It seems as if not a day goes by now without news reports of evil spreading in forms such as contagion, hatred, corruption, abuse, mass killings, or terrorism, leaving many people feeling helpless. At the same time, however, we are seeing, worldwide, more people praying together for health, peace, justice, and freedom. But too often the picture does not look hopeful.
Perhaps this is because the tendency is to define evil based on what we see and hear, such as TV images of violence or reports of disease, and then we attach evil to certain individuals, causing a division when people start pointing a finger at each other. But the real enemy is not who or what the physical senses perceive, but what is behind it—the mental state. In order to subdue the effect of evil and prove it powerless to destroy good, we must understand the aggressively deceptive nature of evil.
Evil is the false suggestion that we each have a personal mind, resulting in many minds and wills, some evil and capable of manipulating other minds. But God, infinite good, is the only Mind governing each one of us, and this is the only true power.
