ThirstyFish

These days, any face-to-face conversation is cool.

The concept of evil and how it is understood varies from one culture to another, one individual to another. Some define evil as simply the absence of good. Some say that absolute evil does not exist outside the experience of man. Some equate it to whatever causes suffering. Some define it as a human perception of natural events. Some personify it in the form of Satan. Some see evil as something external to them, and others see it as an internal struggle.

Does it really matter how we conceptualize evil? Yes! In Europe and in North America, in a mass hysteria lasting for centuries, thousands upon thousands were accused, hunted down, tortured and put to death for supposedly practicing witchcraft. Those labeled as "witches" were charged with crimes such as heresy, spreading diseases, committing orgies, satanism; A perfect example of "externalizing evil". Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn saw evil in another way. He said: "the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being".