John Walker
RS300
Civil Religion

Evil will always be in this world and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. People killing one another for food and money because they feel there is no other way to deal with poverty. Also countries declaring war on each other for political views or resources. There are even groups such as the militia that believe anyone who does not follow the Islamic ways should be punished by death. This is only a short list of evil that goes on around the world. In my opinion I believe that there really is no cure for evil because violence seems to be resolved with violence. Furthermore, Evil can be a very contradicting topic. For instance, when two nations go to war one fires their weapon and the other responds by firing theirs. Is this considered evil? From my perspective I believe that evil can be aided using the rules of “The Just War Theory”.
Terrorism is an act of evil because it involves killing innocent people. Although Islam means peace it has been misunderstood and taught wrong by militia leaders. According John Kelsay in the article Bin Laden’s reasons if you are a believer in Allah it is an individual duty for every Muslim to fight against Americans and their allies when possible. Also, it is tied to the phrase “in the path of God”, where it is a general duty for Muslims to command the good and forbid the evil. Many Muslims have misunderstood this phrase thinking it is ok to harm non-Muslims because they are non believer of Allah. Moreover, because of the jihadi incarnations of Osama bin laden and his group, some Muslims believe that suicide bombings are the answer to solving evilness. They believe that suicide is an act of heroism and that their God will reward them in the afterlife. (anees 278)During an interview on October 2001 Osama Bin laden states “Just as they are killing us we have to kill them so that there will be a balance of terror”. This proves that Osama took an aggressive stance by invading and attacking the United States.
You should avoid any violence unless it is a threat to you. I believe that violence should be used only as punishment depending on the level of evil done. For example, If someone steals from you or calls you a name that person does not deserve to be harmed or dead but, if that person orders two planes to invade another country to destroy the world trade center and not car about the danger of the civilians then that person or group deserves to be punished and brought to justice using the rules of “Just War”. There are lots of actions that can be considered evil. How should evil be punished? In a perfect world there would be no evil or acts of evil but in reality it seems that evil is difficult to avoid. It seems in order to defeat evil you must use evil itself to do so. For instance, if someone is in a fight and gets hit they are not going to stand there. They are going to defend themselves and fight back. Defending yourself may be harmful to the other person but I believe that’s the best way evil can be fought.
In addition, “The just war” theory has a set of rules to determine whether it is worth going to war and if so how you should handle the evil doers. In the Article “war” by Brian Orend it is stated you may declare war only if it is a “just cause”. Moreover, a just cause means that you may defend yourself from outside attacks or to defend innocents from wrongdoers. For instance, acts such as a power or land grab, or irrational motives, such as revenge or hatred are not part of the rules. (Brian) Furthermore, if you are in the act of war with another country or terrorism, the stronger