Mass School Shootings as Evil

 

In the accounts of the mass shooting in the Nashville school I don't recall the shootings or the shooter being call evil a single time. And I find that very interesting.

The shootings have been described by any number of ways in the context of being "bad" or "disturbing". So why not as "evil"? 

Evil is one of those words that have no physical meaning. You cannot put evil in a jar. It gains meaning on in context of conscious actions in violation of some moral or ethical standard.

A rational definition of evil might be that "(1) it causes grievous harm to (2) innocent victims, and it is (3) deliberate, (4) malevolently motivated, and (5) morally unjustifiable".

The recent tornadoes across the us meet the requirements (1) and (2) for evil. It meets requirement (3) only if nature or some supernatural entity -- a god or gods -- can be held deliberately accountable. Indeed, evil has throughout history over the last 2000 years or so been held as (4) when malevolently motivated, say, some devil, or (5) when in violation of divine law.

The mass shootings in Memphis are similar except the the "evil"  agent in this case is a human rather than nature.  The evil requirement (1), (2), (3) and (4) apply but (5) is questionable. Morally justification  is difficult to ascribe to anyone or anything except those of the shooter. 

With the "death of God" (as Nietzsche described it) we therefore have no moral grounds to consider anything "evil". That only leaves (5) as the violations determined by human law based on morals and ethics as define by the humans in a society. And we call the violation of these as being "bad". And so it is we hear the mass shooting called atrocious, heinous, awful, shocking, despicable, diabolical, beastly, appalling, disgusting, horrendous, gruesome, deplorable, hideous, heart-wrenching,  barbaric, horrific, abominable, or any such thing with negative connotations. Any such thing, that is, except evil.

That raises the question of whether our society is better served with civil law rather than divine law serving as our agent of authority to protect us from mass school shootings. History seem to suggest that we are not.  

 

Exodus 20

¹² “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

¹³ “You shall not murder.

¹⁴ “You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵ “You shall not steal.

¹⁶ “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

 

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