by SEG

Created on: May 14, 2008   Last Updated: August 25, 2011

From Dante's Inferno and Swedenborg's Hells through the Horsemen of death and pestilence from the New Testament's Apocalypse, the word EVIL conjures images of filthy caricatures streaming forth from the bowels of Hell to visit the sword of Doom upon a besieged Mankind.

And while this exquisite vision of Evil versus Right has dramatized Mankind's ultimate view of Right and Wrong throughout recorded history, the roots of Evil none the less are much closer to home and reach down into our daily lives. And a short journey down the path of reason will show exactly where those beginnings are.

What is Evil and how does it appear in our life, which is to say what does it look like and how is it done? Why is it done?

A solid description of what EVIL actually looks like is needed, a model of sorts to hold up, because without it the question splinters apart into: "What is the appearance and motivation of . ?". And if the definition is a good solid model, it should also display the ‘how' and ‘why' as well: it should give us the whole story.

A rational definition of Evil:

"Evil is an intentional wrong act, committed by a person aware of the wrongness of the act, which causes harm to a sentient being by depriving them of something, tangible or intangible and is committed for the personal gain of tangible or intangible results."

How is this definition constructed? The functional path of Reason, I'll show you.

Does evil involve right and wrong, having or not having moral principle and ethics? Yes. That's a big bite to start with but a definition must involve Right and Wrong - and I'll leave it at that.

To be useful to our logical and comparative minds, the word Evil must be a consistently defined Wrong. This is going to be a Solid Model with no “if”, “maybe” or “look over here” disjunctions floating mystically around the subject:; no evolving or devolving social standards or diversions into the slippery halls of preference, just a good old fashioned and fundamental concept : “wrong” as it directly corresponds to behavior.

Wrong is defined with a core ethic: an act of “Initiation of Force”. Manipulations of any sort fall into this category because like force, manipulation deprives a person of conscious choice. An opposing Right would logically contain a lack of force or manipulation.

Evil is a Wrong relative to an alternative right; up requires down. However, defining right involves a different discussion

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