems to be challenging and - possibly - time consuming.
But the potential benefits are also huge for each and every one of us. First of all, we don’t have to see ourselves as flawed anymore. To be at peace with oneself opens the door to one’s own creativity, eros, humor and - most importantly - love for others.
Only if we stop to see ourselves as deficient beings which need to be controlled by moral and laws, we can see others more favorable. And such a change in perception can have stronger effects on our mental wellbeing than any chemical antidepressant.
We are living beings. And as such, our only „job“ on earth is to perpetuate - human - life into an indefinite future. This is what we were created for and what gives purpose to every single codon of our DNA. But, as human life depends on the existence of countless other living beings (plants and animals), we are designed to self regulate our population. There is nothing wrong with the resulting human potential to act non-cooperatively. It was essential for millions of years to secure our survival as a species and the survival of the ecosystems we depend on.
Therefore, there is no problem with our nature. But we have - unconsciously - shifted our living conditions so deep into unnatural territories, that evil „emergency behavior“ is triggered all the time, even if it is absolutely not appropriate.
So the problem is ultimately a problem of consciousness. Today, we are mostly unaware of what we really are. And this, as I have describe in an earlier blog post, is the reason why we are necessarily innocent („We all are far too ignorant to be guilty“): we don’t understand why we are doing the things we do and we are also unable to understand the long term consequences of our actions. As long term actually means „into an indefinite future“, we see that only a true God can ever fully satisfy the requirements for guiltiness.
Guilt is a concept which ultimately makes only sense for God.
Humans are neither Gods nor are we completely unconscious animals. The fact that many of us pray to God shows that we - somehow - feel at eye level with God. We assume that it makes sense to talk to God like to a human. That it makes sense to tell God about our fears and wishes.
I personally feel that this is rather problematic. Problematic because it implicitly assumes a certain - rather small - size of God. Most religions emphasize in their religious texts the view that God is infinitely large. But then: is it really required that we explain ourselves and our world to God?
Praying is never harmful. But our view that we can be guilty, another possibly enormous overestimation of our godlike qualities, is indeed damaging. It seduces us to create assessments of our own value and - even more harmful - of the value of others.
But to judge should remain the privilege and burden of God.
So what shall we do then? I think we should strive to become Gods - in the sense that we try to become more conscious - while never making any assumptions regarding the degree to which we have achieved this goal.
And I'm deeply convinced that by becoming more conscious, we will be able to create a far better world for all life on this planet.
Image: Pixabay / himsan (thank you!)