What is evil? What is the nature of evil? My first impulse was to say "I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see it." But I realized that's a cop out. So let's say Lawrence Krause is right and the universe is a spontaneous creation from nothing. Before consciousness evolves, can evil even exist? I don't think so. If an asteroid crashes into a planet, it's just following its trajectory. If there was no life on the planet, the needle on the Evil-O-Meter(TM) doesn't even twitch. If there was life, and the asteroid's impact killed it all, still no evil. After all, the asteroid was a rock whose trajectory had been determined eons before. It was just a chance meeting in space. So clearly evil requires life, consciousness, and intent. Let us stipulate for the purposes of argument that God doesn't exist. Because then we avoid The Big Cop Out. I think a good place to start from here is the intentional infliction of suffering on another.
The well-phrased, grammatically correct, occasionally thoughtless ravings of a linguaphile.