GOOD/EVIL BINARY

When one has a certainty in their faith and belief, they have no outside conception of good and evil. Their ideas of good and evil are anchored and pivot around their belief, leaving the concepts of good and evil as relative terms. This means if someone has a belief that it is alright to murder, then they will not consider killing another human being as evil, but as good. Hence, beliefs and faith in those beliefs can lead humans to do a multitude of harmful things, or outstandingly wonderful and considerate things.

One example of belief leading to harm would be the Nazi regime. Through the belief that Jewish, homosexual, deformed, etc. people were inferior and not fully human, this allowed Nazis starve, torture, and murder multitudes, treating them as chattel and using their bodies for commodities, like one would use animals.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky says in his novel The Brothers Karamazov, “Didst Thou forget that man prefers peace, and even death, to freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil? Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom on conscience, but nothing is a greater cause of suffering.” This could not be truer for the Nazi regime, or even for the actions of the Klu Klux Klan. Because of their belief, humans keep their peace of mind while completely degrading and sabotaging the human race. Their belief keeps them in a controlled slumber away from considering what is truly good and evil. If they did try and truly consider what was good and evil for others, then they would lose their peace and would have to reconsider not only what they were living for but also who they were.

However, not all beliefs lead to “evil” (relatively speaking). There are those who have a higher focal point of what is “good” which leads them to beyond what others have done for humanity.

LINKS:

Holocaust Facts - The page includes facts about the holocaust in a succinct and quick summary.