Am I evil, wanton or just retarded., page-63

I understand that evil exists, my point is that it exists when there is an absence of light, of goodness, of love, of understanding. Just as darkness only exists when there is no light.

Prejudice is evil, wife bashing is evil, pedophilia is evil, back biting is evil, etc, etc, etc. The point being that all these and countless more forms of negative behaviour can only occur when the positive attributes of being human are removed. So evil does not manifest as a force, it is a consequence of removing positive traits, virtues, moral rectitude.

Just reconsidering this comment again, for what it's worth.

Your light/dark analogy is similar to the hot/cold situation and I don't think it's a valid analogy for good/evil because in both cases, one state is simply the absence of the other ie. active positive energy.

The negative behaviours you listed, prejudice, wife bashing, pedophilia, back biting, etc. are all active evils, or works of negativity, requiring the expenditure of negative energy, whereas goodness, love, compassion, kindness, etc. are works of positivity requiring the expenditure of positive energy.

So, wouldn't the consequence of removing positive traits, virtues, moral rectitude, etc. be simply a neutral and relatively harmless apathy rather than an active evil?