The Devil (d evil) is the responsible one for evil in Christianity. The fallen angel, the explanation goes, was responsible for the apple bite (the fall) that got Adam and Eve removed from Paradise, a place where nothing “bad” takes place.
Sendan Kendatsuba, one of the eight guardians of Buddhist law, banishing evil in one of the five paintings of Extermination of Evil.
Hinduism expresses an understanding of evil as being in nature as a natural occurrence. Karma is a player in balancing evil within the universe and in us. So much more as the sutras and other texts are voluminous.
Chinese in a very generalized summary of religion posit good and evil reside with us all as a balance. A trend to one or the other is a result of cultivation of either good or evil.
Judaism takes a view similar to the apple bite situation bringing evil but not all believe this strongly and sound somewhat more of the Hindu/Chinese leaning that evil is natural and within us all as a balance to manage.
Most writing I can find about Atheists and the explanation of evil through that lens, is done by people in other religions that seem more on the attack to Atheism that they cannot explain the presence of evil without a god or God or G-d.
Natural disasters like earthquakes are not thought of as evil but natural and illustrate the Hindu ideas of bad natural things like disease and decay which are unappealing to destructive but are in the natural world and not evil per say. Sound to me, intension of the doer plays a role, strongly.
A gargantuan topic. Tackled by religion in an effort to understand. An effort to control. An effort to avoid the suffering it brings: evil.
In “revelation” who knows what number in the unraveling of the Trump Presidency, we are told today Putin did, indeed, assist Trump in securing the White House in 2016 in a desire to have Mariupol made an easy military capture for Putin’s Russia upon taking office. He tried. We remember the slouched Zelensky in the chair next to Trump. Eyes darting side to side as if wondering “what am I even doing here”?
We are finally getting around to the part of the Trump story that brings into focus the work of Bannon and retired General Flynn. They both were working with exceptionally strong ties to Russia and created exceptionally strong ties to Trump. We are understanding the great lengths and the many lies, the fakery to make all the stars appear to align when it was really something like The Truman Show (where Jim Carrey lives in a fake world of which he is the star) we were watching.
Evil exists. Within, without. It’s there but do we embrace it? There’s wrongdoing, mistakes. In small ways we stop and correct what’s gone off course. This sounds like the balance of good and evil going along. What happens when evil takes hold in the ways that it has? What do we do? What can we learn? What do we do when an elected official, uses his office and position to create orders to deliver three busses of immigrants to an address in the suburbs of Washington D.C. on Christmas Day? They were fooled, they were used. They are people and likely people of faith as well who had evil thrust at them.
Unrestrained, unchecked evil has been toiling in service of Trump/Putin alliance to the detriment of Ukraine. I’m calling it what most won’t yet, Trump/Putin alliance. Inserting wedges of others, the notorious reports of Putin’s general isolation, the closed lips, steely stare is disingenuous. Putin’s former girlfriend, Wendy Dang, is bff’s with Jared and Ivanka in their much talked about rumor that Dang is responsible for their marriage ultimately. They are all quite close. Lots more available on that for another time, no matter for now… Trump went to Russia looking to build de lux apartments, buy a beauty contest, and found a friend.
The other influences not to be dismissed, every merry-go-round needs it’s horses and music. Without them, the engine would have no riders. Trump and Putin knew each other, perhaps not well, but I would guarantee, they looked face to face. Eye to eye and saw in each other a sympathetic soul.
I finally understand the saying “The devil is in the details”.
Stories are unfolding.
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