Absolute Evil

Last night, I wrote that Hitler wasn't completely evil as part of my argument that no one born on Earth ever was. This lead me to wonder whether or not "absolute evil" exists in anyone. Specifically, I wonder if Satan is 100% evil.

While we know that Hitler and everyone else who was born on Earth fought on God's side in the war in heaven, choosing to follow God's plan rather than Satan's, we also know that Satan fought against God. Whether that's inherently evil or not may depend on his motivations. If one fights against God out of ignorance, that's misguided, but not necessarily evil. Satan's motivations for fighting against God were selfish. He wanted a prominent position of glory and honor.

However, don't many of us want the same thing? Most of us are striving for exaltation, which involves a good deal of glory and honor, especially once we attain godhood. I don't know if that was exactly what Satan was going for, but it was probably something similar.

The evil of Satan's actions lies in how he intended to gain that position. He wanted glory and honor, but he didn't want to have to earn it the hard way, like we must. In fact, his plan would have fundamentally altered our role in the plan and would have rendered Earth life almost useless. Without agency, we couldn't make our own choices, so we would have had no way to earn the exaltation he was seeking. That's what was so evil about him: a complete disregard for others. He didn't care whether or not we would be able to progress; he just wanted to make sure that he would.

Of course, I'm not sure what's so selfless about following God's plan for our eternal welfare, and Hitler showed a rather strong disregard for the welfare of others as well (and that's putting it VERY lightly). Perhaps Hitler was pure evil after all, which would have been a shame since he had been on God's side at one time, as Lucifer had been before the war in heaven.

So, I'm not sure if there is such a thing as "absolute evil," or, if there is such a thing, how we might define it and who might have possessed it. Thankfully, speculation on the subject of absolute evil isn't important. What's important is for us not to become evil ourselves. Thankfully, we have some fairly (if not absolutely) evil examples to learn from, and the lesson, as usual, is love.

The way to avoid becoming evil like Satan or Hitler is to love others and seek their welfare, not just our own ends. Jesus was practically the embodiment of both goodness and love, and I don't think that's a coincidence. To be good is to love. So, if we want to be good rather than evil (and want to be blessed rather than damned), we should do the opposite of what Satan and Hitler did by loving and blessing others instead of using them or abusing them. Those two may or may not have been completely evil, but they're both certainly evil enough to provide a clear example of what NOT to do.