I don’t know really how to define evil. I don’t believe in absolutes, so, I’m not sure I’d define some “sins” as evil.
For example, it is a sin to lie. However, that’s an absolute, which I don’t believe in. Is it a sin to lie to Nazi Germany that I don’t know where any Jews are hiding when I indeed do know where some Jews are hiding?
Theft is also a sin, but that too seems like an absolute. For example, what if all the food was in the hands of a gluttonous dictator, and all the rest of society was starving. If I knew someone on his or her death bed in need of some nutrients, and this tyrannical glutton refused to share, would it be a sin for me to steal the food or would it be better to let this someone die. Also, suppose, it is an easy feat for me to steal these nutrients.
In cases like that, it would appear to me, to be evil if I did not sin. In other words, it would appear to be evil to me if I did not lie and if I did not steal.
Also, evil can be so relative, I doubt anyone would say George Washington or Thomas Jefferson were evil people, but they did own slaves. I’m not sure many people would say that there owning of slaves was an evil thing, but today slavery is definitely evil.
So, its very hard for me to define evil.One could say evil is separation from God or to do things ungodly or that God is love, but still that answer leaves me lacking. To me, genocide is evil, but God wiped out most of existence with a flood, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and commanded the Israelites to slaughter the Caananites and the Amelekites. Yet, that act was not evil, right? Before you say that there was no godly person amongst them or that they were all evil is it possible that there were pregnant women? toddlers? and children below the age of 10 who were killed? Can an unborn baby, toddler, or child be evil or ungodly? How were you when you were three, did you deserve death?
If someone were to try to slaughter a large group of people, then undoubtedly we would perceive them and the act as evil, Hitler comes to mind. If someone killed babies we would of course think that such person was evil as well. Yet, the act isn’t necessarily evil apparently, so long as God allows.
Yet, I don’t like that answer. If, today, 2013, God commanded that all the North Koreans, Chinese, Iranians, or similar group be slaughtered without repentance, every man, woman, child and livestock, I don’t think that I would ever consider that to be good (Imagine thousands of little children being gunned down and slaughtered). Indeed, that sounds evil to me.
So, I’m left not really knowing what evil is. Evil isn’t necessarily sin, and what I consider to be evil is not necessarily evil to God (at least to me).
