So Artaxes Brainbench has been sparking some interesting discussion about the nature of evil. Let me back up a little bit, JP Sears, the comedian and social commentary guy released a short video about evil that was simple, but enlightening. Sklyjd, who is an evangelizing atheist, came along attempted to object in a manner that reflects his completely incoherent worldview and the pot was thus stirred.
Much like JP Sears, I also once changed my mind about evil. In my case it may go a bit deeper than that. I sometimes say God covered my eyes, much like one might cover a child’s eyes when you pass by a car wreck. Probably until my late 20’s I would just roll my eyes and go, “there’s no such thing as evil, that’s so dumb.” So I didn’t rationalize my way to greater wisdom and understanding like JP did, it was more of a heart matter, spiritual and emotional work. Ultimately I simply began to see when God decided I was ready to see.
Let me just pause and testify as to the goodness of God. How do you protect the psyche of a troubled child with no armor who has to walk through a lot of darkness? Make the monsters completely invisible to her! And “why” would you do that? Because her psyche, her soul, her spirit has great value and worth to you. Evolution doesn’t do that. In a world devoid of God, it doesn’t really matter what my emotional and spiritual condition is going to be. In fact, from a pure survival orientation, a complete lack of values, morals, and being devoid of a heart and soul, would probably benefit me much more.
So it’s more by sensing and understanding the protective nature of our Father that I came to understand we do have a God, we do have souls, and evil is a real thing and not just a metaphor.
I really appreciate how JP says “there are two types of people in this world, those who can see evil and therefore rise above it, and those who can’t see it and will therefore likely be controlled by it.” That’s a loose quote, a paraphrase, but the essence of what he means. He is absolutely correct. You are completely defenseless against what you cannot see or acknowledge.
When I was younger, I watched a lot of scary movies, vampires mostly, and I was always fascinated by how they can’t see themselves in a mirror. They have no reflection. That led me to a chilling conclusion, evil doesn’t always recognize itself. I am laughing here, but cue another existential crisis because that can be a huge revelation.
A whole lot of people do evil, thinking it’s good. We tend to just rationalize (or rational-lies) our behavior, and even the behavior of others. This is why we need to cultivate a wee bit of humility and accept the fact that “there are none good but the Father.” Ironically, those who seem to believe “there are no bad people, just good people who do bad things,” have never met a double standard they didn’t like. If you want to see what a shaky foundation and unstable worldview that is, offend one of them. Suddenly you’ll become the greatest evil there is and outside the bounds of redemption. All in good humor, but whatever happened to, there are no bad people?
So does evil love stoopid? Yes! It doesn’t “love” at all, but it sure does exploit the crap out of our innate human weaknesses. Pride, arrogance, envy, and putting your faith in human intelligence rather then God, will just open up the floodgates. True too of handing all your power away to authority figures or experts for much the same reason, you never have to take responsibility or think critically yourself.
I like the invented spelling of “stoopid,” too, because this is not so much an issue related to a lack of intelligence, as it is due to arrogance, to pride, to willful foolishness, all things that often revolve around an unwillingness to take full responsibility and be held accountable for your own self. Stoopid is a kind of willful blindness, a refusal to see, because once seen you must chose whether or not to embrace it… or rise above it.
If you want to try to rise above it, you’re going to need Jesus.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
Thanks for the link.
I very much enjoyed your post. It does a great job of further expansion and clarification.
“Stoopid is a kind of willful blindness”. Amen to that.
Because the kind of stupid I was talking about was not the lack of intelligence I called it “willfully stupid”.
History is replete with highly intelligent people doing stupid things.
Logic reason and critcal thinking are just tools which help us to spot falsehoods and evil.
If we don’t use these tools, if we are willfully stupid, it is easier to fall victim to the deception that evil uses.
However, these tools are no guarantee that we are immune to being fooled by evil.
As you have so well explained, evil exploits all of our weaknesses and flaws.
All those wonderful shiny tools of reason can be worthless if evil appeals to our pride and seduces us by stroking our ego.
All those tools can be worthless if we are willfully blind, especially if we are spiritually blind.
Our logic can be flawless but if it is based on false premises because of willfull blindness, then it will lead to false conclusions.
It is definitely true that people who are doing evil often don’t know they are doing evil.
Some persons who, I known, love me wanted me to take a “vaccine” because they believed it was good for me.
It is also true that many people doing evil convince themselves and others that they are doing good.
In both cases it’s very, very hard but not impossibe do make them see that they are doing evil.
In any case, without God’s help it IS impossible.
In any case, without God’s help we are lost.
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I’ve appreciated yours posts and discussion. Good stuff.
People, loved ones anyway, trying to get you to take the vaxx is a good example of possibly having the right motivations, the right heart, and trying to do good, but missing the mark. This is yet another reason why force and mandates, even “for your own good” are immoral.
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Reblogged this on Citizen Tom and commented:
insanitybytes22 provides a bit of personal testimony here, but mostly she provides her insights on our susceptibility to evil. She uses her commentary on https://artaxes.wordpress.com/2022/08/25/evil-loves-stupid/, a post artaxes wrote as a launch point.
I found what insanitybytes22 useful because it helps to explain something difficult to understand, why we have difficulty recognizing when we are doing something wrong.
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Thanks for the reblog, Tom.
It’s fascinating to me that we have difficulty recognizing when we are doing something wrong, but also that we must try to justify it as being good. I’m laughing, but I mean dogs or goats do not wrestle with this issue. They like treats, attention, and affection, but beyond that they really don’t care about perceiving themselves as good. They’ll get in your garbage, pee on your floor, and think nothing of it. People have this innate desire to reflect a standard, to reflect what is Holy and good, even when we don’t believe in such things.
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Find an Atheist who doesn’t think highly of himself. He will create his own standard, if he must, and then brag on himself.
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I may be in for more abuse by someone here IB, however the fact that I live my life as honest and as moral as most Christians would do and because I have some opinions as an atheist that differs to some Christians I cannot see how that would make me the subject of childish names from any adult. The biased attitude does not worry me and my argument regarding this issue about evil is the fact it is based in supernatural beliefs but is now used in common applications such as mandated vaccine shots. I understand the public did not have to have these vaccinations just as in Australia and it was mandated only in public services where older people with underlying health problems may frequent, as there are many deaths even from this weaker strain of Covid-19. How can someone trying to do the right and moral thing be classed as evil?
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Self Awareness sk… get some. Had Trump mandated by Executive Order that you get the vaccine or lose your job, you’d have burned him at the stake as a dictator. If don Jr. Had been trading with China and Russia for millions of dollars on the position and office of his father while he was in office…like Hunter did… you’d have burnt him at the stake and put Trump in federal prison for treason. If trump had done his official business, sending and receiving secret and Top secret info to and from other countries on an Unsecured Private Email server in order to hide or have the ability to freely delete tens of thousands of emails he didn’t want the people to see… you’d have burned him at the stake and consigned his charred remains to federal prison for Decades. Yet, unsurprisingly… you are ok with Biden, or the incompetent idiots running the clearly dementia stricken old guy, mandating the injection of an experimental rna changing “vaccine” into the good citizens or lose their jobs… you’re ok with zuckerberg admitting on rogans show that the FBI telling him to censor all mentions of the Laptop that was later PROVEN to be a valid and true story and NOT misinfo… and you are prob ok with, if not completely oblivious to what was actually PROVEN even by Comeys fbi about Hillary and her emails. You don’t have a problem with totalitarianism or fascism, except when your guys aren’t doing it. I don’t think you’re stupid or necessarily evil, sk. You just hate freedom and love the ability to control others. I have Zero desire or need to hear or consider anymore of your justifications for fascism, political or medical. So go bugger off to where ever you bugger off to.
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By the way sk… add to my rant the at least 27 times that Bill Clinton is logged and recorded to have taken Epsteins plan to his Island… you’re prob ok with that too… but would far and feather Trump and he’d already be in federal prison. (Trump never went to the island, although the left worked really hard trying to imply that he did.) Trump kicked Epsteins a$$ out of Mara largo when he found out what Epstein was doing, by the way. And we all know why the court sealed the client list when the judge ruled on Maxwell. If trump was on that list, and you all were hoping that he was, that’s the only name that would be widely publicized. Instead… “you know who” gets protected again.
Again, self awareness sk… get some. You have zero problem with totalitarianism or fascism. You just want to be the one in charge. THAT is evil.
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I do not recall commenting or even caring about all these conspiracies and political garbage you are mentioning, we in Australia do not wallow in your American extreme right wing BS, so I will bugger off as you wish because you cannot have a grown up conversation.
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None of that was right wing conspiracy. All proven fact
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Ha, ha, only to Trump supporters, get facts, get a life.
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Yes, skyld, I’m pretty much in agreement with what BarrabasMe has said.
Also, some people have now died from the vaxx. Some young, healthy, people have now gotten really sick. Those are the short term consequences. We don’t even know what the long term consequences are going to be because it hasn’t been around long enough! Now we’re giving it to babies who were never at risk to begin with. We pressured, manipulated, lied to, and punished people who would not get injected with this experimental substance. People lost their jobs, their medical licenses, and some were even thrown in jail.
“How can someone trying to do the right and moral thing be classed as evil?”
Because pretending you are doing “good” and “trying to do the right thing,” does not change the fact that we have now gone and hurt real people and done a lot of harm. It is evil, unethical, and against the Nuremberg code to force people to participate in medical experiments.
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Not to mention… we all know people double vaxxed,double boosted, still getting the C multiple times. I know guys right now that are like that with bells palsy as a result of the vax and the “boosts”. Worthless. Your own immune system is better able to fight off covid. And the immunity the body builds is more effective. This wasn’t for “health” it was about control. Progressive dem governors locked states down, put millions out of work to kill the thriving economy Trump built.. so they could blame Trump for unemployment and recession and “win” and election. Don’t tell me this was about “keeping grandma alive”. It was control and to steal the election.
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Some of the important things I’ve realized concerning evil over time (leaving it to any reader to try and synthesize an overall picture):
There is divine purpose behind evil, it was placed into the cosmos for a reason and this is connected with human freedom. Part of the purpose is to obstruct us and make us stronger. We will never achieve what we are spiritually destined to without the obstacle of evil.
The story of the forbidden fruit, the tempting serpent, the tree of knowledge, and Yahweh’s reaction illustrate that evil has been designed for humanity by a still higher power than Yahweh.
There are really two polarities of evil; it is not just monolithic. And understanding this is key to helping ourselves address it. The first pole is Pride. It can be concealed as zeal, excess enthusiasm, self-love and ambitiousness, among other things. It is exemplified in Lucifer. The other pole is Fear. It can be concealed as routine, falsity, avoidance of truth, and especially materialism as a worldview. It is exemplified in Satan, or sometimes Mephistopheles. In esoteric circles it is known as Ahriman.
Political caricature follows Lucifer (pride) as a staunchly liberal stance and it follows Ahriman (fear) as a staunchly conservative stance. The true path (Christ) is in the center.
The only safe and non-delusional way to see and combat evil is to search for its tendencies within oneself. This is the arena where confusion most easily falls away, and where passions can give way to insight. But it is a skill, requiring cultivation and honesty.
Ahrimanic evil is the more dangerous and secretive hindrance for spiritual truth at the present moment in evolution. Lucifer is still extremely active, but the Ahrimanic threat is existential currently. Ahriman lives in technology and all things tending towards centralization, monetization, and nationalistic.
Lucifer and Ahriman often cooperate with each other although they have differing goals.
The way to manage these two evil polarities is to use the one to balance the other.
Christ is in the middle, between these polarities. In the Gospels, shortly after the Baptism when Christ the dove descended into Jesus of Nazareth, Christ wanders in “a desert” to be confronted by earthly temptation for the first time. The temptation involving princely reign over the domain was Luciferic. The temptation involving stones and bread (money) was Ahrimanic.
The destiny of humanity, with Christ, is to redeem both Lucifer and Ahriman. To penetrate and redeem evil.
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I think I’m with you on most of that. I don’t fully understand it all, but I do know God is sovereign over everything and if He didn’t want evil to exist, it wouldn’t. Therefore it serves His good purposes in some way. One of my favorite books in the Bible is Job, and in it we find God talking to satan and laying out some ground rules.
I don’t know much about Ahriman, but I do know there is a spirit to this age that is all about materialism, scientism, technology, AI and that the importance of the spiritual, the metaphysical has been all but forgotten in many circles.
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Reblogged this on boudica.us and commented:
H/T Citize Tom
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I don’t think there was much of a time in my life where I didn’t know evil existed. I have seen it stand before me in human form, I have felt and seen it in other form as well. There is reasons why me as a 60 year old woman sleeps with the lights on. My mother use to laugh and tell her friends I was afraid of the dark, but i always corrected her that I wasn’t afraid of the dark I was afraid of what is in the dark. I know now I have no reason to fear even that, but I sleep better with the lights on.
There are things I just cannot put here because many people would call me crazy and think I need a nice long hospital stay. Suffice it to say that I have seen things and heard things that can only be explained by evil. I have seen my own family torn apart because they chose to do evil. I try to rise above it, but have fallen many times especially before I gave my life to Jesus. You are absolutely right that to rise above evil you have to have Jesus because if you don’t you remain vulnerable.
My sister swears she is saved and yet I question it and it is because she still has a spirit of bitterness in her. She is one of those people that never lets go of any wrong done to her. I have told her she needs to forgive and she says she has, but her words and attitude say otherwise. I recognize that spirit because I carried it for years myself until I realized it was ruining my life and that I would never have peace until I forgave and let Jesus take it all.
There is however some real insidious evil in this world and there are those that listen to it and those more than willing to do its bidding. There are those as you said that are stoopid and many times do not even realize what is around them and do things without realizing the influence behind it. People that do know who and what they are dealing with love people like that. Thanks to a pastor that we follow and watch as many of his studies as we can. He came out of the occult after being a slave to it for many years. He was actually saved by what many would call a chance encounter with a Christian, but we know with God there is no such thing as a chance encounter. We have learned a lot about the occult we did not know and how they are actively working to destroy the church from the inside out and they are being sadly quite successful at it.
My eyes were not covered for long to evil, but I have always done my best to rise above it as much as possible.
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Loved this !! Going to re-post it the next time your name pop’s up on my list of people I read and post !! Blessings in Christ, bruce
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Thank you, much appreciated. 🙂
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Arrogance and a desire to be fooled, for awhile that they can make it without Jesus.
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Amen! “No man so blind as he who will not see …”
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