The Two Sides to Man

Life is a struggle. Every human being struggles. From instance of conception to death is a struggle. A struggle for life. We struggle within ourselves, with each other and with all things. Man struggles because he is divided within himself. He is divided because there is goodness and badness, good and evil, within him. The good is man originates from God; the evil is man’s selfish instinct. In all of creation evil only exists in man. Galaxies, solar systems, suns, planets, nature, oceans, land, animals, and vegetation contain no evil only man contains evil. A storm that kills is not evil; that is an act of nature. A man that kills is evil; that is an act of his selfish instinct. The universal struggle between good and evil is being played out in man. Man is good because he contains the image of God, but also he is fallen, he has been damaged, he has fallen from perfection. Catholicism recognises this dualism in man. Catholicism is realistic and practical. Catholicism has eternal joyous hope in the goodness of man (goodness which comes solely from God) and pragmatic realism that there is also capacity for evil (evil which comes from man’s fall).  Man that is pure evil and badness would have no moral instant. But man has a moral instinct. Any moral behaviour from such evil man would only exist if it was a means to an end. The purely evil man would sometimes have to commit some good act (act against his nature) to enable an evil end. A purely good man would commit no sin, suffer no guilt, but would suffer; there would be no requirement to seek forgiveness or say sorry. But man is “neither”, nor is he an “or”, he is a combination; there are two sides to man’s existence. Morality serves a duel function, a guide for the goodness in man and a counter to the badness in man.