Why Evil? A Conversation with an Atheist…

The Balance

I have had so many people over time ask me about evil. Why it exists, how people can make choices that others find abominable. I have my answers, and they run deep. But today I wish to turn it over to one of my favorite teachers, Caroline Myss.

I Love the way she simply explains this and puts us on notice of our part in supporting it. Evil, that is.

I will let her tell the story…

I had an encounter with an atheist the other day. Lord, he asked me to explain all the evil in the world, not just some of the evil mind you, but all the evil was his argument for your nonexistence.

Lord, honestly, why do I encounter these people? I swear to God that you set up these situations for me.

This guy came at me guns blazing, saying that if there were a God, then all the catastrophes in the world would not happen. Children wouldn't suffer, and horrible people would not be in political office. Now I have to admit, Lord, that I was tempted to agree with that last comment of his, but only for a moment while he was going down his list,

I had a flashback to my childhood, to a time when I had the same thoughts, why don't you just wipe out all these bad people? I remember thinking when I was nine years old, you could just vacuum them all off the planet, and the rest of us would wake up the next morning, and all would be well.

Solutions to human behavior seemed so simple. Then at that age, I even considered that you might use my ideas.

So, when this man finally exhausted his list of evils, he asked me why you allowed them.

I asked him if he had told a lie that day…

I added that if he did not answer the question truthfully, that itself qualified as an act of evil.

He pulled back in his chair and stared at me, but he didn't answer, leaving me to assume that he had told at least one lie so far that day, I added that lying was his contribution to evil that day, since I did not know the gravity of his lie, that is how many people it had impacted, he could be seriously in league with evil or still just negotiating terms.

I added that people do not want to believe in God because it helps them anesthetize their own consciences. In turn, acts of evil explode all over the place.

Evil has human fingerprints all over it…

I don't recall who left the table, First Lord, but I suspect you followed him home.

We question the existence of God or deny it entirely, because that position allows us to talk about God, but does not commit us to acting with our conscience engaged. I emphasize the word conscience.

Our conscience is wired to our intuitive system. Detaching from the Sacred Realm deadens our connection to conscience, and consequently we can no longer Intuit what is good and what is evil, we get to decide what suits us so far as good and evil are concerned, but that is itself evil.

Some things in life and nature are inherently evil. Regardless of what our spiritual beliefs are. It doesn't matter whether you're an atheist or a believer, it will always be wrong. In my language, sin to murder someone or to set up another person to suffer so you do not. It will always be a sin to abuse a child.

In our human DNA, we know that we morph ourselves into a monster species when we decide that we can reorder the universe and the nature of good and evil to suit our personal preferences, there is a power greater than us governing life.

That power is fundamentally sacred, and it is expressed through the laws of the universe. If we break those laws, we pay the price. Simple as that, it is in our best interest to humble up and become spiritually law-abiding humans.

Humility is the best Grace ever...

You can't go wrong holding in your heart the reminder to humble up. Position yourself in front of photos sent back to Earth from the Hubble telescope and ask yourself, if you really are qualified to redesign the order of the whole universe. I think not since forever, the balance of polarities has ordered the cycles of life, darkness and light, masculine and feminine, right and wrong, yes and no, good and bad.

The Law of Balance, not denial, is key to our wellbeing. We must learn to balance these polarities within us. Each polarity represents the nature of the divine in its full spectrum. We have dark potential and we have light potential.

We must choose in each moment whether to engage our light or our shadow…

This is the nature of organic divinity, and together, we reside in the sum of our choices, the human experience.

Here is a small prayer if you are struggling with the thought of evil…

Lord, I see this universe most accurately when I look through humble eyes, remind me, when I start redesigning the universe to suit my own behavior, that I am way out of my creative League, I will humble up and remind myself again and again to walk gently on this earth, this holy ground of your making you.

Blessings, Love & Light…