Is Evil necessary?


Okay fer those of u with no time, skip and delete. Philosophy follows!

Those who can spare some, here u go.

Jalaluddin Rumi was a Sufi saint who lived in the 1200's. He wrote a lot of poetry on Love and religion and humanity in general. Interestingly, 600 years before Darwin, he came up with the idea of evolution too. (I'm telling u this to emphasise that he was a not a goddamn ascetic, eating leaves and sitting in muraqbah all the time, but a thinker and a revolutionary). Here's what he thinks of what evil is: (Excerpted from 'The life and work of Jalaluddin Rumi' by Afzal Iqbal)

But why, it may be asked, has God created that to which man has given the name of evil? And since He is the only real Agent, who are we to blame for the actions that we are caused to commit? It is characteristic of Rumi that he find the answer to this old riddle not in thought but in feeling, not in theological specualtion but in religious experience. We can feel as one what we must think as two. Everything has an opposite by means of which it is manifested; God alone Whose being includes all things, has no opposite and therefore He remains hidden. Evil is the inevitable condition of Good: out of darkness was born light. From this standpoint it possesses a positive value: it serves the purpose of God, it is relatively good.

Rumi, therefore, welcomes evil as being helpful for the development of man's personality. In fact, the conflict of good and evil is inherent in man and his greatness depends on the extent to which he resolves this conflict.

While Rumi certainly concedes that everything is not good in this world, he refuses steadfastly to adopt an attitude of quietude and renunciation, but urges, on the contrary, a relentless war against all forces of evil, which, he believes, man by his very nature is capable of overcoming. Indeed, man would be betraying the very ingredients of his nature by refusing to recognise in evil a golden opportunity to carry his personality a mstep further on the path of development. The existence of evil has, therefore, a positive contribution to make, and the development of a man's personality is reflected proportionately to his success in this struggle. Man is, therefore, not left with any justification to complain on this score, for how could he hope to be the paragon of creation without the presence of evil.'


Okay that's it. For those of u with more interest, Ive given the source.

One more interesting tidbit. A friend of mine was once arguing with another that 'if evil was bad, it should have died out with evolution.' The second one answered: 'Nopes. If it were unnecessary, it would have died out with evolution.'

I lean more towards agreeing with the latter friend.

have a great day, everyone!

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