The source of all Evil

No, it is not Donald Trump or Satan or even auto-correct. I used to think it was blame. It has something to do with blame, which is the knowledge of good and evil, but it is not evil itself.

I also used to think it was free will, which is the ability to choose the lesser good because the ultimate Good, which is God, is not perfectly visible to us. Good in perfect form is compelling as the true object of our desires. This is a good deductive explanation (finding Truth in first principles, but it is not very useful.

In grad school our leadership class learned about projective identification. This comes very close, but it is more sociology than spirituality and ethics. Of course, one of the big topics is religion as culture.

It is the same principle as the 10th step of recovery. If you spot it, you got it. It is also similar to the magic magnifying mind found in the story "Acceptance is the Answer" in the AA Big Book.

These methods are close to what I am talking about here (indeed, they are a statement of the same thing, but not exactly). Everything I have mentioned already is true, but I hope that this new view on the problem of evil is more useful.

Evil is not just about expectations not being met. Both evil and good are about taking our knowledge of ourselves, especially our flaws, into our relationship to everyone else. Here are some examples that are very relatable.

If we keep secrets, we think everyone else is keeping secrets. The whole secrecy and security clearance thing is like that.

If we are financially comfortable, we can not have empathy for the poor. We are self-reliant, why can't they be?

 If we are paranoid or depressed, we see everyone else that way. The same goes for feeling unworthy or feeling smart. We assume everyone else is one or the other.

People expect others to behave as they do. Smart people think everyone should understand what they say. The pious think everyone should be pious. The chaste think everyone should be chaste. A lot of our moral hang-ups could be solved by understanding that one.

People who feel guilty think everyone else should feel guilty. The same is true for shame and being in love. When the facts say otherwise, hearts are broken. Feeling broken or sad makes people assume everyone else feels that way. This is the basis for power ballads and Country music.

This especially applies to people with addictions. Drunks think everyone drinks like they do. Sex and open addicts think the same way. Food addicts as well as chronic debtors.

This is why people in recovery form groups. Such fellowships do everything from self-realization to identification with the group and reintegration of members back into normal living (amends), all by leaving self reliance behind and relying on the group and on God.

Religion and other forms of spirituality follow the same tack, but in a less focused manner. They deal with general brokenness, although sometimes the group dynamic magnifies rather than corrects the real issues people face.

Sadly, ritual replaces real growth. If you are religious the solution to everything is conversion to group ideals. That is what is happening in Rome. It won't work.

The same is true with education and transformation. The answer is always a new course or distinction. This only goes so far.

The real answer is contained in all of these practices. Forgiveness and compassion, for ourselves and others, is the only way out. Love and acceptance are also good words for the same thing.

In the Christian tradition, salvation through Jesus works this way. Entering our suffering by experiencing the brokenness of the cross is how Jesus showed us that God understands us, rather than being a demand that we imitate some imagined moral perfection.

In the Jesus story, God does not have any behavioral issues and this is not a demand that we all find Jesus or recovery, just that we seek a higher power through others.

Our goal is to love perfectly, starting with ourselves and the others. This requires the reliance on Her divine love and compassion rather than ourselves. In Hebrew, Skekinah is the indwelling of the Spirit of God and is gender female.

Ultimately, we cannot know that indwelling without relationship to others, but as they are, not as a reflection of our own demons. Not only the big demons which require a recovery program, but the ordinary ones as well. We must wish peace to others (as Jesus and every other spiritual leader point out) if we wish peace upon others, it is granted to us. It is the same with all good and evil things. It is up to us to chose.