Quote-Tastic #6 What is Evil?

Anna at Herding Cats & Burning Soup has created a new weekly meme. Want to join along?

  Click on the link above. Anna is posting hers on Mondays, as am I, but you can choose any day of the week that works for you. Leave me a link in your comment and I will check out your quotes!

Layton Green has become one of my favorite mystery authors. But his mysteries are not typical. His characters investigate crimes involving religious phenomena, typically cults, and Green ruminates on all manner of religious and philosophical questions. He also has a knack for taking a location and making it part of the story, almost another character. The quote below is composed of several related quotes that I edited and strung together.

My review of this book will be live at 8AM EST today.

But Christianity's and Zoroastrianism's version of the Devil, as well as the original Jewish concept of a Satan--which simply means adversary in Hebrew--all beg the same question: from where did evil arise?

"I think it best if we know and understand our adversaries, or at least that which we perceive our adversaries to be. I believe in combating ignorance with knowledge, and hopefully wisdom."

"Pure hedonism as the highest form of evil, the antithesis of selflessness. And from where do you believe the impetus for such behavior derives?

"I'd like to say nature, but I'm not sure I believe that. Plenty of evil acts serve no biological or evolutionary function. But nurture just begs the same question, since it started somewhere."