Are We Fighting Evil or Fostering Good?
When we struggle against all those “bad” habits of ours, it may be that we’re utterly on the wrong track. In fighting evil, what do we have front-and-center in our minds? Yep, the very thing we want to banish from our lives. And as every teacher has tried to show us, we get what we think about. Worse, we actually become what we think about.
I don’t know if the following story is true or not, but in either case, it shows how some of the things we unquestioningly believe in don’t even exist.
Does Evil Exist?
The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists?
A student bravely replied, “Yes, he did!“
“God created everything?“ The professor asked.
“Yes sir“, the student replied.
The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil“. The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said, “Can I ask you a question professor?“
“Of course“, replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?“
“What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The students snickered at the young man’s question.
The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.“
The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?“
The professor responded, “Of course it does.“
The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.“
Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?“
Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”
To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.“
The professor sat down.
The young man’s name — Albert Einstein.
Of course, the name you use for “God” may be something else. Universal Intelligence. The Law of Attraction. The Order. Or something else entirely. That’s not the important point – or probably shouldn’t be. The real point is, are you still blindly accepting concepts and ideas that have been handed down unquestioningly for generations upon generations.
So back to those bad habits we struggle against so mightily. We know that feeding them energy always makes them stronger and sinks us deeper into a quagmire of our own making.
How much more effective would it be to spend our time mulling – not our failings – but the positives we want? No more struggle. Simply a steady consideration of higher qualities. And if we screwed up – as we sometimes do – what if we gently said to ourselves, “No, what I really wanted to do was this…” and go right back to our higher aspirations?
Indeed, what if?
Cheers,
Charles
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