What is evil in a secular world?

What is evil?

History is a portal we can view ourselves in light of the errors of other societies. Any comparison made between the life we live now and a life in the Dark Ages uncovers some very major improvements.

The fact that we have replaced the church with the state in defining our rules reveals some astonishing things about the question of evil. If evil does not come from demons or breaking a rule written in an ancient text, what is it?

The very process of defining ethics is what has evolved for us. We decide collectively the meaning of evil.



For centuries in cultures all around the planet, law was dictated by the priest. Or in the case of ancient Egypt and present day North Korea, law is defined and enforced by a god-king. If you believed in the Earth going around the sun, you might be imprisoned the rest of your life as happened to Galileo Galilei. If you picked up sticks on a Sabbath day, you might be ordered in be killed by your friends and relatives by a public stoning (see Exodus 31:14.)

Society is now based on secular principles. These are principles that do not presuppose man is under the law of any divine magistrate. People have organized the principle of law based on the promotion of the highest good as determined by a system of "government by the people."

Immanuel Kant, a German science school teacher and famous philosopher, said

"The good state represents the rational element in us all. It rules according to a universally valid will under which everyone can be free." 

By defining law or connecting the concept of evil to one of social order has it's roots in the philosophy of David Hume. David Hume wrote the first major philosophical work written in the English language called A Treatise on Human Nature. His writings started the Scottish Enlightenment and his friend Adam Smith was encouraged to write The Wealth of Nations that was the spark for America in it's search for the basis of a new government not based upon the antiquated rules of Kings and the Church. Law became considered as a Social Contract. Citizens now agree upon laws that satisfy the highest good and dispense with the witch and book burnings. The Constitutional Republic has arrived.

These writers during the Enlightenment period also asked the philosophical question of what is evil.
It was concluded that in a good society, laws would define principles in which the highest good or happiness was promoted.Evil was now defined in terms of natural philosophy. According to John Locke, in his 2nd Treatise on Civil Government defined evil as anything that damages or inflicts injury on any other persons life, liberty and property.

With secular principles in place, the definition of evil became one of maximizing the embetterment of society and to prevent individual destructive behavior.  Evil is just hurting or injuring someone or their property or liberties.

The best use of government is to protect these freedoms and allow for the formation of rules to promote trade and the enforcement of mutually agreed upon contracts. A state of nature without any government would lead to a world dictated by bullies and priests. How do we know that? History offers many great portals to view the past errors. Government is necessary for a civil society. The best government is a rational one based on mutually agreed principles.



"Natural justice is the advantage conferred by mutual agreements not to inflict nor allow harm." 
- Epicurus (Principle Doctrine 31)