The Truth about Evil and Punishment

What is evil and punishment Truly?

Continuation of the article Passive Obedience and Blind Faith—The Two Principles of the False Idea

Evil is not making mistakes, then asking for forgiveness and being obedient to good.

God punishes? No! What is punishment?

Isn't this concept totally different from what we have learned? Is punishment something that happens in the world? No, the punishment is the person's moral suffering and, if they do not change, they will not find happiness.

No selfish person is happy, because they know, intimately, that they are not doing good. But why would someone be selfish, knowing they are wrong, suffering because of it, and still continuing in the same selfish behavior?

Through Spiritism, we uncover the roots of selfishness and pride. Spiritism does not confront people or ideas; he confronts selfishness and pride as concepts that harm spiritual progress.

The guilty Spirit first suffers in spiritual life due to the degree of its imperfections, and is then granted bodily life as a means of reparation. That is why the Spirit finds in her, either the people she offended, or situations similar to those in which she committed evil, or even situations opposite to those she experienced, for example, facing misery if she was a bad rich person, or a humiliating condition if was proud. This is not a double punishment, but the same one that is continued on Earth, as a complement, with a view to facilitating your progress towards effective work. It depends on the Spirit himself to make it profitable. Isn't it better for him to return to Earth, with the possibility of gaining Heaven, than to be condemned without remission when he leaves it? This freedom that is granted to him is proof of the wisdom, goodness and justice of God, who wants man to owe everything to his own efforts, thus being the architect of his future. If you are unhappy, whether you are unhappy for a longer or shorter period of time, complain only to yourself – the path to progress is always open to you.

Allan Kardec. Heaven and Hell: Or divine justice according to Spiritism, publisher Feal (p. 78). Kindle Edition.

However, it is crucial to fully understand what selfishness entails in order to combat it effectively. Recognizing your mistakes and feeling guilty is the first step towards change. Otherwise, the individual will continue to suffer.

The false idea that God is the cause of our suffering is wrong. In fact, we are judges and prisoners of ourselves and our own thoughts. Spiritism teaches us this. Knowing this, will you choose to remain trapped or free yourself? To be a slave or free? It's your choice.

No one is obligated to act for the good. Freedom is fundamental to acting in good ways. God does not put anyone to watch anyone. When you do good, you will do it with all your effort. The moment you act with integrity, other spirits approach to do the same: the network of kindness is created.

If you are acting with ulterior motives, other spirits notice and you isolate yourself by choice. That's the mechanism!

Is someone really watching us in the spiritual world? No! Is there a specific place to be punished? No! This is false! Does Emmanuel mention the threshold? Yes, he mentions it, but they are deluded spirits that gather there. Good spirits see bad spirits as sick people to be cured and not as adversaries to be fought. The fight between good and evil is a false idea!

This article was prepared based on a lecture given by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo. Click here to meet her.

Continue on The Dominion by Lies and Violence




The problems of belief in nothingness (nihilism) and punishment

The belief in punishment, even within Spiritism (or the Spiritist Movement) and the belief in nothingness lead man into two very complicated situations. Let's see:

When you believe in nothingness, you focus on enjoying the present at any cost. This is what Kardec shows us in Heaven and Hell (FEAL):

Is there anything more desperate than the idea of absolute destruction? Sacred affections, intelligence, progress, knowledge laboriously acquired, all would be undone, all would be lost! What is the need for the effort to become better, to repress passions, to enrich our spirit, if we are not to reap any fruit from it, especially given the idea that tomorrow, perhaps, it will no longer serve us for anything? If that were so, man's lot would be a hundred times worse than that of the savage, who lives entirely in the present, in the satisfaction of his material appetites, without aspirations for the future. A secret intuition tells us that this is not possible.

By believing in nothingness, man inevitably focuses his thoughts on the present life. In fact, there would be no need to worry about a future from which nothing is expected. This exclusive concern with the present naturally leads you to think about yourself before everything else; It is, therefore, the most powerful stimulus to selfishness. The unbeliever is coherent when he reaches the conclusion: “Let us enjoy while we are here, let us enjoy as much as possible, because after us, everything will be over; let us enjoy quickly, because we don’t know how long it will last”, as well as this other one, much more serious for society: “Let us enjoy, no matter at whose expense; every man for himself; Happiness, down here, is the most cunning.” If religious scruple restricts the actions of some, what restraint will there be for those who believe in nothing? For these, human law only reaches fools, and that is why they dedicate their talent to ways of dodging it. If there is a harmful and anti-social doctrine, it is certainly that of neantism ((Doctrine of nothingness, nihilism)), because it breaks the true bonds of solidarity and fraternity, the foundation of social relations.”

KARDEC, Allan. Heaven and Hell, Editora FEAL.

Something diametrically opposed to the nihilistic thinking glorified by Nietzsche:

The discovery of Christian morality is an unparalleled event, a true catastrophe. The sacred pretext of making humanity better appears as the cunning to exhaust life itself, to make it anemic. The concept of the afterlife was invented to devalue the only world that exists - to strip our earthly reality of all purpose, all reason, all purpose! The concept of the soul, of the spirit, and finally of the immortal soul, was invented to despise the body. Finally - and this is the most terrible thing - in the concept of the good man, one sides with everything that is weak, sick, a failure, everything that is passive in itself, everything that must perish - the law of natural selection is contradicted, and an ideal is made out of the opposition to the haughty and successful man, the man who says yes, the man who guarantees and is certain of the future - this now becomes the bad man... And all of this was believed to be moral.

NIETZSCHE, 2008, p. 99-100

On the other hand, when man believes in the idea of the fall through sin or in human life as a way of “paying debts”; in other words: when he believes in the idea of divine punishment, he becomes unable to proactively deal with his problems. A woman who, for example, lives with a bad partner, who attacks her, physically or morally, may believe (and many tell her this) that she is living a “recovery” from past lives. He must, therefore, submit to inhumane conditions, in order, as they say, to “pay off his debts”.

This way of thinking is often taught from a child's earliest days, when they are subjected to punishment instead of being encouraged to develop their own rational autonomy. We've already dealt with this in the article "Punishment irritates and imposes. Don't educate for reason.


The fanaticism of credulity creates unbelievers, because it answers nothing. It takes the individual out of control of their responsibility: if they do evil, it's the devil's fault; if they do good, it's divine grace.

The fanaticism of unbelief, on the other hand, goes in the same direction and produces the same thing as the first: the individual, whether he does evil or good, is because of his DNA.

Both turn people into automatons who are left with nothing but worldly pleasures and the prospect of nothingness or eternal damnation. The middle way, in its rational excellence, is Rational Spiritualism and Spiritism (in its origin). See this study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCD2_iAQySw.


We recommend the following study to everyone:




Charity and Spiritism:

When you want to do good, action is undoubtedly essential, without forgetting that what really counts is the intention. Not because God is writing down intentions, but because it is what counts for the individual's learning or attachment. But we cannot forget that the ideal is to know what to do, so as not to do it wrong. Let's talk about Charity and Spiritism.

Speaking of the Spiritist Movement, we unfortunately have the practice of some who place themselves in judgment. On the one hand, some who limit themselves to accumulating knowledge for themselves criticize those who focus on practice. On the other hand, some, who limit themselves to action, unwilling to seek knowledge, they judge those who seek knowledge, as if knowledge were not useful. I'm here to show you that both extremes are wrong.

Hell is full of good intentions

There is a popular saying that says: “hell is paved with good intentions”. This means: wanting to do good, but not knowing what to do, one can produce evil. It is clear, of course, that there is no condemnation except by one's own conscience and that the individual who makes a mistake in wanting to do good will feel much less moral suffering than one who makes a mistake in wanting to do evil. But the fact that I highlight is that, to do good, the ideal is to know what you are doing, and that is why understanding Spiritism is so important for the real understanding of what charity is.

Some time ago, a group of young people got together to fulfill a friend's dream: jumping from bungee jump, which consists of attaching yourself to ropes and jumping from a high place. They got the ropes, tied their friend, who then jumped off a cliff, only to fall to the ground and die. The problem? They didn't know the science of what they were doing and didn't calculate the size of the rope well. I think about the guilt that each of them must carry even today.

Accumulating knowledge without doing anything

There are also individuals who focus on accumulating knowledge. But they apply this knowledge neither to themselves nor to the good of others: they only keep it for themselves, so that, whenever possible, they can prove that they know more than others. It is the height of pride and selfishness, but, one day, this knowledge will be useful for you to act when you regret your mistakes.

Report: elderly, poor and with eight children to look after

As a personal story, I can tell you about a spiritist center that I attended for many years. For as long as I can remember, the practice there has been focused on good, but according to the ideas that shape the current spiritist movement, as if it were a religion: attend the weekly “spiritist house” meeting, listen to the lecture, take a pass and leave . Once a month there is a mediumistic meeting to assist suffering Spirits. Outside of there, we don't talk about Spiritism, much less practice it. The Center is empty, because there is no greater interest. With much effort and overcoming enormous difficulties, the participants of the house promote a monthly event to deliver basic food baskets to families in need. And that's it. These families do not participate in household activities and do not know the real beauty of Spiritism. Leaving there, they go to other institutions and churches to look for more necessary items.

Once, when I happened to be present on that food basket delivery day, we noticed a lady who had been there for over two years. She was extremely sad. His situation: at almost 70 years old, he lost two of his children in different accidents. These children left her with a total of eight children, who she tried to support by collecting rubbish and counting on some help she got from here and there.

Disgusted with God

That day, this lady was desperate and angry with God. I couldn't accept this situation. He asked himself: “What God is this that allows such things?” Noticing this, my mother and I started talking to her especially. We managed to make her understand that these things happen, as part of the tests. What maybe whether it was something previously chosen or not, but, in any case, she was playing such an important role in the lives of these children, teaching them the example of love, dedication and, above all, giving them such important moral values. I told him: “these Spirits will be very grateful for your efforts”, which brought a new sparkle to his eyes.

Furthermore, we organized ourselves in different ways and obtained various donations, including mattresses, as the children slept on the floor.

From that day on, we saw a new energy dominate your Spirit. A new determination to face these difficulties dominated his being. She put aside her revolt, because something clear and simple met her reasoning.

The real face of Spiritism

This “something”, clear and simple, is Spiritism in its essence. Not this “spiritualism” with a small “e”, removed from Kardec's scientific studies and trapped by the most diverse errors born from the blind acceptance of the Spirits' opinions, almost always in mediumistic romances. No: the spiritism, philosophical doctrine, developed by the scientific method. “Spiritism is not a work that marches in the shadows. He is known; its principles are formulated clearly, precisely and without ambiguity” (Revista Espírita, March 1863).

Others could wrongly say that this lady would be “paying off” debts from past lives, which is fake ((Although she may have had past connections with these Spirits and, feeling indebted for something, chose to help them in this life, it is not about “paying off” something, but rather learning by helping.)) or Furthermore, these children were born in that environment to pay off their debts. They forget or are unaware that the Spirit also choose such situations for learning, and not just for expiations (the choices of Spirits who seek to detach themselves from an acquired imperfection). Furthermore, they do not reflect on what such words can do to an already disturbed mind.

The point here is not to say that one does more than the other or that one is better than the other. The point is: the Spiritist Movement, without the knowledge of Spiritism, became lame, incomplete, incapable of giving the true face of the Promised Comforter. Without knowledge, charity becomes mere welfare. Who knows, if in that opportunity given by God, we hadn't paid attention to that lady or hadn't been in a position to say something better, she might have continued to be angry or become even more bitter, perhaps taking regrettable actions, shaken by our words?

Without charity there is no salvation

When Kardec stipulated this standard of Spiritism, “outside of charity there is no salvation”, she was creating a counterbalance to the phrase of the Catholic Church, which said that “outside the Church there is no salvation”. But not only that: he exactly defined the principle of charity through Spiritism, as a means of salvation, being one's own effort to do good or return to it.

What is charity for Spiritism? And the moral duty. It is action for good, which does not expect rewards. And doing good is wanting to be useful to others, helping and being helped, learning and teaching. Now, how can you be really useful without knowing what you are doing? We could, wishing to be useful, tie ropes to someone else's legs, to push them off a cliff, without measuring the size of that rope.

I have always highlighted, because I went through this myself, as that lady also went through and as many others also went through: in the most difficult moments of our lives, in the most overwhelming ones, our conscience seeks rational answers to what we go through. And faith, as Kardec said, when it cannot face reason, weakens. Many move away from religion and any spirituality when it happens.

I repeat what Kardec said about Spiritism: “its principles are formulated clearly, precisely and without ambiguity“. It was the knowledge of these principles, acquired only after thirty three years living in the Spiritist Movement, which allowed me to give clear, simple and rational words to that lady. It was this knowledge that allowed me to get out of depression, through long and uninterrupted work of study.

Conclusion

What I intend to demonstrate, finally, is that Spiritism is a scientific doctrine that gives us the knowledge to make much less mistakes, doing good with more assertiveness and transmitting fewer wrong ideas. Today, I look back and see countless examples of people who moved away from the Spiritist Movement due to the false ideas that dominate this environment, which became a religion like all others.

Warm up a being that is cold; give him food so he doesn't succumb to hunger; water to quench your thirst: all are necessary and urgent acts of charity. But what about helping you change your inner dispositions through understanding, something that Spiritism achieves with unparalleled clarity? What about welcoming him, listening to his complaints, his pain, and then giving him an idea of a philosophy that allows him to see life in another way, clear and rational, as well as simple? After all, many who are in these conditions lack the will, often precisely because they believe they are like this because of punishment.

The original idea of Spiritism is much clearer, rational and forgiving. It reflects the goodness of divine justice. Charity, according to Spiritism, is something simple and profound: it consists of doing good without expecting a return. Moving away from this knowledge has made us unhelpful or even harmful in our speech and actions, even when we aspire to do good.