THE "EVIL FALLS SHORT OF GOOD AND IS NOT REAL"
THEODICY AND MORAL NEUTRALITY
Christians say that evil is good that falls short of good. It is shoddy good.
Evil as such then is not real. Good for religion is a power and evil is not.
Religion likes the argument for it uses it to argue that God does not make evil
for he is all-powerful and all-good.
The doctrine that evil is just the absence of good is problematic when it comes
to moral neutrality. If there is good and there is unreal evil, there still has
to be an in-between. There has to be a level between them at which there is
neither good or evil but neutrality. To deny this is to deny that good is doing
what is best and evil is doing what is not best. At the level, there is neither
good or evil and both good and evil. It is both of these at the one time. When
the evil can exist and not be evil as in this scenario it is clear that evil is
not just the absence of good at all but more than that. When the good can exist
and not be good it shows that it is not more or less real than the evil.
Whatever evil is, it is a power if good is a power. To say the evil in that case
is a mere falling short of good is to say it should not exist which really means
the neutral level should not exist and if the neutral level should not exist
then good and evil should not exist either. This incoherence proves there is
something wrong with the argument that evil is a power.
It will be objected that the evil is evil from one perspective and not evil from
another. But this is not about perspectives but about what they are. The
objection has no relevance.
The neither good and evil and both good and evil are not different perspectives
but they make up one perspective for evil is both evil and not-evil at the same
time and good is both good and not good at the one time. See how good which is
supposed to be the real thing while evil is a negation ends up with exactly the
same status as the evil meaning that if good is real, evil is just as real and
it is not just a negation.
Everybody agrees that doing good with an evil intention is still evil and its
wrong to have a bad intention. Suppose prayer is really good and not praying is
evil. Even then, if I think praying is a sin it is evil for me to pray. I am still
intending evil. I am still making evil at least in my heart. An evil intention
is a power. There can be no doubt about that.
Grey is a mixture of black and white. If white was simply the absence of colour
and not a colour itself then how could grey be possible? In the same way we
argue that if something is as good as it is evil then the good and the evil must
really exist. One isn’t just the absence of the other.
If evil is really a form of good, then why bother telling people to tell good
and evil apart? They won't be able to.