From the beginning of time, there has been evil.

What is evil?

The opposite of good, some would say.  But to eradicate anything not good would be to remove free will which is what evil is. Not that all free will can turn out bad, that is why God gave us free will. He wants us to decide for ourselves. Basically, free will is the ability to take a chosen course of action among various alternatives. If that chosen course of action is to do, say or act some way hurtful, that is their will. It is not God’s will. But sometimes that will can be irreprehensible, and in our culture can even be considered as evil…

In general context evil is the absence or opposite of good, a decision that is made. Which for the people who try to do good, we cannot understand the decisions of evil-doers. That is, until we are faced with a similar situation where we too must make a decision to help or to hurt. Our decisions are molded by our experiences and if our experiences are bad, then our decisions will be bad…

Our pastor asked us to pray for peace… to eradicate evil, but how may I ask, can we ever see evil eradicated when our own friends and family can do such hurtful things to us? How can we ever hope or pray for terrorism to end, wars to be over and peace to last if we can be evil to those in our own close lives who truly do not deserve it?

Praying for peace doesn’t seem to be working, in my humble opinion. It makes us feel better, but in thousands of years hasn’t solved the problem. Maybe our prayer should change? Like I pray for work instead of money to pay the bills, or you pray for God’s will be done, instead of MY will, maybe our prayer for peace should be something like, help others make good choices. Maybe if we pray for good, that will eradicate evil?

It’s just a thought. What are your thoughts?