As far as we know, evil only exists as a property of human cognitive activity. Evil exists in the context of humans' attitudes toward other humans and the actions that stem from the attitudes. We perceive evil when we view documentary footage of sharply dressed Nazi soldiers with firearms juxtaposed against piles of emaciated bodies of concentration camp victims being dumped unceremoniously into trenches by Jewish slave laborers who soon enough will be the ones being dumped. We personify evil in the form of supernatural beings with horns and muscular bodies or feminine curves and serpent's eyes.
Evil stems from beliefs that are transcendently false, beliefs that contradict the transcendent truth "everyone is valuable and worthy of respect," beliefs that are spiritually psychotic. The exemplars are "I am important and you are not," and "My people are intrinsically better than your people." Evil is characterized by expedient selfishness and the absence of compassion. Evil is proudly and shamelessly wrong.
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