Is there a source of ultimate good and ultimate evil? If so, where do these two concepts originate. We cannot deny that there is good in the world nor can we deny that evil also exists. So is the struggle between good and evil seen in good people and bad people, or is good and evil a personal conflict within each and every person? Or is this battle larger than us—existing in a struggle within the spiritual realm? This essay will explore these three premises.
Many of us may see the struggle between good and evil in the people we come across every day. We meet some who are good and others who are bad. But this way of thinking is flawed in many ways. A person we perceive as good may still be bad in the eyes of someone else. Not only that, but someone we perceive as good may be bad in secret without anyone knowing about it. This is also true when we think of someone as bad, when in fact their conscious is clear regarding their actions.
What if both good and evil exist in every person? That would mean that each person does both good and evil. Some are stronger and disallow their bad to outweigh their good, while others tend to gravitate more to selfish pleasure—thus acting out with bad behaviour. This way of thinking obviously brings up the question of whether we all have inherent good or inherent evil within ourselves.
Another theory is that there is ultimate good and ultimate evil in the spiritual realm, This is often depicted as God as good and the devil as evil. The question then arises as to why and how human beings get caught in the middle of this battle. Are we put on earth to constantly choose between good and evil, or are we simply victims of evil and excusable before God? If we think this way, we must conclude then that all the good we do comes from God and all the bad we do comes from the devil.
It seems that all these questions have had humans perplexed for thousands of years. None of the above premises make perfect sense because each one is flawed in some way or another. Perhaps we need a higher authority to answer these complex questions about good and evil.
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