Does Evil Exist in the World?
by Onur Yenihayat
The Roots of Genocide and Hate Crimes: Innate Evil Does evil exist in the world? Yes, it does. Malicious acts like genocide and hate crimes are proof of existence of evil in individuals. The United Nations Convention on Genocide defines genocide as "any of a number of acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group," either by killing members of the group or imposing conditions that would ultimately lead to the group's extinction. (“Genocide” n. pag) This means genocide is very much “cleansing” the world of the group of individuals by an individual or a group, simply because they have different beliefs or values. A person causes the extermination of hundreds of thousands of people just because of their differences, and feel proud about it, without a single scratch or doubt in their conscience. If this is not the description of evil, then what is? The following quote by Agamemnon in Homer's Iliad, shows how the evil in the roots of humanity has not changed even in more than two millennia: “Let us not spare a single one of them—not even the child unborn in its mother's womb; let not a man of them be left alive, but let all in Ilius perish, unheeded and forgotten” (“Genocide” n. pag). In most cases of genocide, gender or age does not matter. It is ruthless mass murder. Another similar situation occurred centuries afterwards and this time in religious context. For centuries, the infamous mass killings justified by “guaranteed spot in heaven for killing heretics” known as the Crusades swept across Europe. Perhaps the most notable example was the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathar heresy in the South of France, which saw hundreds of thousands killed over its twenty-year period (“Genocide” n. pag). Hundreds of thousands of people mercilessly killed in a matter of years just because of their religious differences. All were done without an iota of remorse. On the contrary, all were
The Roots of Genocide and Hate Crimes: Innate Evil Does evil exist in the world? Yes, it does. Malicious acts like genocide and hate crimes are proof of existence of evil in individuals. The United Nations Convention on Genocide defines genocide as "any of a number of acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group," either by killing members of the group or imposing conditions that would ultimately lead to the group's extinction. (“Genocide” n. pag) This means genocide is very much “cleansing” the world of the group of individuals by an individual or a group, simply because they have different beliefs or values. A person causes the extermination of hundreds of thousands of people just because of their differences, and feel proud about it, without a single scratch or doubt in their conscience. If this is not the description of evil, then what is? The following quote by Agamemnon in Homer's Iliad, shows how the evil in the roots of humanity has not changed even in more than two millennia: “Let us not spare a single one of them—not even the child unborn in its mother's womb; let not a man of them be left alive, but let all in Ilius perish, unheeded and forgotten” (“Genocide” n. pag). In most cases of genocide, gender or age does not matter. It is ruthless mass murder. Another similar situation occurred centuries afterwards and this time in religious context. For centuries, the infamous mass killings justified by “guaranteed spot in heaven for killing heretics” known as the Crusades swept across Europe. Perhaps the most notable example was the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathar heresy in the South of France, which saw hundreds of thousands killed over its twenty-year period (“Genocide” n. pag). Hundreds of thousands of people mercilessly killed in a matter of years just because of their religious differences. All were done without an iota of remorse. On the contrary, all were