... well, not in the way most people think.

There's this prevailing belief that good and evil are somehow polar opposites -- that each is sort of a mirror image of the other. For example, in Star Wars, one gets the feeling that the "light" and "dark" sides of the force are two equal options -- in the end, why should one choose "good"? What makes it "good" anyway?

To add to this confusion, there's the popular image of Yin and Yang -- the black and white are in conflict, but in the heart of the black is white, and in the heart of the white is some black. Certainly, in human terms, there's some evil in the best person, and some capability for goodness even in the worst person , but in philosophical terms, this is again an untrue picture.

In fact, evil is dependent upon goodness.

Good is an independent phenomenon. It can survive without evil. Evil, on the other hand, is dependent on goodness. Some would say it is a twisting of goodness.

Consider lies and truth: If I were to say to you: "2 plus 2 equals 4", where is the lie in that statement? It is a fact, plain and simple. Likewise, if I said: "I am a person." I am indeed a person, and there is nothing at all dishonest about saying so.

Now let's look at lies: In order for a lie to be dangerous, or harmful (i.e. "evil"), it must have a high truth content. Consider if I said: "My friend Bob is actually a large pile of iron ore." How likely is that to ruin Bob's life?

Not very: everyone is well aware he is NOT a pile of iron ore. Humans are not piles of rock -- there is nothing even remotely visibly true about that statement, so it can do very little harm. People would not even recognize that as a "lie", they would simply think it an untruth, and suspect the speaker was off their meds.

But if Bob were married, and tended to spend a lot of time out of town as salesperson, and I said: "Bob is cheating on his wife when he goes out of out town, and he told me that, as his friend." What of that?

That's quite a dangerous lie, and could likely put some tension into Bob's marriage, because it is much more believable. There are all kinds of truths in that lie: (a) Bob is married, (b) Bob is a salesman, (c) Bob does spend a lot of time out of town, (d) I am Bob's friend and he's been known to tell me things from time to time.

In fact, the most evil lies of all are those closest to the truth -- the higher the truth content, the more evil the lie is, and the more it is likely to cause harm. You can look at the Holocaust for an example: "Well, hey, many Jews are kind of different-looking, and they do sometimes own banks, and they do tend to keep to themselves..." that made it all too easy to believe that some minority group was part of a secret plot to control the entire world, and thus needed to be wiped out.

So truth is the fuel that lies use to do wreak their damage.

Consider another example: Lust makes people do all sorts of stupid things. A husband cheats on his wife because he is attracted to the pretty young thing at work: that's bad. But if we break it down, we find all kinds of good things gone wrong: First, it's basicly a good thing that men are attracted to women -- it ensures the continuation of the species. The problem only comes when he's married and she's not his wife. And they probably had a friendship before they had an affair -- again, friendships are good. And she may have been looking for a father-figure. Again, the desire for a father-figure is a good thing, though it's a mistake to try to find that sexually.

Each of these factors on its own was not a problem. The problem was that each is good in it's own place: the best circumstance for the reproductive act is an environment where the potentially-produced children will have everything they need -- most notably, a stable long-term relationship between their parents -- to develop and thrive. When the husband brings that good thing outside his marriage, he hurts his wife and children. (Not to mention himself.)

One last example: A man robs a bank. That's bad, and a crime. But look at the parts again: He wanted some income. That's good, actually. Perhaps he planned the crime. Planning is good -- it shows some diligence which is also good. The problem was the he took all these things beyond their rightful bounds: Our desire for money should be satisified by trying to get people to give it to us voluntarily, by doing something of value to them, not by taking it by force. It is all these good things, when taken out of their proper context, or used for the wrong purposes, which produce evil.

So, again, we see evil is a twisting of goodness.