Editorial - The Real World vs The Paranormal World

We live in a world where terrorism can happen at any moment. At any place. And it affects everyone. Today as a sat down to start my weekly editorial, I was devastated to see what just happened in Orlando, Florida, overnight. A nightclub was the target this time. Not a movie theater. Not a kindergarten class. Not a military base. People were dancing. Drinking. Partying. Having a good time. Maybe meeting friends. It could happen to any one of us. That is the nature of terrorism. The shooter was an American Muslim named Omar Mateen. And the target was a packed gay nightclub.

As I sit down to write this, I was going to write about Bigfoot or maybe ghosts, but the news is reminding me of what's going on in the real world.  The paranormal world (for all of us) is an escape from our daily lives. It's a place where we go to seek answers for the unexplained. It's relatively a safe place. Unless you get abducted by aliens, become a chapter is a David Paulides' book, or get turned into a vampire against your choice. People just don't get killed on such a massive scale in the paranormal world like we see in our real world... the world that which we live in. You don't see ghosts rampaging a movie theater, or aliens obliterating an entire school, or sasquatch annihilating a concert venue.  Humans. Flesh and blood creatures, you and me, with the capability to make the decision to do right or wrong.

 In Florida, 50 innocent souls have been taken from a single gun man with 53 more fighting for their lives.  There is evil in the world. There has always been evil... there will always be evil. The concept of evil is very abstract. However, not every human being is evil since we have all done bad things. And we are not evil as a whole. Being evil is a choice. And how we respond to it is how we learn. When people know what they are doing is bad but choose to do so anyway, that's considered evil. They therefore act with malicious intent. Evil people care little or not at all with what they are doing or how it may be harmful to others; and what can be really scary is some evil people even derive sadistic pleasure from it. Moreover, some evil people are very cunning and can disguise their evil intentions and lack of regard for others. Hence a hidden gunman. These individuals may be charming rapists, conmen or murderers.  Of course, there are degrees of evil and some evil people are not as evil as others.  For example, it is arguable that a person willing to kill you and be amused by it is more evil than a person who is only willing to steal your money then kill you out of fear you will point the finger at them.  

Are we the only species on this planet that has the evil element? Debate.org wrote: 

Animals are not evil and can't be evil, but they can be aggressive about the preservation of their genes. Only human beings uses an abstract concept such as "good" and "evil" that has no true dividing line, since what could be bad for somebody is good for somebody else, so we are the only creatures in this world that cries for their sins from a corner of their mouth while the other praises violence to obtain a goal. In a way we are not so different from animals, we simply thought up a way to make those who used their instincts feel bad about themselves and sometimes it doesn't even work. Animals do not possess morals. But we supposedly do.

 So it's a question about morals then. Morals rules of conduct that has been established and agreed upon by the majority of a society. Morality is like a guide for rational beings, and while moral theories can vary among different societies, morals often play an important role in the formation of ethics. Is it ethical to kill a bunch of homosexuals in a nightclub? Sadly, some will say yes. Because morality is often used to refer to the code of conduct accepted by an entire society, different morals may be accepted and practiced by individual groups within a society. Which includes religious fanatics. There is man's law, and then there is God's law.

From Independent: 

"In my society, being gay means death," said one gay Iraqi man to the United Nations Security Council, hiding his identity out of fear for his safety. ISIS thinks homosexuals are evil and therefore are doing their God's work.

From CBS News: 

"They are violating God's laws and doing something that is forbidden in Islam, so this is a legitimate punishment," said Hajji Mohammed, a resident of the ISIS-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul. There the group has thrown men suspected of being gay off the Insurance Building, a landmark about 10 stories high. 

By employing the grisly method, ISIS aims to show radicals that it is unflinchingly carrying out the most extreme strains in Islam - a sort of "ideological purity" the group boasts distinguishes it even from other militants. The punishment "will protect the Muslims from treading the same rotten course that the West has chosen to pursue," ISIS proclaimed in its online English-language magazine Dabiq.

Is religion to blame for the evil that happened last night in Florida? One group says it's evil. Another says it's ideological purity. Both intertwined in an infinite loop. This is chaos. No wonder so many of us find escape into the paranormal world. It's safer. It makes more sense.

Lacking empathy for your fellow man is a virus and it's darkness is spreading. But there are heroes and those that choose to help one another. And their light is blinding!

DeeCee Salter

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