Sunday, March 22, 2009

Good vs Evil

On Friday a patron asked for a book of essays on Good and Evil. Once again I was quite surprised that my initial search did not net good results. I tried various other searches and then went to search the philosophy and religious areas. I came up with a couple of books--none very satisfactory--and the focus was mostly on evil. In the end, I found several articles that people had written on evil in some of our databases.
This of course set the hamsters to work in my brain. I am positive there are books out there on good vs evil. I am sure that theological libraries would have more success with the search than I did in my public library system. But still this question intrigued me. Why couldn't I find a book that deals with good and evil together? Why was there a heavy emphasis on evil? With the wheels turning I made the following conclusions.
Evil is focused on more than good because we actually have to wrap our head around evil and expect good. This is heartening to me because it means that humans are basically good. But I know from experience that we are not always good--or at least I'm not. So I have placed a percentage to this. I think that people in general are about 80% good. We have to struggle with the other 20% to do the right thing. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't and sometimes when we don't the good in the end wins out and we try to make amends. I am encouraged.
Evil, really bad people who have no moral compass are perhaps reversed with the 80/20 formula. Their 20% of goodness is often swallowed up by the 80% of misdeeds. And I believe that some people have a more sliding scale of morality rather than a compass. But it seems that most people are still 80/20 in favor of the good guys. My brain has decided not to engage in the question as to why some people are more evil and other--most--are more good. Religions have been tussling with this question for thousands of years and science has been after an answer for hundreds. I will leave this up to the big boys. I am just happy I had the chance to realize that people really are mostly good and will more than 50% of the time do the right thing. That makes be feel good with being human, I hope it does you, too.

2 comments:

Andrew Clarke said...

May I suggest a novel to read that deals with the issues? "Outcasts Of Skagaray" can be previewed by reading the sample chapters on www.threeswans.com.au If you decide to read it I would be glad to hear your opinion.

Sapphire Lucy said...

Thanks Andrew, I will check it out and see if it is available in my system. I am always interested in these things and will let you know what I think.

Sapphirelucy