DLW 264-265, 270 - When We Abuse Rationality and Freedom

DLW 264

The origin of evil
comes from abuse of the faculties
which are peculiar to mankind
and are called rationality and freedom.
By rationality we mean
the faculty of understanding truths and thus falsities,
and of understanding goods and thus evils;
and by freedom we mean
the faculty of thinking, willing and doing these freely.

It can be seen from preceding discussions,
and it will be further seen from subsequent ones,
that a person possesses these two faculties
from creation and so from birth;
that they come from the Lord;
that they are not taken away;
that they produce the appearance
that a person thinks, speaks, wills and acts
as though of himself;
that the Lord dwells in every person in these faculties;
that owing to that conjunction
a person lives to eternity;
that a person can be reformed and regenerated
in consequence of these faculties
and not apart from them;
and that it is these faculties
which distinguish the human being from animals.

DLW 265

That the origin of evil
comes from abuse of these faculties
will be explained according to the following outline:

(1) An evil person possesses these two faculties
just as much as a good one.

(2) An evil person abuses these faculties
to defend evils and falsities,
whereas a good person uses them
to defend goods and truths.

(3) Confirmed evils and falsities remain in a person
and become matters of his love and so of his life.

(4) Qualities that have become
matters of one's love and life
are passed on hereditarily to offspring.

(5) All evils, both those inborn
and those additionally acquired,
have their seat in the natural mind.

DLW 270 [2]

. . . the natural mind of itself
acts in opposition to the spiritual mind.