Are All Evil Acts Equally Evil?

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Is every burglary or theft both immoral and evil? No. Theft of bread for someone starving or to feed children might be seen as desperate necessitation – stealing cash or sellable jewellery, the TV set, etc. can be seen as an economic shortcut – immoral but not necessarily evil. Stealing a family photo album of no financial worth just to spitefully deprive the owner of its sentimental value might be seen as motiveless and therefore evil. Others might see any theft as evil. Someone murdering a partner in rage over infidelity is clearly not as evil as dismembering eight strangers chosen at random, or going on a shooting spree on a school campus. The motives and kinds of evil involved seem to be different too. Similarly the home defender turned vigilante might be enraged enough to see crucifying the intruder in the cellar as proportionate action as a warning to others not to attack his home as his castle again while others might see this as over-reaction and excess. Our instincts may well lie to us. We might not even stop or listen to the unarmed surrendering captured intruder’s heart-breaking sincere explanation and repentant apology before battering him with a breeze block. We are all moral creatures but our moral priorities are different – which rules apply? British soccer football, Australian Rules Football, American Football, Rugby union or league? Until we have a level playing field and all sing from the same song-book ethics is going to remain just as highly subjective and even competitive as any sport. We are all striving to be moral but not all in the same way. Even evil is similarly different in different situations – Jack The Ripper and Hitler are both rightly deemed evil but what they did and what drove them is very different and beyond just the number of people they hurt and killed. Good and evil are diverse and complex – it is never going to happen in a one size fits all design and trying to impose one on us as religious moralists often do might itself count as evil. Arthur Chappell