Thursday, January 05, 2006

Evil I

Jane Goodall, the anthropologist who studied chimps all her life, once said, "Human beings are the only species on the planet that are capable of the most good, and the most evil." I realized this with such intensity today.

Last night, I watched the extraordinary resilience of one young woman on my favorite National Geographic channel. She was the victim of an attempted 'honor killing'. Her husband allegedly saw her in bed with another man in their house. He tied his wife, three months pregnant with his child, and hung her upside down.. after which he slashed her ears, nose, and excruciatingly poked her eyes out with a dull knife. I cannot imagine how one human being has the capacity to commit such an act.. letting go of the fact they were husband and wife.. and not caring an inch for the unborn child (who miraculously survived). They showed footage of this woman after her ordeal.. smiling. It is truely baffling how she managed a smile. She stood up against her community and brought her assailer to justice. In jail, her attacker proudly talked about maintaining his honor and looked the reporter in the eye, effortlessly defending his crime. Evil. Evil. Evil. I cannot seem to ignore this side of humanity and gleefully live my comfortable sheltered life..

I've always tended to loathe injustice toward women more than any other type of evil. The Woman is such a special being.. throughout history she was taught to stay quiet, stay at home, continue to sacrifice her personal goals.. and today She has come out strong and still continues to maintain her roles as mom, wife, sister, and friend. I don't care how far this world advances, women will always have to sacrifice more because they are accustomed to swallowing more emotional shit.

Is the problem of evil a test from the divine? No wonder people don't believe in God anymore. Would a loving, all powerful God allow such atrocity? Although I've always personally leaned toward the theistic tradition, the only argument that saves it for me today is the fact that human beings themselves allow and commit evil. There is absolutely no justification for blaming any entity for the problem of evil apart from the ol' human being.

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