The battle of "Good" and "Evil"

I grew up being taught that life in this world is underpinned by an invisible spiritual battle between forces of good and evil...God and the Devil...or even the lower and higher natures within each of us. My experience in life has taken me to a little different understanding of this issue...

The battle of good and evil carries on at many different levels. I'm not sure the forces are so "invisible" as many religions portend. I think most of the battle is for the MIND...the intellect. We humans are still trying to overcome MILLENNIUMS of manipulation and dark thinking. For me, bad/evil spirits and forces come from bad/evil thinking and manipulation. It usually is manipulation by the rich of the poor, the rulers over the governed, or simply the educated over the non. All of these backgrounds go together at some level to create good and evil, dark and light, freedom or oppression, right versus wrong. "As a man so thinketh in his heart...so is he". Unfortunately most people have multi-generations of wrong thinking in their backgrounds and in their hearts. That can best change when we are young. After age 40 or 50...you aren't going to change much of anyone's way of thinking...or believing. We are positive or negative, bitter or sweet, hopeful or fatalistic...usually based on our genetic and environmental backgrounds/upbringing. From that understanding we need to view and understand our differences and those opposed to our views. It also helps us understand why negotiations between leaders older than 50 years old will rarely create much change or flexibility in viewpoints or position. Wars and religions are perpetuated by these extreme traditions of finding difference instead of commonality. We need to shed these layers of history and "cultural" (mis)understandings before we can truly embrace and welcome everyone into the brotherhood of man.