Evil, On Borrowed Time

Good always trumps evil. At times, that may be hard to believe, but it is so. It may take time and there might be much heartbreak and misery before that happens, but in the end, good will trump evil.

There are men and women who put forth good efforts every day that affect the lives of millions, if not billions of people. There are vaccines, cures, music and literature that have served to elevate the highest levels of the human condition, forever changing and benefitting man. There are those afflicted with the seemingly hopeless condition of despair, who manage to find their way to meaningful and purpose driven lives. Such is the power of good.

Conversely, there have been the Hitler's, Mao's, Pol Pot's and Stalin's, among others that have degraded the meaning and existence of mankind. The evil and and magnitude of the tragedies and despair they imposed on mankind must never, ever, be diminished because to minimize evil is to incubate more of the same. Nevertheless, despite that giant, cold shadow evil has imposed, we are here today because of the good- and not the evil.

While it may be easy to discuss good and evil in grandiose terms, the realities of good and evil and must be understood in the arena of everyday life, by everyday people because good and evil are facilitated by the actions of everyday people. The every day choices we make determine our morality- or lack of it.

Clerks who move papers from one desk to another. There is the clerk who moves paper from the desk of the dictator to the desk of an underling. There is the clerk who moves paper from the desk of the cancer researcher to the desk of the lab technician.

Both are clerks- both may move papers that affect millions of lives- but in the end, it is not difficult to understand which clerk had a greater and longer lasting impact on the human race. One may argue, the death of millions is not insignificant. That truth is realized when you think of unborn generations lost to evil. Nonetheless, the vaccine or cure of a dreaded disease will affect many more over generations to come.

That we inspire good in ourselves, families and communities, serves to inspire those that are destined to do great things that may benefit all of us. By appealing to our higher selves, we pass on good with ease. By nature, we want to be good. The growth of democracy and freedoms prove that. Of course, there will be the fools for whom it is a calling to do more than to point out our flaws and failures along the road of progress. They offer nothing but contempt for those who see freedom as the highest form of man's elevation. They too, will be forgotten.

Evil dies with those who choose to not perpetrate evil or camouflage evil. It is a lot harder to pass evil on from one generation to the next when people decide that the cost of real evil is too high. Evil always comes at the cost of real freedom.

Evil is under pressure- and that is why evil ideologies are so violent and vicious. Evil is under assault and is fighting back with all the force it can muster. The desperation is real- evil ideologues and those who support evil understand that evil is always finite. Conversely, they understand that good is always infinite.

There are those who use religion to do and accomplish great things. There are those use religion as a personal outlet for selfish ideas. The same of course, can be said for those who propogate morality as their guiding light. There are those who are indeed moral and those that use morality as a form of selfish expression.

Great societies and cultures are always measured by what they build, not by what they destroy. Great religions are measure by how many lives are saved in God's name, not by how many are taken in God's name. Great nations are measured by how many people are elevated to freedom and not by how many are enslaved and deprived of freedom.

We will discuss the nature of good and evil in religion, tomorrow.