Are Wiccans ignoring evil?

Question

Hi,

1)I heard from most of the Wiccans that there is no evil.
But how can this be, we all do kill other living beings to survive.

Isn't it the most evil and everlasting truth?
Besides that, people fight, rape, war etc., aren't all these actions evil?

2)If God/dess -or both- created the universe with love, where is all those evil coming from?

3)If there is a dualist point of view in Wicca -Goddess & God, Women & Men, Evolution & Involution etc- why isn't there Good & Evil?

I am not against Wiccans, I know you have a very peaceful system.
I just want to know your way of thinking.
Thanks.

Yes, death is a part of life but killing isn't part of life.
It is a part of "our life".
Plants don't kill and in addition they give life to us by producing oxygen.
In this case, there is good and evil.

We can't say if we survive by killing, killing is ultimate goodness.
Surviving is necessary but it's only "good for us", it's "bad for the ones who couldn't survive because of us".
Again, we can differ good and evil.

Plus, we're not "free to choose" whether not to kill or not.
We have to kill.
Good and evil are not doctrines, they are natural and they are parts of life.

Answer 1

Eh... here's the subject in which you really see who's a down-to-earth Wiccan and who's a big bright-blessings-to-you-all fluffy bunny. There IS evil in this world. Unfortunately, a lot of overzealous people who share my religion seem to think that they will be persecuted if they even acknowledge the existence of the dark side (which is strange, because they usually WANT to be persecuted, just so that they can be more-persecuted-than-thou).

If you want more info on the fluffy bunnies (or if you want a good laugh), check this out: http://wicca.timerift.net/fluffy.shtml

Answer 2

Frankly, you're sort of operating with a Dr.Seuss view of Wicca...
"1)I heard from most of the Wiccans that there is no evil.
But how can this be, we all do kill other living beings to survive."

Killing other things to survive isn't evil. Your definition of evil is severely skewed.

"Isn't it the most evil and everlasting truth?"
No. It's not evil for a cat to eat a mouse, a tornado to wipe out a town, a blizzard to cripple Buffalo. These things are natural facts of life which have no morality attached to them. Humans have the ability to control the conditions of their prey, which other animals do not have and many take that ability to control as a mandate to treat the animals and plants they consume gently, but we're not under a moral obligation to do so. We choose to because of empathy....We choose to because of responsibility.

"Besides that, people fight, rape, war etc., aren't all these actions evil?"
Fighting and war are not always evil. Wicca teaches people to recognise that the world does not operate in an infantile way in which all actions are GOOD or BAD. Fighting Hitler was not evil. Going to war to stop genocide in Bosnia was not evil. Killing a person intent on killing others when there is no other way of stopping them is not evil.
Rape is generally 100% bad. However, some rape victims have turned their trauma into a reason to fight for justice. In the view of morality *you* are espousing, this isn't possible, because evil can't spawn good. I disagree. There is no singular action so dreadful that it cannot be made to have a benefit. Does it make those actions desirable? NO!!! Does it make those actions things we can live through? YES!

"2)If God/dess -or both- created the universe with love, where is all those evil coming from?"
You're even more confused about our deities than about evil.

"3)If there is a dualist point of view in Wicca -Goddess & God, Women & Men, Evolution & Involution etc- why isn't there Good & Evil?"
Wicca *isn't* dualist, indeed, there is man in every woman, god in every goddess. Wicca is about understanding everything exists in continuum. Yes, there can be poles, but most things in the universe don't work that way. Where there are binary concepts it is fascinating.

There is no force of evil, no force of good. The world doesn't work that way. ALMOST NOTHING in this world is cut and dried. The only thing you are responsible for and to is yourself (and your children, but that is a part of yourself.)

However, this is a discussion you need to have a FAR STRONGER knowledge of Wicca to understand. You're asking for the answers to Junior-level questions before you're taken your freshmen prerequisites, and that's why you're not understanding the answers.

Answer 3

For the record, I'm Wiccan.

Killing is not evil. Death is a part of life. Killing in order to survive is natural. Evil comes from motive, not from the raw action. Killing a child because you think it would be fun is evil. Killing and eating a deer is a part of life.

I find Wiccans tend to be overly defensive on the issue of evil. We don't believe in an entity promoting evil (i.e. Satan). Unfortunately, I've seen Wiccans many times translate this into "We don't believe in evil." I would like to think they are mispeaking. Certainly I believe in evil. But I believe evil comes from choice, not from some outside force. I also don't believe evil exists in nature, since it comes from free will. (For the record, I also don't believe good exists in nature. Trees aren't good or evil. They just are. And all humans are not good or evil. Individual humans choose to do good and evil actions.)

Wicca recognises complementary opposites in nature: man/woman, summer/winter, active/passive, creation/destruction, etc. Good and evil are not included because of the reasons above: they come from free will. They also have a different relatinship with each other. Male and female forces work together to create a whole. Good and evil do not.

Answer 4

From what I have read and understood so far, this is what I gather.

Wiccans do not believe in a deity that focuses completely on evil, such as the Christian Satan. The God and Goddess contain both good and evil aspects. I don't consider that denying evil, but rather a more realistic way to view good and evil.

I also think that you go on the assumption that the God and Goddess made us all completely good, which I don't believe to be the case. Very rarely do you see in nature pure good and pure evil. Everyone and everything is made containing the capacity for both.

Answer 5

This is just as much a biology question as it is a spiritual one.

We are animals. All animals must eat other animals to gain nutrition. It's not something that is debatable. Even vegetarians have to kill plants in order to gain nutrition. So whether you harvest corn, beans, tomatoes, etc., or go out and hunt deer for food, you are a killer.

But killing exists for more reasons than just nutrition, as you well know. All organisms fight for existence, competing with others for scarce resources. This can mean that, in some cases, where it makes the most biological sense, if you will, that one organism will kill another to better ensure its own existence. It occurs in the plant world, where trees that are larger block the sunlight from trees that are smaller, denying them of the energy they need to survive and thrive. It happens in bacteria, it happens in fungi, it happens in all organisms--whether the organism knowingly or unknowingly, directly or indirectly, causes the death of another organism, it happens.

The idea of evil is so subjective and so relative to one's point of view that it's nearly impossible to have a completely unjustifyable (whether the reason is biological or moral) reason to kill another organism. I'm not so sure that I (personally) would consider murder the most evil and everlasting truth. I would probably consider child rape the most evil thing a person could do. There is absolutely no way to justify it, morally or biologically.

I bring these things up not because I believe that everyone should go out and kill anyone they perceive as a threat to their existence, but because it is a hard truth of nature that things kill other things. Prescribing evil to the act is only an attempt by us humans to deal with things we don't understand. But whether something is evil or not doesn't necessitate whether the act is right or wrong in the eyes of society. Is stealing money from someone wrong? Yes. If they do it to feed their family, is it evil? Probably not, but it is still wrong through the filter of our human society. I can imagine a variety of cases where murder can fall under the same murky ethical logic.

With that, I can't speak for Wiccans. I only mean to say that the filters we choose to accept or reject are the means by which we judge evil, and that evil (as many other ideological principles) are completely subjective.

Answer 6

Well, I'm not specifically Wiccan, but I am Pagan and I can tell you that there is evil in the world.

I think what the Wiccans you've come across are trying to put this idea into words: Everything is gray, both good and bad, black and white. It's up to us what element we decide to pull out.

Think in terms of a knife. A knife is not initially a good or bad. It can be used for dicing up veggies for a salad, or it can be used to kill someone. It's us who choose which action to take.

Answer 7

Of course Wiccans, and Pagans as far as that goes, do not ignore "evil."
There are many of us who have worked for years with organizations that help those who have been harmed by rape, murder, physical abuse, those who hunger, etc. That also includes helping abused animals.
We don't just talk about change, we work to make positive changes in our world.
We don't believe in "Good & Evil." Many of us believe in different shades of gray. We also believe that the best solution to all of these crimes against other people and animals, is educations, love, and for people to start taking responsibility for ALL of their actions. Whereas, most other religions teach that where there is hate and crime, the devil is in control (adults should be in control), or when good things happen, a good god is to be thanked (we should be there for each other and do good for each other and thank each other).

Answer 8

Hi
1) Killing to survive it is not evil. Killing "for fun" that is evil. And "normally" it was done by humans only. Evil it is not something mistic. Evil it is our actions. People generate evil and trying to excuse actions by accuse "satan", bad atmosphere etc. The main point og saying there is no evil that people must take responsability of their acions, but not accuse something or somebody.
2) From ourself. Most of us forget we are not alone in the universe.
3) It is so cool too see only black and white, good and bad. But life it is not only two points of different sides.
Dualistic point is not good and bad, but harmony in life with others. Do whatever you want but do not harm anybody.

Cheers.

Answer 9

Most of the Wiccans? How ever did you manage that?

Wiccan belief contains the philosophy that there is no evil in anything, but anything can be misused (that is, the evil comes from our own selfish desires). Rape and war are cases of people with power using it for a bad purpose, when an army could just as easily be used to help people.

Answer 10

I have said this before, apparently it needs repeating. Good and Evil are much the same, they both come from the same mind and are created both from imagination. What we can imagine, we can create. Evil only exists because Good sees it as wrong. It is only a name, and is only wrong because we percieve it that way. So in that way, Good creates Evil. Ther has to be a balance, Good and Evil, Yin and Yang, because if we did not know Evil we would not know what Good is. We see killing as evil because we have formed the concept in our minds that taking another life is wong, because we have been taught to revere and respect life. We think and feel because we have been taught. That we are sentient and able to form thoughts and concepts is what causes us to separate things into Good, and Evil.