I've often thought this myself that we need the darker forces in our lives to push us to wake up and discover who we really are. Otherwise we would probably just live a very complacent life without finding out who we are at a deeper level and what we feel passionate about. When we look with this approach we can then thank those 'evil things' for the part they played in causing us to wake up and I guess then we don't really perceive them as evil anymore but rather as motivators on our journey.Good question!!

Agreed.

   
 INT.  PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY

    Agent Smith stands in the bedroon of the enormous suite,
    staring out the windows at the city, below, shimmering
    with brilliant sunlight.

    				AGENT SMITH
    		Have you ever stood and stared at
    		it, Morpheus?  Marveled at its
    		beauty.  Its genius.  Billions of
    		people just living out their 
    		lives... oblivious.

    		Did you know that the first Matrix
    		was designed to be a perfect human
    		world?  Where none suffered, where
    		everyone would be happy.  It was a
    		disaster.  No one would accept the
    		program.  Entire crops were lost.

    		Some believed we lacked the
    		programming language to describe
    		your perfect world.  But I believe
    		that, as a species, human beings
    		define their reality through
    		suffering and misery.

Very good question Stingray. And most definitely is the answer.

It is actually a past bad experience in my life that has steered me towards spirituality which then allowed me to understand the reason we are on this planet and the secrets to living a fulfiling life. Without having gone through such an experience, I would probably still be looking for the meaning to life.

Also, it is the contrast in life that allows us to have preferences and as a result launch desires as to what we want to manifest in our existence. In other words, if there were not things that we did not like around us which I would refer to as evil things, then we would not know what we prefer as we would not know any better. It is indeed the evil things in life that allows us to desire for better things for a better and happier existence.

Would Jesus have become so effective without Judas?

(I have a sneaking suspicion that if we met Judas we might be pleasantly surprised. It was said that he thought he was doing what he thought was the right thing for Jesus (saving him for himself) and was horrified when he saw the unexpected consequences of his action - hence his suicide. How many well meaning actions of our own do we see have unintended consequences?)

Excellent question Stingray!

Maybe we can give a thought to whether the world is better now than before the two world wars.

Humans need problems to solve. Without those problems, there's nothing to exercise the mind and body with. If you define good and bad as what is desired and not desired in your life, there is definitely plenty to chew on.

This is why perfection can be such a trap. If you define perfection as the absence of bad, evil or the undesired, then what happens when you arrive? Is perfection boring? Is Heaven dull?

From Illusions, the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach:

"I'm not sure I want to be perfect and finished. Talk about boredom."

"Look at the sky," he said, and it was such a quick subject-change that
I looked at the sky. There was some broken cirrus, way up high, the first bit
of moonlight silvering the edges.

"Pretty sky," I said.

"It is a perfect sky?"

"Well, it's always a perfect sky, Don."

"Are you telling me that even though it's changing every second, the sky
is always a perfect sky?"

"Gee, I'm smart. Yes!"

"And the sea is always a perfect sea, and it's always changing, too," he
said. "If perfection is stagnation, then heaven is a swamp! And the Is ain't
hardly no swamp-cookie."

Interesting question. When it comes to good an evil where does good end and evil begin, or vice versa.

Is it evil to kill someone?

What about if you kill them in a car accident because you were drunk?

What if you weren't drunk, but the road was icy and you were driving safely?

What if you, the driver, were driving very cautiously at night and the pedestrian, whom you killed, wasn't looking and ran out into the middle of the road and got run down?

What if the pedestrian was playing a stupid game of chicken and got cuaght out?

What if teh pedestrian was trying to commit suicide?

Where does evil start and good end? Is there such a thing, or is everything on a continuum, and we as human beings, not as spiritual beings have decided.

There is a big difference between evil things and some negative energy force that you might have to over come to understand and appreciate the nice and good things in life.

Now true if you live where you always got everything you ever thought you wanted you would be very unhappy and you would always be searching for something of what you don't know. But I always call that missing God within our lives that let us know we need to help others. For if you have everything in life and you reach out there and help others than you most likely will feel good for the joy you have place upon their faces.

In my opinion there is nothing good about evil now we can have some hardships, some down moments, some unhappiness to remind us how nice it is to feel good, to be happy, and what makes us happy and safe. But not pure evil it is very bad for us, it can cause us to lose our soul if we are not careful, and Eve and Adam brought that into the world.

But because of our free will and our choices we make all we need is enough of the correct data to make wise choices for us and to become one with the Lord Jesus.

You can contrast two events and label them as bad or good in comparison to each other. Therefore, one is less good than another. Eventually, you will come across, in comparison and in scale, one extreme event to another extreme event. So much in extreme contrast that one is labeled evil (bad) and the other labeled love (good). Actually, then, there really isn't any evil except to what it is compared to. Unfortunately, or fortunately, yes it takes some event to happen to compare with another event to become aware of something better or more good. Which, hopefully brings us closer to a life and character that is perceived as all good. Helen Wilmans makes a great comment on this subject.

Don't overcomplicate things. While it's nice to have a different perspective over things...

evil is an enemy

Not a friend. It's that simple.

When you play soccer, or any game, with your friend, that person becomes your enemy in the game, and you the other enemy. To be able to "play" life we need enemies, and "evil" is just one enemy in the game of life.

And it's not "most people won't do anything". Every single one of us will only do anything when confronted by it.