What is evil?

[ModernKnight]

Hello, friends!
I have an essay due soon; its topic is on the questions: “What is evil?” and “Where does evil come from?”
I realize this answer is relatively simple to most Catholics, but my teacher is not religious. If you don’t mind, what is the official Catholic definition of evil? And how could/should I try to explain it in my essay?
Also, we’re to use two of the three following works to reference: *Beowulf, Mackbeth, * and Lord of the Flies.
All help is much appreciated!
Thanks

 

[adamhovey1988]

Lack of good (although some things can be neutral).

 

[Ad_Orientem]

Look in your Catechism. The Catholic Encyclopedia is good too.

 

[WJeffrey]

How do you expect to learn anything if other people do your homework. Why don’t you ask your mother for help?

 

[ModernKnight]

How do you expect to learn anything if other people do your homework. Why don’t you ask your mother for help?

“I realize this answer is relatively simple to most Catholics, but my teacher is not religious.”

I know the answer; I was hoping someone could put it in a way so that it would be easier for my teacher to understand and realize.

 

[GLam8833]

It’s all in the “eye of the beholder” read
the books and look at evil from the auth-
ors’ perspectives, you will then satisfy the
purpose of the essay and get a good mark.

Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts,
heaven and earth are FULL of your Glory.
Hosanna in the Highest, blessed is He
who comes in the Name of the Lord,
Hosanna in the highest.
Amen.

 

[Autumn_Smoke]

I would find a good synopsis of Beowulf, Macbeth, and Lord of the Flies, find out what the evil is in these books, (unless you already know) use that for an example, and then relate it to the scripture. It shouldn’t matter whether your teacher is religious or not, since the essay will be your opinion. Perhaps if you can relate it to the scripture, it might be a witness to your teacher. And really, most teachers don’t talk about their religious convictions in class, so there might be a “hidden person” inside that you know nothing about.

 

[Bradski]

I assume that you have read at least two of those books. If not, get going and work out why the evil in those stories occurs. You have to relate it to them - that’s the purpose of the exercise. If you just copy and paste some Catholic understanding of evil, then you will fail.

This isn’t a theological essay. It’s meant to to test your comprehension of the works listed and relate that to why evil occurs in the circumstances therein.

 

[ModernKnight]

Okay, thanks guys. I just wanted to connect the evil illustrated in the stories with the Catholic understanding of evil.
(And sorry if I posted this in the wrong section; it didn’t occur to me until just now…)

 

[Bookcat]

Lack of good

That ought to be there.

Not a simple lack of good.

 

[Autumn_Smoke]

Okay, thanks guys. I just wanted to connect the evil illustrated in the stories with the Catholic understanding of evil.
(And sorry if I posted this in the wrong section; it didn’t occur to me until just now…)

Hi. Maybe if you could give us some specific ideas of the types of evil you had in mind from the books, we might be able to be of more help.

 

[Manonfire63]

Socrates believes that everyone is out to do what they see is in their best interests. They are out to do what they see as good. A Socratic Paradox is that if everyone is out to do what they see as good, then how can Evil Exist? The existence of Satan who is a liar and deceiver solves this problem. Satan lies and deceives people about what is good for them. They receive false perspectives on reality.

When people accept lies and false beliefs it blinds them to things of God, to God, and they may become of the flesh because the wages of sin are death. There may be a lot of dead men who are dead to God like in Ezekiel 37. An Apocalypse is an opening of the eyes and a tearing away of the veil from hidden things.

Love of Money is the root of all evil. What is someone willing to do to get it? Jesus says “Love me.” Money can become a false idol. Once someone has a false idol they stray from righteousness and God’s path. They may end up doing Evil and Wicked things, taking advantage of others in selfish pursuits, for the things they love more than God. Faith is patient and kind. Why can’t people have Faith and wait on The Lord?

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Hello, friends!
I have an essay due soon; its topic is on the questions: “What is evil?” and “Where does evil come from?”
I realize this answer is relatively simple to most Catholics, but my teacher is not religious. If you don’t mind, what is the official Catholic definition of evil? And how could/should I try to explain it in my essay?
Also, we’re to use two of the three following works to reference: *Beowulf, Mackbeth, * and Lord of the Flies.
All help is much appreciated!
Thanks

I covered “Macbeth” and “Lord of the Flies” at school (although the film version left a longer lasting memory for this book) so I’ve got some awareness of those two.

I’ve heard of Beowulf, but haven’t got a clue what its about, except that the name sounds a bit like Norse mythology, or at least based on it.

If your teacher is using these books as the starting point, then he’s only interested in human evil. Demonic evil and natural evil seem to be excluded (ie. you don’t need to bring up issues like Satanic forces, or natural evil like disease or natural disasters as he’s not asking for that). I’d suggest you mention that early in your essay, so that he can’t try to draw you onto these other forms of evil.

I think I’d start with a couple of definitions of “evil” if I were writing the essay. I’d give a dictionary version, and a Catholic version.

A standard dictionary version of evil follows -

merriam-webster.com/dictionary/evil

eviler or evillerevilest or evillest

1 a :  morally reprehensible :  sinful, wicked <an evil impulse> b :  arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct <a person of evil reputation>

2 a archaic :  inferior b :  causing discomfort or repulsion :  offensive <an evil odor> c :  disagreeable <woke late and in an evil temper>

3 a :  **causing harm : ** pernicious <the evil institution of slavery> b :  marked by misfortune :  unlucky

The Catholic Catechism sums up the teachings on human moral choice as -

1757 The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the three “sources” of the morality of human acts.

1758 The object chosen morally specifies the act of willing accordingly as reason recognizes and judges it good or evil.

1759 “An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention” (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. 6). The end does not justify the means.

1760 A morally good act requires the goodness of its object, of its end, and of its circumstances together.

1761 There are concrete acts that it is always wrong to choose, because their choice entails a disorder of the will, i.e., a moral evil. One may not do evil so that good may result from it.

From there, you simply have to relate the choices of the various players in Macbeth and “Lord of the Flies” as to how they fit into these categories.

At bottom, it turns out the “evil doers” in both cases commit their evil acts out of self centredness - Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want power. The characters in "Lord of the Flies’ want the same. So it boils down to selfishness ie. pride, or thinking we’re better than others.

Satan thought he was better than God.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth thought they were better than Duncan.

I’ve forgotten the main characters in “Lord of the Flies” (other than “PIggy”), but a strong culture of bullying was part of it. Some wanted to lord it over the others. You could mention collective evil which is missing in Macbeth ie. many will follow evil leaders without asking too many questions.

I can’t advise you on Beowulf, as I’ve never read it. I don’t even know if Beowulf is a story, a fairy tale character, a Norse or Germanic mythology figure, or what. But no doubt pride is in there somewhere. I’ve heard the name and that’s about it.

 

[Rhubarb]

Your teacher won’t care that you can define evil. Your teacher wants to see that you settle on a definition that can be defended by the texts you’ve read. Perhaps you could compare the motivations of Macbeth and his wife to the motivations of Jack and the gang in Lord of the Flies. Or perhaps compare the effect Macbeth’s treason has on Scotland (Act 2, Scene 4 maybe?) with the effect Grendel has on Hrothgar’s hall, the people, and the surrounding areas?

I don’t know, there’s lots of ways you could approach this. But “Evil is X. Here are examples of evil in text 1 and text 2, etc” won’t win high marks. At least, I don’t think it will.

 

[Oreoracle]

I think most things we would consider “evil” can be understood in terms of economics. Think of the various forms of conflict in high school that cause so much suffering for example: squabbling over boyfriends/girlfriends, trying to stand out in a sports team, securing jobs your peers are also vying for, etc. What do they all have in common? They are all rooted in competition. Most suffering can be traced back to the scarcity of resources; many others want the same things I want and there aren’t enough of those things to go around.

That being said, “evil” doesn’t strike me as a useful term because even though its source is often economical, it has connotations that suggest greater intentionality. People personify evil and treat it as if there were a group of individuals conspiring toward a common end like some sort of league of villains. Firstly, I think most people are good on average, in the sense of more or less being empathetic to other sentient beings. Secondly, even if you insist on classifying certain people as evil, they clearly aren’t conspiring together. Society looks much more like a tug-of-war between competing forces than the machinations of co-conspirators. Evil would likely prevail if it were as coordinated as people often imagine.

 

[cfauster]

That ought to be there.

Not a simple lack of good.

Indeed. As St. Thomas Aquinas puts it, evil is “a sort of absence of good” in which the absence is a matter of “deprivation” rather than simple negation.

Deprivation here means some property is missing from something, a property that - as you noted - ought to be there.

Negation here means merely the absence of an “accidental characteristic” that would not necessarily be part of the good thing anyway.

 

[magnet]

Is the pursuit of one’s personal agenda at the expense of another’s misfortune considered evil? When God massacred humanity in the Noah’s ark example, was this evil? When Moses caused the death of thousands of his people because they worshipped a golden calf was this evil? When Joshua led his people to exterminate as many Canaanites as they could, was this evil?

I am a fan of “Animal Planet” TV channel. I was struck by the case of a male bovine of the Hereford breed. Herefords are raised for beef. They are destined to be slaughtered. Yet the animal in the case was not being cared for, experiencing a lot of suffering. The SPCA was called in to try to rehabilitate the animal. The case was brought to a judge, who fined the owner. Was the owner culpable? If the animal had been slaughtered, would this have been evil?

 

[yppop]

To address evil we must first define it. I view evil in three modalities: personal evil (sin); social evil (injustice such as bigotry, slavery, tyranny) and natural evil (disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, illness, plagues). The question now is: why did God create sin, injustice, and disaster? I am not saying God created evil, I am merely presenting the question.

Here I will address only personal evil, sin. The other two modalities must be addressed separately since they are not created by persons. I don’t know why God created or allowed evil to exist, but I can think of a possible and plausible answer. Here it is:

Creation is an act of actualization of a possibility and an act is not evil until a possibility is actualized and in the case of personal evil, it is the person that actualizes the possibility (gives in to temptation) and creates the evil.

God is the realm of possibility, meaning that all things that are possible reside in the Mind of God. Evil is a possibility. However, whatever is possible doesn’t exist until it is actualized. For God to eliminate evil, He must first actualize it in a way that was separated from own Being so that evil in no way was ever a part of Him. And as long as evil remains a possibility and not an actuality, it doesn’t exist. Consequently, the method God chose to eliminate evil was to create a situation whereby evil could be actualized and eliminated bit by bit apart from Himself. Hence, the creation of human beings. God created us to reject our evil temptations and thereby eliminate it.

God provided an example in the scriptures with the story of the temptation in the desert when after forty days of hunger Jesus was tempted three times and refused the temptation thus setting an example for humans to follow when tempted with a choice.

The possibility of a sin of adultery can only be actualized by a pair of humans. However the temptation of “contemplating the possibility” is not evil; the possibility only becomes evil if the possibility is actualized and adultery takes place. If a pair of humans when confronted with the temptation to commit adultery, choose not to do so, they prevent the actualization of evil and effectively eliminate the possibility of that specific personal actualization of evil.

All personal evil, sin, is specific - once and done with, either acted upon or rejected. When rejected the possibility of evil has been erased from the Mind of God. Given the repetition of all the specific occasions of sin that have confronted mankind and were actualized as evil , in some later repetition of that same specific occasion of sin, will not be actualized until all possibility of sin is eliminated from the Mind of God.

Yppop

 

[PRmerger]

Hello, friends!
I have an essay due soon; its topic is on the questions: “What is evil?” and “Where does evil come from?”
I realize this answer is relatively simple to most Catholics, but my teacher is not religious. If you don’t mind, what is the official Catholic definition of evil? And how could/should I try to explain it in my essay?
Also, we’re to use two of the three following works to reference: *Beowulf, Mackbeth, * and Lord of the Flies.
All help is much appreciated!
Thanks

Evil is how things should NOT be.

NOTE: there are degrees of evil, of course.

So, for example, a woman with a mustache is NOT how it should be, and therefore it’s “evil”, but only in a minute sense.

A woman with a mustache who thinks that white people should enslave black people–now that’s an example of evil. That’s NOT how she should be predisposed to view another human being.

 

[kdbueno]

Evil exists by reason that you are wiling to do it.