What is the definition of evil in today's society? Why does God, if He exists, allow catastrophes to occur?

Essay by wruz6High School, 12th gradeA+, November 2004

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The question, after millennia of pondering, still remains: what about evil? More so in the modern era, people have been questioning about whether there is a clear definition of evil or not. It is difficult to determine where one can draw the fine line that divides evil from non-evil. In this article, Ron Rosenbaum attempts to answer the questions of what people consider to be evil, and why does God, if He exists, allow for so many catastrophes to occur? With so many different kinds of people, each with their own ideas, it is difficult to say that there lies a bridge leading back to a universal view of evil; but instead, it can be said that everyone has his own perspective on the definition of evil and the religious beliefs that follow it, or lack thereof.

Rosenbaum witnesses many ways people deal with devastation and explores their logic. In writing the article, Rosenbaum seems to assume that evil does exist in one way or another; it was the question of how is it defined, that the article helps to answer.

He delves into the problem of choosing between evil and misled, where a distinguished Hitler scholar, "could not bring himself to pronounce Hitler consciously, knowingly evil." However, in an event of a murder of a 2-year-old boy by two 10-year-old Liverpool boys, the newspapers did not hesitate to call it, "UNPARALLELED EVIL." And there, Rosenbaum states, herein lies the problem of defining evil where, "10-year-old boys can be pronounced evil, wicked to the highest degree, but not Hitler." Furthermore, still extant is the mental illness excuse. Most people agree that Jeffrey Dahmer is undoubtedly insane; however, it is uncertain whether that mere fact should spare him the proper consequences of cold-blooded murders or not. For someone so sick, so...