Mankind’s history is filled with war, bloodshed, pillage, rape, and savagery by one group against another – whether it be nation against nation, religion against religion, tribe against tribe, or any other defined association of human beings against another or others.

Collectively, we may have entered the supersonic age and become sophisticated space explorers. We may have collectively advanced intellectually, technologically, and in the fight against major diseases and in the battle against many natural and man-made catastrophes.

But in our midst there still continue to be barbarism, hatred, violence, and evil pitting groups against each other or orchestrated with a fake front using God or some other self-righteous rationale.

Take a peek at the continued hatred and violence in the Mideast, the recent history of ugly warfare in Serbia and Croatia, the violence between Hindus and Muslims in lands that once made up Old India. Remember the massacres involving the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda. And witness the heinous, vicious acts committed today in the name of God in Iraq and neighboring countries.

To be sure, historically, savagery has not resided on elements within any singular group. Almost every racial, tribal, religious, national, or other grouping of human beings has a record that is less than stellar.

It appears to be human nature among many to hate or to dislike, to fight and to acquire, to dominate and to suppress, to conquer and impose…and to use any means – including terror and barbarism – to further its ends.

The President recently made remarks comparing the present-day savagery by those using religion as a front, with barbarism committed in the name of God by adherents of another religion during the Spanish Inquisition and the notorious so-called Holy Crusades of the Middle Ages.

Indeed, such an analogy is significant in reminding us that evil exists, and has existed, among people from every corner of the planet since the beginning of recorded history.