Living with good and evil

War, terrorism, torture, murder, genocide: the history of man is written in blood; blood spilled by violence engendered by racial hatred and exploitation, intolerance, prejudice, bigotry, and greed... and more greed. And the religious beliefs of our species have all too often been the catalyst in the catalogue of the most appalling and gruesome of human catastrophes.

Moral evil exists, found in those actions that wilfully cause pain and suffering to one while satisfying the pleasure or greed of another. Sallustius, the Neo-Platonist pagan philosopher, maintained that there is no positive evil, that it is only in the actions of men that evils appear and that if men sinned and committed evil acts simply for the sake of evil, nature itself would be evil.

Good and evil are present in mankind's psychological makeup. It's a fact of life, and most of us reckon we just have to live with it. It's easy enough to understand why we should feel sympathies of fellowship, but why the drive and need to commit evil acts of flaysome horror and abuse, of torture, murder and of genocide?

If all things are wrought by God then good and evil are from the same source and are part of the human psyche - contained within the DNA and genes of the species. Philosophers - theists and atheists alike - have laboured with this problem for thousands of years and it was this "dual" concept that prompted Pope Innocent III - in the 13th century - to preach and pursue the horrific Albigensian Crusade against his fellow Christians of the Languedoc.

Now more generally known as Catharism, it was this belief in the power of evil - that evil ruled our life here on earth; that the human body could be the host and manifestation of evil on earth - which threatened the power and influence of the Catholic Church, and that was to lead, through diverse machinations, to the devastating witch-hunts and religious wars in western Europe.

Eight-hundred years later, it's no easier to come to terms with the possibility of human genes and DNA acting, somehow, as a channel or host for evil.

If it be true, evil could be replicating and spreading with every new generation (precisely the reason why the Cathars attempted to abstain from sexual contact and reproduction) and could eventually infest and infect the entire human race. We cannot accept that, for then there would be no hope for the future of humanity.

Most humanists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries believed that the availability of systematic mass secular education was the answer to many of society's problems and that education would be the stepping stone to ridding us of all moral evils. But today many people feel that education has let us down badly and that it has hardly made a dent in the armour of moral evil. Others believe it is our system of education that is at fault; that too much emphasis is placed on stuffing our heads with facts and teaching us how to succeed, rather than teaching us how to think and, even more importantly, how to relate to and understand other people: an education that opens the minds of the young and encourages wonder and enquiry.

Yet, we have no option but to cling to the hope that there is a better and brighter future for mankind. Acting truly internationally, abjuring all intolerance and prejudice and accepting the global community as one, modern science and technology should certainly help us to alleviate and control the symptoms of much of the power of moral evil. But alleviating the symptoms is not ridding us of that evil in itself.

As Aristotle explained, the aim of man is, quite rightly and naturally, the good life; the ultimate aim of man is happiness; and he went on to explain how this might be achieved. (One wonders if some of our world leaders have ever even heard of, let alone read, anything of what 'Arry Stottle had to say.) But Eusebius, a late Ionic Platonist, went straight to the heart of the problem. His pagan prayer speaks with a strong and sober voice, a voice unafraid and untrammelled by doubt, a voice we might do well to adopt and emulate in overcoming and ridding mankind of the power and effects of evil...

"... May I be no man's enemy, and may I be the friend of that which is eternal and abides. May I never quarrel with those nearest to me; and if I do, may I be reconciled quickly. May I never devise evil against any man; if any devise evil against me, may I escape uninjured and without the need of hurting him. May I love, seek, and attain only that which is good. May I wish for all men's happiness and envy none. May I never rejoice in the ill-fortune of one who has wronged me... When I have done or said what is wrong, may I never wait for the rebuke of others, but always rebuke myself until I make amends... May I win no victory that harms either me or my opponent... May I reconcile friends who are wroth with one another. May I, to the extent of my power, give all needful help to my friends and to all who are in want. May I never fail a friend in danger. When visiting those in grief may I be able by gentle and healing words to soften their pain... May I respect myself... May I always keep tame that which rages within me... May I accustom myself to be gentle, and never be angry with people because of circumstances. May I never discuss who is wicked and what wicked things he has done, but know good men and follow in their footsteps."