Psychology of Evil

Evil is defined as the absence of good, a non-entity, etc. For instance, a person who has only one hand suffers a physical evil. While physical evil is something that everybody understands, or within the range of our understanding, let alone the causes for it. It is the moral evil that is trickier. I suppose we are led to believe there is no such a thing as evil through our studies than positively affirming its presence. Everybody agrees to some extent that there is evil in the world; but not all of us will be willing to say it is an entity. 

I remember my friend and I used to discuss about such issues for sometime in the last academic year. A few boys also used to scare the others with their stories. As I was reading through Scott Peck's The People of the Lie, I got an idea of what evil is.  Though it is worth discussing the ideas present therein, I wish to state one thought that runs through the entire book. The biggest strength of evil is its deception, unwillingness to embrace the reality. The Scripture calls the evil one as the father of lies and it is through lies that the evil keeps it going in the world. I believe truth calls for witnessing, being steadfast but falsehood is the easy way out for anyone who does want to be held responsible. We all know when we say one lie for our convenience we have say hundreds to make it appear as truth. While deception always keeps us in dark and insecure, truth will set us free. Perhaps, a part of us needs healing, healing from the thinking we need to be somebody. For a believer this is nonsense. He or she is the child of God and God loves him all the time. He or she is precious to Him.