The problem of the origin of evil has been the great theological puzzle
to all theologians and with all religious systems, and has turned
the heads of more good people, and sent more devout Christians to the
lunatic asylum, than any other theological question, excepting that
of endless punishment; and yet modern science, which furnishes the
principles for solving all the "holy mysteries" and miracles embodied in
the religious creeds and Bibles of the past ages, shows the question
to be quite simple and easily understood. The true signification of the
word _evil_, in a moral sense, can be expressed in a few words. It is
only another name for _imperfection or negation_.
It is the negative pole of the _great moral battery_; and without it the
battery could not be run. And without it there could be no morality,
no moral principle or accountability, while man exists upon the present
animal plane. In fact, morality without evil would be an unmeaning word.
Evil is a state of imperfection running through every vein of nature,
from the igneous rock to the brain of man. Some writers attempt to
discriminate between natural and moral evil; but there is no dividing
line. Moral evil is as natural as any phenomenon in nature, and is,
strictly speaking, the phenomenal action of the brain. Moral evil
is governed as rigidly by natural laws as physical evil; because (as
science demonstrates) it has its basis in man's moral nature. And,
practically speaking, there will be neither natural nor moral evil when
nature (now in a crude state) grows to a state of maturity. Evil or
imperfection, which now characterizes every thing, diminishes in its
ratio to goodness or perfection as we ascend from inanimate matter to
man,--the crowning work of nature. The theological world assumes that
man alone bears the impress of imperfection, and that his imperfection
is restricted principally to his moral action. "Man alone is imperfect:
all else bears the mark of divine perfection." So says Archbishop
Whately. But the converse assumption is nearer true: Man is the crowning
work of nature, and his moral attributes constitute the keystone of the
arch. He is occasionally erratic, and often wicked, but not universally
and continually so, like some of the lower animal tribes. The hyena will
murder at all times when opportunity offers; but man only occasionally,
and when driven to it by the pressure of circumstances. All monkeys
are thieves; but only a small portion of the _genus homo_ are such.
Man derives all his propensity to evil and wickedness from the
lower animals. His propensity to rob is exhibited in the eagle; his
inclination to steal, in the monkey; his disposition to murder, in the
hyena, alligator, rattlesnake, &c.; his disposition to enslave, in
the red ant, which makes a slave of the black ant, as has often been
observed by naturalists. Such was the wickedness among the lower animals
in their earlier stage of development, that, by theft, robbery, and
murder, they effected the entire extinction of many species of animals.
And if we descend still lower, and learn the practical history of the
mineral kingdom, we shall find that its operations are marked by a
a still more ruinous and destructive form of evil. The hideous and
devouring earthquake; the heaving and overflowing volcano, burying whole
cities beneath its deep and merciless waves of running fire; the roaring
and furious tornado, destroying hundreds of dwellings, and dooming the
inmates to a terrible death; and the swift-sped lightning, which, with
no note of warning, strikes down hundreds of people every year,--all
these violent operations of nature are the manifestation of evil, and a
proof that imperfection exists everywhere. And man is the last and least
manifestation of this multifarious destructive outburst of nature; and
he will never outgrow it, and escape its operation entirely, till
all nature arrives at manhood. While nature is imperfect, man will be
imperfect; for he is a child of nature, and all things move forward in
correlated order. He can, however (and it is a necessity of his
nature that he should), battle with opposing forces, and modify the
circumstances around him. His nature impels him to this as naturally as
it urges him to eat food when hungry; but, as at present constituted and
situated, it will be the work of time to rid the earth of moral evil.
The only way to accomplish the extinction of evil is to labor for the
elevation of the whole race. We are only rowing against the current in
attempting to put down evil with our present system of moral ethics,
which treats the criminal as a wicked being instead of an unfortunate,
sin-sick brother. He should be sent to a moral hospital instead of
to the gallows, the jail, and the dungeon. He should be treated as an
unfortunate brother, rather than as a being to be spurned from society
as a viper. He should be treated kindly, not cruelly; fed, and not
starved. His moral nature should be warmed by affection, and not
congealed by frowns. His instinctive respect for virtue should be
developed by a sound moral education, and not crushed by pursuing him
with a malignant spirit. Moral evils must be treated as the fruits of
the imperfections of our nature, and not as the product of sin-punishing
devils, who first originate and stimulate crimes, and then join with Cod
in punishing the criminal with fiendish cruelty; thus applying a remedy
which is a thousand times worse than the disease.
The science of phrenology explains most beautifully the cause and nature
of sin or crime, and demonstrates that it is simply the perverted or
unbalanced action of the natural faculties of the mind. Combativeness
when excessively developed or unduly excited, prompts to quarrels and
fighting; destructiveness, under similar circumstances, leads to war
and bloodshed; amativeness, when not properly restrained, leads to the
various forms of licentiousness; over-active acquisitiveness is the
main-spring in most cases of theft and robbery, and all crimes committed
for the acquisition of property or money. And other crimes are prompted
by the over-active condition of these and, other mental faculties
unrestrained by the moral faculties, every act and every species of
crime are in this way most satisfactorily accounted for by this
now generally received and thoroughly established science of mental
philosophy; so that "the mystery of godliness," comprehended in the word
sin, which for ages perplexed the student of theology, is now unraveled
and understood by the scientific men of the age, and known to have a
natural basis and natural origin. And this all-important discovery has
driven the old orthodox Devil from the arena of human action. He no
longer walks "to and fro in the earth, seeking whom he may devour."
He is dead--dead,--killed by the sledge-hammer of science. And yet the
fifty thousand clergymen who still "defend the faith once delivered to
the saints" are (many of them) so far behind the march of human progress
that the news of the mortal exit of his Satanic Majesty seems not yet
to have reached them; or, if it has, it is because they are unwilling to
lose the services of a long-cherished and highly valued friend that they
refuse to credit the report of his demise. Take away their Devil, and
their whole theological scaffolding falls to the ground. Revivals
could no more be carried on without his aid, than a watch could be kept
running without a main-spring. And with the departure of the Devil must
go "salvation by Christ," as there is then nothing, in a theological
sense, to be saved from. It is an important fact, of which the clergy
seem to be ignorant, that the march of science has exploded all their
old theological dogmas. Phrenology has banished the Devil; physiology
explains the _modus operandi_ of repentance; psychology, the process of
"getting religion;" philosophy analyzes their Bible miracles; geology
has expanded their six days of creation into six thousand years;
astronomy has displaced Moses' theory of creation, and demolished St.
John's little eight-by-ten heaven. (See Rev. chap. 21.) And yet the
orthodox clergy refuse to shorten their creeds by leaving out these
old, exploded dogmas. Like moles, they continue rooting and digging away
among their musty creeds, dogmas, and catechisms, seemingly unconscious
that the sun of science is now shining with dazzling brilliancy in the
moral heavens. Some of them manifest a tenacity in holding on to musty
and antiquated dogmas equal to that of the butcher's dog in the army
which seized a slaughtered ox by the caudal appendage, with the
intention of monopolizing the meat, and held on with a "manly grip" till
limb after limb had been torn off, and piece after piece had been cut
away from the body by the hungry soldiers, and nothing was left but
the tail and the backbone; and then his canine majesty growled at
passers-by, as much as to say, "I am master of the situation." The
fossilized clergy are "masters of the situation," while the old orthodox
carcass is now minus every part but the tail and naked backbone, to
which they cling with a deathly grasp worthy of a better cause.
They remind us of the hotel-keeper in Vermont, who, in answer to the
interrogatories of some travelers, stated that he did not keep any kind
of food for either men or horses. "What in the name of God, then, do
you keep?" inquired one of the hungry guests. He replied, "I keep Union
Hotel." The stand-still clergy still keep the old theological hotel
minus any spiritual food, or supplied only with old salt junk handed
down from the camp of Moses or Father Abraham.
A word more with respect to the origin of evil: Is it not strange that
Christians should deny their God to be the author of evil, when it
is expressly so declared in their Bible? "I make peace, and _I create
evil_. I Jehovah do all these things."
Here is the positive declaration that God is the author of evil; and,
if it were not thus unequivocally taught, we could prove that the Bible
teaches this doctrine _indirectly_ by various texts If "God made every
thing that was made," then he either made evil or the author of evil,
whether that was a devil or a serpent or a fallen angel; and this is
substantially the same thing as originating evil,--to originate the
author of evil. We challenge refutation of the proposition. But a
philosophical analysis of the question will show there is no such thing
as evil in either the _abstract or absolute_ sense. Good and evil are
but relative terms, like heat and cold, light and darkness, &c. There is
no distinct line of demarkation between any of these correlative terms.
It is impossible to tell where one ends, and the other begins. And
then there is no act but that may become either right or wrong under
different circumstances. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill." But
the man who should see an assassin pointing a pistol to the head of his
wife, or a dagger to her breast, and refrain from killing him as the
only means of saving her life, would be virtually himself a murderer.
"Thou shalt not steal" (Exod. xx.); and yet stealing would become a
_moral right_, as well as a physical necessity, to avoid starvation.
And so of all other acts called crime and sin: they may become _absolute
virtues_. How foolish, therefore, to erect inflexible standards for
human action or conduct! And then it should be noted that what is
regarded as sin in one age or country may be imposed as a moral or
religious duty in another. It is a sin to disbelieve the Koran in
Arabia, and a sin to believe it in America. It is a sinful act to
disbelieve the Christian Bible in this country, and a moral and
religious duty in Japan. It is blasphemy and atheism to disbelieve in
Jehovah and Jesus Christ in this country, but a still greater blasphemy
and sin to believe in them in Arabia. And thus all human actions are
modified by the circumstances under which, and the locality in which,
they are committed.