When I was reading the different exerpts, I agreed with what everyone had to say in one way or another. Each person put a new perspective on my thoughts about evil, but the one person who’s respose stood out to me the most was written by Khaled Abou el-Fadi. This man didn’t view god as the maker of everything, or as the maker of evil and good. If God where the one to create evil, wouldn’t he be considered evil as well? I was pondering this thought as I figured, why would I follow, respect, or “submit” (Khaled) myself to God if he was the creator of evil. This professor of Islamic law preseted evil as a feeling rather than bad behavior. I agree with this in that, no one can just be evil, rather their body must take over the evil force. When one sacrifices their soul to evil, their original soul is not living. As Khaled describes it, evil is a, “stillness, emptiness.” When one is posessed by evil, their life is being broken down and torn appart. “It’s as if they are living breathing, but not alive.” (Khaled). So basically when one is evil, they can never go back to being good, since their life has already been ripped apart. For example, in The Exorcist, the little girl’s soul who is being manipulated by the devil is not living inside of the body during the exorcism, rather the devil’s personality is the only thing coming out of the body. When a person is being dominated by the devil, they cannot control what their movemets or their brain. The onlything that they can accomplish is destruction, utter destruction. As Khaled says, “Breaking, destroying, maiming, undoing. That is the heart of evil.”
There is one thing that I don’t quite agree with in Khaled’s writing. It’s not that I don’t acknowledge it, it’s that I don’t understand what a demon is. Khaled does believe in demons, but my question is, in what form? When I think of demons, an imaginary dragon with fire for breath pops into my mind. On the other hand, when I think of evil, I think of an unpredictable spirit. Are demons a free spirit or a lurking creature? I do agree that there is something out there, be it a demon or not, that is trying to, “exploit our weakness.” (Khaled).

The only thing that I can remember about learning the moral behaviors of humans in everyday life is listening to my parents saying, “Remember: be nice to the other kids at school and remember to share.” Even though I went to a private school where we sang prayers and read sections of the Bible everyday, i remember none of that. My parents were the biggest influeces on me becoming a “good” (verses evil) person. The 10 commandments state the basic rules of mankind. The constitution basically states these aswell and it applies to all religions. Even if we did have the Bible readings at school, would kids pay attention to lessons learned from the Bible stories when they can figure out what good and evil is, based on experiece?

Heather
writes:

Ever since September 11th, 2001, terrorism has been something that our country sees as evil while the people in Al Queada and Iraq may see it as something good for their country.

I agree with what Heather said, and wrote almost the same exact thing in my previous post. 5 years after the attack on the World Trade Center, our country still takes September 11 very seriously. Today being 9-11, there are many commemorations and memorial services going on so that America can remember those who died. But at the same time, there are those who maybe celebrating the day that America was devistated. Although Heather referes to “the people in Iraq” as being the ones who attacked us, only some of the people were plotting against us. I’m sure that the ones who took place in the plotting the offense were not evil at all. The Al Queada most likely thought that they were doing something that God would praise them for. The Al Queada could have been raised from childhood, to think bad thoughts of America, or maybe not. But some evil force persuaded them into giving up their lives for their country or religion. Just like the American soldiers here are risking their lives for their country, the ones who supported the attack must have wanted more for their country. This topic had to do with perspective. In Mr. Olmstead’s class, we are studying historians and why they disagree on the causes of certain evets. One historian maybe from America and the other maybe from Japan, which is why they might disagree on the motives of Truman and his desicion to drop the Atomic bomb. No one in this world is evil, but sometimes the precense of evil can cause one to be impulsive and unruly. I enjoyed reading Heath’s blog!!

My definition of evil is the demoralization of the human kind. A man is posessed by evil when he can’t think for himself. Evil is always caused a deliberate act, but the reason for the act can differ depenting on the culture of the person commiting the sin. Exapmles of Evil in the modern world include the terrorists who attacked 911 and the Nazi Hitler regime. But as we talked about in class, evil is in the eyes of the beholder. One may be considered evil by others, when he or she believes that they are doing the right thing for their country or religion. One example of evil from literature is obviously Macbeth, since that is what we are reading for this unit. Although I have not read In Cold Blood, I know that this book contains evil in it. Also, the most common source of evil is in the Bible, with stories of Adam and Eve which was the first form of evil on earth. Most fairy tails contain a “good” character with some force of evil opposing it.