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There is a line in "The Matrix" when Morpheus confronts Neo about a wrongness in the world, "like a splinter in your mind" and while it was caused by an instinctive apprehension about the artificial reality he was trapped in, it is similar to a feeling many people have about our own reality. There is a wrongness in the world, evident in the mystery of life, the inevitability of death and in the things that we call evil.

There is something we all sense is missing or distorted, some question not asked or some answer that cannot be found. When asked why there is suffering in the world, even the wisest of people are hesitant to tell the truth. Why do we have pain, fear, anger, hatred and suffering? Why does evil like this exist?

The real question what makes them evil? More importantly, could we survive without them? Pain exists to warn us of danger and damage to our bodies, spirits, minds and even our souls. Fear warns us about things in our world that we must not take for granted and ignore. Anger drives us to fight against that which would harm us, it gives us the strength to attack - without which we are naturally too peaceful to do! Hatred, though it is such a dark emotion, and one that often takes control of us and blinds us, is designed to drive us to destroy that which is threatening to us. Suffering, which can be born of all these dark emotions, is the price we pay for allowing any of them to continue beyond their purpose.

It is not hard to recognize that wanting something we do not (or worse, can not) have leads to suffering, but that is a hard thing for us to really confront. Wanting something we do not have can blind us to everything we do have, and wanting something we can never afford can compel us to simply try taking it, and taking things by force simply promotes suffering. That suffering is only compounded by the actions and the consequences of actions that are motivated by greed, hatred, spite, lust, jealousy, envy, pride, gluttony, wrath... and each of those terrible impulses are born from an imbalance, a hollowness in people that is difficult to explain or remedy.

There have always people who believe that there is no higher truth and that wealth, status, achievement and comfort are the best that can be hoped for in life, and that choosing to seek for more, for some spiritual truth, is a path that can only bring suffering. If we were to apply the usual logic for defining evil, these people are inclined to view hope and belief as evil and

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