Human Evil

Fact. We find ourselves in a world where mothers will occasionally coerce their daughters into having sex with a drug dealer in order to fund Mum's drug habit. We live in a world where husbands will occasionally physically and verbally abuse their wives. Where children are subjected to abandonment, neglect, sexual depravity. Where 6/10th's of the worlds population eat only rice if they eat anything at all. I could go on but the point is already made. I'm reflecting on the evil we bestow upon each other, and whilst we are appalled we should not be surprised. We are risen apes, still trying to tame the inner beast. We're a vast spectrum, a rainbow existence that flashes through every shade and hue. When we look at the vast amount of human misery there should be no surprise. We see exactly what we should expect to; cultures developing at different speeds, occasional explosions of tribal warfare and brute personal violence. There's no mystery to unravel; our very natures are seething with the residual animals on which our sophisticated shells are superimposed. As a skeptic I sometimes hear people blame God for this. For once I must disagree. You can't blame human evil on him. If you're going to blame him you should restrict your complaint to his absence. Of course, to truly understand evil we must remove myth from the occasion altogether. No point projecting the worst of our nature; if we do that we just absolve ourselves of responsibility and nothing get's fixed. No, human evil requires a human solution, and I doubt that such a utopian vision is achievable. Perhaps in time we will be better able to tame our inner beast, recognize the pettiness and our jealousy and folly as vestigial remnants that we can rise above. Today, all I can do is make my own contribution, and vow to make it a positive one. Nobody is obligating me to do the right thing, but it seems to make sense that If I take care of you then you might reciprocate. Perhaps when enough people learn to live this way the world will be a better, although still imperfect place.