Evil is not the Opposite of Good, it's the Opposite of Truth

[FlyersFan]

Here's a good theological/philosophical discussion.

A little 'Saint Augustine' for you all to ponder ... 

The article says - "evil has no true essence of its own. Rather, it is purely parasitic, existing only as the distortion of truth."

At first I said ... 'nah' ... but I'm thinking about it . 

I think parasitic is a good description of evil.

Evil is not the opposite of good, it's the opposite of truth

St. Augustine, wrestling with the Manichean heresy that saw good and evil as two coeternal principles, made a decisive break by asserting that evil is privatio boni (the absence of good). Just as darkness is not a positive reality but the absence of light, so too evil is not something in itself, but the negation of what is. By this reasoning, we might extend St. Augustine’s hypothesis further. Evil is not exclusively the absence of good. It is a distortion, corruption, and falsification. Evil functions not simply as a void but as a perverse mimicry: it counterfeits the good, while at the same time denying the truth of what is.

To sin, therefore, is not only to turn from the good, but to flee from reality itself. Sin is a movement into unreality, a grasping at fantasy, a deliberate exchange of what is true for what is false. In the highest sense, it is to step away from God, who is Truth, and to fall into falsehood and delusion. This diagnosis corresponds precisely to the narrative of the Fall in Genesis: the serpent tempts not by force, but by deception, by implanting a lie that warps Adam and Eve’s perception of reality: “you shall be as gods” (Gen. 3:5). Their sin is born in unreality, in choosing the primordial lie over God’s word.

 The truth of the human person is to live in accord with our nature, to order our natural reason and will toward what is real. Honesty is not only an abstract social virtue but an important practical one as well. To be honest with ourselves, and ultimately with God, is to live in conjunction with reality as it truly is. When we act contrary to this, we disorder our own wills and become complicit in a profound state of “unreality.” We treat illusion as substance and fantasy as fact, and thus we allow evil to gain its foothold in our hearts.

 
In this light, moral failure is not disobedience to a moral precept, but participation in a lie. Evil thrives only to the extent that it can persuade us to confuse shadows for light. To resist it, then, is to embrace truth fully, not only in our speech but in our very being, cleaving to reality as God has made it. Goodness and truth are naturally inseparable forces. Evil, when unmasked, is nothing more than the denial of both. 

[Moon68]

So, a complete denial of objective reality.

Sounds all too familiar today.

So then, allow me to ask. Would the early Catholic Church then be considered evil by that standard?

[FlyersFan]

Would the early Catholic Church then be considered evil by that standard?

The Church theology would not be considered evil.
You'd have to prove the theology was wrong in order to say it was evil.

You said "early" Catholic church.  
The early church didn't have the full understanding.
What they spoke was truth, but not the full truth.
Just like a first grader does elementary math ... 
It's just as right as the high schooler doing algebra.

[FlyersFan]

According to the article ...
Good can exist without evil existing.
But evil needs good to exist in order to have something to feed off.
Evil is a parasite.

[Sirius]

Reminds of a story of some folk who couldn't figure out what God was so they wrote down everything he is not. Or it was maybe Jesus, forgot where I was reading the story.

This good and evil stuff feels a little bit binary though. I would go with corruption as evil. "parasitic" sure I get it, but that can take humanity away. Ever felt like people has to die? What about parasites, easy to condemn them?

[Kurokage]

That's an interesting point of view.
I always saw Evil as a subversion of Good, but maybe it's really the subversion of truth??

[RichardHurt]

Here's a good theological/philosophical discussion.

A little 'Saint Augustine' for you all to ponder ... 

The article says - "evil has no true essence of its own. Rather, it is purely parasitic, existing only as the distortion of truth."

At first I said ... 'nah' ... but I'm thinking about it . 

I think parasitic is a good description of evil

Ahh the good ol moral relativism vs moral subjectivism.
Add in some truth spice and you got one hell of a good night! Just make sure to you have some budz and a smoothie with some Skittles and you're set.

[andy06shake]

Here's a good theological/philosophical discussion.

A little 'Saint Augustine' for you all to ponder ... 

The article says - "evil has no true essence of its own. Rather, it is purely parasitic, existing only as the distortion of truth."

At first I said ... 'nah' ... but I'm thinking about it . 

I think parasitic is a good description of evil.

Evil is not the opposite of good, it's the opposite of truth

My two cents would amount to evil arises from imbalance.

So when things are seriously out of kilter.

Whether in power, emotion, or justice, it creates space for harm to grow.....

[FlyersFan]

My two cents would amount to evil arises from imbalance.

Which came first ... the imbalance or the evil?
"good" is perfectly balanced.
So imbalance is an evil in of itself.
Evil doesn't arise from imbalance ... it IS imbalance.
Evil is the opposite of the truth of balance.
Right?

[andy06shake]

According to the article ...
Good can exist without evil existing.
But evil needs good to exist in order to have something to feed off.
Evil is a parasite.

From an ecological or planetary perspective, humans do behave a lot like a parasitic species.