Contribution to Blogswarm against Theocracy: Religion, politics, and the Vortex of Evil

"When kings and other autocrats believe that they are doing God's bidding, there is inevitably a great deal of suffering and death."

Nom DePlume

Evil, once largely a religious word, has come into play in the world of politics.

Ronald Reagan gave it a boost with his moral condemnation of the USSR. Now, Muslim fanatics are “evildoers.” In fact, there’s an Axis of Evil (shame on the speechwriter who made up this non-existent justification for war and militarism!) – very different countries who do not consider themselves allies.

But those countries all think America is evil. Can there be any consistency in the application of this powerful word?



Bush and bin Laden consider each other evil (they are both right), each with complete sincerity. How can we recognize evil when we see it?

Evil = inhumane

Evil begins with inhumanity: the disrespect for, the denial and destruction of human choice, individuality, and dignity. Such evil can be psychological and subtle (the humiliation and disregard for basic humanity that are by and large the rule in corporations and other large organizations), or it can be physical, as with mugging and rape.

Evil becomes more dangerous when it is not only inhumane but insane. (An insane person need not be inhumane, e.g., the harmless eccentric or psychotic.)

If one is really screwed up and full of blind rage, one might take it out on others by becoming a serial murderer or joining a gang.

Inhumanity + insanity

This is the difference between the mugger and the suicide bomber (or the guards at Abu Ghraib). When inhumanity is predicated not (only) on personal demons, but (also) on arbitrary, non-fact-based political and religious doctrines…well, that’s when people suffer and die in huge numbers.

It takes a particularly vile and potent blend of insanity and inhumanity to blow up a mosque, to chop off the limbs of complete strangers – or indeed, to wage war against them for any reason but self-defense.

Why do we so often fail to recognize evil in the world?

(1) We associate it with The Other instead of looking in the mirror honestly and asking if we’re not just as bad (listen up, Muslims and Evangelicals – I mean YOU).

(2) We judge a book by its cover. Hitler = angry = evil. But a moron of a President who starts a war and tap dances for the camera in the waning days of his hideously incompetent Administration = happy = not evil. (If it ever turns out that Bush truly believes he is directed by God, then he is insane and should be given appropriate treatment).

(3) We mistake conviction for truth. Has not EVERY torturer, mass murderer, Fuehrer, President, Inquisitor, and Emperor ALWAYS thought he was doing the right thing? And, people think, if leaders are so sure of themselves, how could they be wrong? Politicians play on this error when they sell their Big Lies, like the Iraq War.

(4) We allow politicians to hide behind stupid appeals to blind patriotism and faith. It works every time.

Axes of Evil

As regards (4), I agree that there is an Axis of Evil – two axes, in fact. One is religion; the other is politics. Both consist of mass action based on shared ideas and feelings. Both can be based on fantasy or reality.

Basing politics on reality means keeping government small and letting people live their own lives, relying on each other for help, because the reality is that government is inherently inefficient and coercive. Our country’s Founders recognized this fact when they wrote the Constitution and created a limited government with enumerated powers.

Similarly, the realist will admit that America, while strong, cannot control the world (and certainly cannot end over a thousand years of Muslim fratricide) without further ravaging the planet and bankrupting itself and/or future generations -- but insane politicians continue to waste our blood and treasure in support of their vain dreams and false cojones.

To base religion on reality…well, others have explained it far better than I, e.g., Ta-hui (Zen Buddhist Master, 1089-1163):

“To attain Zen enlightenment, it is not necessary to give up family life, quit your job, become a vegetarian, practice asceticism and flee to a quiet place, or go into a ghost cave of dead Zen to entertain to entertain subjective imaginings.”

The first step towards reality-based religion, for people trapped in a religious belief system, is a tough and usually impossible one: to recognize that prayer, worship, ritual, and basing your whole life on fantasy – on the directives, characters, and impossible events in an ancient text like the Torah or Quran – is a waste of your life (and you often don’t have a choice), because those events didn’t happen. At the very least it is a false life.

But I’m not out to convert anyone; live your own script, by all means.

Away from reality

It is PUBLIC, political religion that concerns me, especially since and religion and politics are moving, along both axes, AWAY from reality.

Politicians promise to solve every citizen’s problems; one of them promises to keep the made-up Iraq war going forever. And the religious body count piles up as people continue to kill each other and themselves over conflicting stories.

Where the two axes -- insane, inhumane religion and politics -- intersect and take over whole societies…where politicians claim the guidance and blessing of divine beings…where people suffer and die for mistaken, horribly wrong ideas – there we find the Vortex of Evil…and the bottomless pit of human misery.

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Alan M. Perlman is a secular humanist speaker and author -- most recently, of An Atheist Reads the Torah: Secular Humanistic Perspectives on the Five Books of Moses. For information, go to www.trafford.com/06-0056.