Evil Actions or Evil People
June 21, 2011
It is on the news. Reported from stoic faced reporters.
It is on T.V. shows. Glorifying heinous crime, criminals, and those charged to hunt them down.
It is clear there is evil in this world. The question is are people “evil” or are their actions “evil?”
I know what I think, but I want to know what you think. What do you base your thoughts on? Are humans basically good or are we born
Join in and let us discuss it. Tomorrow I will post my thoughts. I may jump in the discussion too.
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over on one of my blogs have been studying the word in the Greek for “works” – all of the instances of it in the New Testament. I don’t like the word “works” so I call them daisies and there are purple ones, yellow ones, green ones – and the best ones the white ones.
The study has been surprising – one of the surprises was just the other day when I realized that the only purely white “works” were from God. All our daisies are only white-ish.
So are we evil?
I guess it’s a matter of to whom we are compared – compared to perfection – compared to God – we ARE evil. Compared to pure evil – the Evil One – we’re just imperfect. And then compared to other people – well that all depends. Sorry for the long comment. You made me think. Thinking is good. And you made me smile. Smiles are good. Thank you and God bless you.
Craig. Thanks for your ideas. Here is a follow-up question.
Can something made in God’s likeness in His image (and God is good) be evil? Or do we make evil choices because we are tainted by sin?
Angela, this is a little off the top of my head – but yes I think people made in the image of God can be evil. The fact is that the image has been corrupted – this whole universe is broken because we broke it. If there were never sin there would be no broken. And debating whether or not that could NOT have happened is a little useless. The fact is that it did. It is broken. As reflections of him we are broken. So yes even though we are made in his image – the image is flawed now and so I’m with you when you say “tainted by sin”. It is impossible for us not to be flawed now – one day it will be different…
God Bless you – and thank you for this.
Interesting Craig. You may want to check out my post from today. I more fully explain my thoughts there. I appreciate you taking the time to think this through. Blessing to you too!
I don’t think that people in and of themselves are necessarily evil, because everything God makes is good, but the choices people make are evil (the majority of the time). Psalm 103:12 says “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us”.