| Menu | Good and Evil | 4021.02 |
|
GOOD AND EVIL Because of the sufferings in what appears to be a hostile world of natural disasters and human cruelties, the existence of "evil" has all along posed a perplexed problem. Intellectuals of all ages and lands have tried to solve it. Most of them have acknowledged it as a stubborn fact of life. People's attitude towards evil range from optimism, pessimism, cynicism to skeptism. There are those who do not believe in evil and state that it does not exist; those who argue that just as darkness is nothing but the absence of light, evil darkens where good does not shine; those who say that one cannot fight evil and therefore should submit to it; those who want to escape evil and retire from the world by leaving behind all human wishes and desires; and those who acknowledge shortcomings and want to overcome them by facing them. People necessarily do not belong strictly to one of these broad classifications. Many share a little of each theory and have mixed philosophies, or express different ideas at different times. People are divided again on the source of evil. Those who believe in a strict patriarchal/matriarchal divinity/divinities and see the sufferings as punishments for wrong deeds. Those who think that just as there are good and bad chiefs and kings, there are good and evil entities who bring happiness or misery. Those who believe that the gods have created human beings as their toys and enjoy playing around with them. Those who believe in a rebel divinity who is causing all the trouble. Those who are dualists and maintain that both good and evil are primal and co-existing. Those who see the two as positive and negative poles that meet to create energy and existence. Those who see the world as imperfect or in its infancy, and that its sufferings are the experiences toward perfection. All have their logic, philosophy, stories, legends, or myths to elaborate. Many believe that evil exists in the universe and many confine it, some in vague terms, to the human world. (Ali A. Jafarey - Zoroastrian scholar) |