good and evil

Throughout human existence, questions have arisen concerning the nature of good and evil. Many scientist, philosophers, and theologians have been intrigued by these questions. Through Augustine’s Confessions and E. O. Wilson’s In Search of Nature, one is accessible to two distinct perspectives concerning the nature of good and evil. Augustine sets up an argument in his Confession that attempts to define evil. God is the author of everything. Augustine says, “nothing that exists …

…that evil exists only as the absence of good or absence of God, stating “to Your [God] whole creation likewise, evil is not” (Book VII, Chapter XIII). Although the theories seem essentially divergent, it is clear throughout both narratives that evil is intrinsically unknown, that it is our own fears that proceed to make it into a power or substance and yet we as human beings have no way of proving or disproving its being.