There Are Evil People
I’m Eating My Words
This post is a response to a conversation with Michelle, Chaotic Success and Michael Hughes from This and That who challenged me on my statements on May 16th 2025 where I had said:
There is no evil in the universe. There are no evil men. Only misled people. It’s only a domino effect. Misled people mislead people and they in turn mislead other people. That’s all there is to it.
Take any person you know who you believe is inherently evil. Look into their past and present. You will find at least one source that led them to be who they are today.
If you close one eye and see through the other, you will not see the full picture. Even when both eyes are fully open, we miss many things easily. When we are not fully into the present, we can easily be misled.
How much more those who lack empathy, understanding and love in their lives? There are no evil people. Only inherently misled ones!
The link to this note is here:
The response is:
Dear Michelle R Teel, Chaotic Success and This and That,
I hear the agony and the pain you have endured.
In saying that there is no evil in the universe, I meant to say that there is no Satan that is leading us. There are no heavenly realms that are present beyond our immediate earth where things are conspire against us.
In saying that there are no evil men only misled ones, I meant that whoever is exhibiting evil characteristics are doing so because they haven’t been taught better than that. Their encounters in life were stunted to other people who made them choose badly in life. They didn’t get to follow good examples like I did.
My parents were wonderful people. They led exemplary lives. They were genuine and kind to neighbors, friends and relatives. In watching them live their lives, I automatically followed their characteristics. I followed my dad and became a giver. I followed my mom and became a homemaker.
But I have met some people in my life who chose badly by stealing, lying, cheating, being abusive etc and when I looked into their families, I saw them also following from their parents. And I saw that their parents were also setting them bad examples simply because that’s all they had also known following from their parents. These parents that I met, they were fearful or they were insecure and those things marked their lives and made their children follow suit.
In mentioning the above, I didn’t try to give them credit or room or excuse that how they were living was alright. I didn’t mean that they could put the blame on their parents and be excused for their bad behaviors. Some of them, especially those who were exhibiting certain behaviors that were attributed to fears and insecurities, were like blind people in my eyes.
All my life, I had been upset with them and angry for their bad behaviors but recently I realized that they were who they were being because they couldn’t still understand me. That what they were thinking about me was wrong. They were behaving badly to me only because they were looking at me from a fearful perspective based on their own insecurities and that it had nothing to do with who I am or was when they met me. They had been misled and are still being misled and I finally understood that. And so, who I used to consider as evil no longer seem evil in my eyes. Only ignorant!
And when I looked at them from this new perspective, their evil behaviors seemed less evil to me. Basically they were reacting to what they assumed I was and am. Since I see them in a new light, their bad behaviors don’t bother me anymore as they used to. Now, I only feel sorry for their foolish behaviors.
I want to illustrate this with an example. My husband has a nerve missing in one of his eyes and as a result, he can’t move his pupil beyond a certain point in one of his eyes. It’s a deficiency. He can’t see beyond that angle due to that! If he wants to, he has to turn his face. It’s not so bad. We all have to turn our face to what’s on the side when we want to see it clearly and fully.
Just like that, some people cannot fully see (comprehend) what’s clearly visible to the rest of us with regard to righteous living. That was my understanding of evil behaviors. In saying this, I was not giving a free ticket for evil behaviors. I was trying to look at everything from their perspective.
But I haven’t really experienced evil people. Those who choose to hurt and harm others beyond gaslighting and pointing fingers and accusing and using abusive words. I haven’t been in your shoes. I haven’t looked at people from your perspective or experience. So, it was a blow to me when you lost it for my reasoning. I hadn’t thought about you when I wrote what I did about there being no evil people.
When I said what I did, I was challenged by you and I had to consider your perspectives as well. I know I have done somethings that I am not proud of myself. I have hurt some people also. But I did what I did not because I wanted to hurt them. I did what I did because I wasn’t thinking about them at all. I conveniently ignored their presence while focusing on my feelings alone and as a result I have been hurtful to some people and now that includes you as well.
There are many sides to a story and not everybody does evil things because they chose to do those things on purpose to afflict harm to others. And that’s what I was trying to say. But I truly was not giving a free pass to evil people because like I mentioned there were no evil people in my world. Only after being challenged by you and your encounters in life, I have learned to look at life from your perspective as well.
When I spoke about narcissists also, what I meant was that we should not quickly dismiss a person to be a narcissist who exhibits certain narcissistic traits but may not really be a narcissist at all. We should consider carefully before judging anybody. That’s what I was saying there. I didn’t ask to protect narcissistic people by not labeling them. Again, I was trying to look at the people in my life who appear to be narcissists but I’m not sure if they are really or if it’s just their reaction to their own fears and insecurities. I don’t want to quickly dismiss them as narcissistic and beyond repair. I couldn’t see beyond what I have met in my life.
But I do understand what you are saying. So I am biting my tongue and eating my words. There are evil people in this world who choose to do evil acts over and over and over again and they should not be excused. They should be reprimanded behind bars and sentenced to consequences for their actions so that others will not follow suit and they will reap what they sowed! I agree 💯 with you in that.
If I triggered you by my words, please forgive me. I didn’t mean to bring back your difficult days for you again. I’m sorry Michelle, Chaotic Success and Michael! And anybody else who got triggered through my words. I am was mistaken!
There absolutely is evil. The question of whether or not some men are born evil is still up for debate.
I do want to start this post by acknowledging that this will be a basically religious bias that is not shared by everyone, and that I don’t argue about religion, I respect peoples’ right to their beliefs. Faith is such a deeply personal thing, and I’ve learned that arguments in that realm rarely create ”aha” moments—they often only further separate us, rather than bring us closer together.
But if we can take the conversation to that level: Big ideas, shared values, ethical ramifications, the real-world implications of some action or ideological stance, I remain open to dialogue. I’m not here to make anyone see the world the way I do, but I am here to find understanding, commonality and respect, even when we don’t view things the same way.