I doubt the existence of many things but do not doubt the existence of evil. This might seem like a rather broad subject to be breached in this small space. However, I do this for two basic reasons.

On the one hand, I am really beginning to tire of this largely religious puritan streak, where people who are doing nothing more than being who they are end up disdained as evil scourges. The other reason I wish to approach the question of evil is to address concerns that I have with the atheist end of the belief spectrum. As a recovering Christian, I am all too aware of the former position, while as a philosophy major, I possess a similar grasp of the latter.

Both of these parties decry various things in existence as evil that, if one pauses to ponder, are quite obviously not evil. The religious basis for evil can be found in moral codes that God — though more likely man — passed down to humanity throughout the millennia. The problem with this position is that these concepts of evil are outmoded and arbitrary. Do you really think that you have as good a chance of going to hell for having premarital sex as a dictator does for committing genocide? The other problem is that these morals are based on the professions of a God that appears to be largely absent in existence.

Perhaps, then, the grounding of evil can be found in something that is abundant in existence, that being suffering. This is a grand oversimplification, but the atheist's position on the problem of evil is built on the tacit position that those persons, places and things that cause suffering are evil. As with the religious position, this basis for evil is built on an overstepping of reason. At times, suffering can be a gift (an issue that I will address in a future column). As such, suffering by itself does not suffice as a foundation for evil.

Evil is not some free—floating abstraction. It has concrete manifestations. However, its range of motion is limited. Evil can only be found in the actions of sufficiently aware, and thus sufficiently free, beings. For the sake of this discourse, I am referring to humans. Yet human actions that cause suffering do not in and of themselves qualify as evil. However, if these actions are taken in conjunction with the will of the human, one finally uncovers the grounds for evil. The measure of evil is intent. Using this assertion as the linchpin, it is possible to lay out three basic positions of suffering and action.

If a human wishes for another to suffer and thus acts in such a manner as to bring about that suffering, then that person has committed an evil act. Prime examples of this would be torture and murder. But similarly, using this model it is apparent that things such as capital punishment fall under this heading of evil, as the real purpose of an execution is not for deterrence or justice. Rather it is to sate the base motive of revenge by bringing suffering and death to another being.

If a human wishes another being well or is generally apathetic toward another (though I pause at this second position), and yet causes another to suffer, then it is not an instance of evil. Rather, it is a case of that which is bad. If a doctor, in the process of trying to discover a cure for AIDS, unleashes a virus that gives everyone in the world a terrible itch — or even worse, brings about a disease of which devastation has been unparalleled since the black plague — then it is not evil but bad.

Now even if these two positions are considered palatable, there still seems to be a problem with what is known as natural evil. Basically, it states that natural disasters and other accidents of the universe that cause needless suffering and hardship are evil. However, this does not hold true, as I have set up the problem of the measure of evil. Suppose a tree falls in the woods and crushes Bambi. As horrid and pointless is the suffering and death of innocent Bambi — as well as those of humans in natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes — it is neither evil nor bad. It just is. For there to be evil, there needs to be an agent. If the atheists insist that such occurrences are evil, they seem to resign themselves to the position that either a god, a devil or any number of unseen forces are at play in the universe.

Though there may be evil in the world, it is not as prevalent as some would claim it to be. The road to hell, either figuratively or literally, is not paved with good intent, but rather with malice aforethought.

This has been my sometimes less than humble opinion.