The problem with all historical religions is they don’t really have a method for describing how evil happens, why one person chooses to inflict pain on others and themselves versus living happily and in harmony.
This problem has, in my view, been largely solved with Developmental Psychology. It may be that some people are born no good, but most people who choose darkness are hurt in primal, primitive and imprinting ways at very early ages. They are not loved enough, one way or another. Perhaps they are tortured, as in some respects I was, although that was not the goal.
But whatever it is, some part of them fails to build a connection to human life, writ large. And it is easy to assume the worst, and do the worst, when you are dealing with a group “over there” which has no actual, real connection to you.
We are in the position on this planet of developing a useful, comprehensive, lasting global religion, one based on science. I pray daily to be able to play a role in the creation of this thing. It’s so large, such an idea.
But relative to what I’ve already endured in my life, the world is not too large. As with everything else, you just have to start small, small wheels, and add larger wheels as you can.
The Great Pause might be building the soil I need. I hope so. Certainly, my work on myself continues, because I am far from being done with the first large phase.