Evil (Existence Extinguished)

Intellectual discussion, confrontation, and writing not only guide, but also may be the only way to guarantee human survival, and they are the greatest of pleasures. The tools for this marketplace of ideas and cerebral enjoyment are WORDS. However, their use rests atop an Occam’s razor of sorts—they either mirror reality or rape it. Words used to deal with reality are not a matter of opinion, of polls, of a vote, or a matter of historical context. Such words are conceptual representation objectively subsumed by reality. Through our senses, perception, and scientific exploration, these words allow us to accurately understand reality; they represent the truth about reality. They are, then, the foundation for paradigms by which we live our lives. They provide a recipe for us to write and reason about The Singularity, The Evolution of Life, Existence, and Consciousness. The most important ones, we call axioms or laws defining self-evident truth.

This essay is about two of those self-evident words, in fact the two most important to the existence and survival of Homo sapiens: EVIL and PRIME. Words that as Plato remarked decide matters of “life and death.” As will become clear EVIL can be thought of as ANTI-PRIME; they have the same genesis. They hold a Janus-faced symbiotic relationship, though never for beneficial reasons. They are Siamese twins that evolved simultaneously at that nexus in time when Hominids evolved a cerebral cortex capable of consciousness of itself and of its mortality. Together, these conjoined twins (EVIL and PRIME) are synonymous with THE INDIVIDUAL HUMAN BEING.

When I conceptualized PRIME in essays and the book I’m writing, as the ultimate existent subsuming all paradigms of and about human consciousness and existence, I did not formally conceptualize its polar opposite. That archetype of Anti-Prime is, of course, the word EVIL. It alone, of all words available, etymologically integrates the absolute negation of PRIME, hence of existence and consciousness. However, in this exceptional case, Noah Webster’s great book offers little help. It simply states,

1. Anything that causes displeasure, injury, pain, suffering, etc.
2. Moral depravity, wickedness, anything morally bad or wrong.

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THEISM

In simple terms, common sense was Homo sapiens’ need for gods. However, religion more than any other human paradigm shows how evil and wrong common sense can be. It is seldom congruent to reality. Why, therefore, does mysticism and theism, in the view of the vast majority of Homo sapiens, overpower science? Simple, it is based on childish common sense over a million years. This comic book approach to life continues unabated today in spite of the fact that never does any of that “common sense” conform to scientific reality.

On the other hand, the irrefutable laws of science are only believed by a very small percentage out of the billions of Homo sapiens on earth. In terms of cosmic time, it’s been but a blink of an eyelash since the majority of Homo sapiens no longer believe that the earth is the center of everything. Also, within that blink, virtually all Homo sapiens believe in creationism over evolution. The really surreal part is that within that same virtuality resides virtually all of the world’s leaders and thinkers! I ask you to consider the following statistics: a recent survey showed that 21% of the nations’ biology teachers believe in creationism. A Gallup Poll showed that 50% of the United States takes the story of Noah in the Bible literally. Thirty-two percent believe that Jesus will return to earth within the 21st Century. Seventy-eight percent believe that angels and devils operate within the world daily. Seventy-two percent believe in Satan. Forty-two percent of Americans believe that everything in the Bible is literally true.

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