Stephen King: 'Evil is innate'

Stephen King believes that evil comes from within, rather than something influenced by external factors.

The author uses the example of serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy, who, he says, is “hard-wired”.

“I don’t think when you look at his upbringing you can say, ‘Oh, that’s because Mommy put a clothespin on his dick when he was four,’” King told Rolling Stone. “Evil is inside us. The older I get, the less I think there’s some sort of outside devilish influence; it comes from people. And unless we’re able to address that issue, sooner or later, we’ll f**king kill ourselves.”

King has long spoken out about his belief in God, but describes organised religion as “a very dangerous tool that’s been misused by a lot of people”.

“You have a meditation point, a source of strength,” he said. “I choose to believe that God exists, and therefore I can say, ‘God, I can’t do this by myself. Help me not to take a drink today. Help me not to take a drug today.’ And that works fine for me.”

King’s upcoming book, Revival, focuses on a Methodist teacher, who loses his faith after a tragic accident.

Later in the Q&A, he addressed his concerns over Isis, relating his view to a Huffington Post article which reported there had been “nothing but silence” in the search for extra-terrestrial life for 50 years

“When you see what’s going on in the world today, and you have all this conflict, and our technological expertise has far outraced our ability to manage our own emotions – you see it right now with Isis – what’s the solution?” he asked.

“The only solution we see with Isis is to bomb the s**t out of those mother***kers so that they just can’t roll over the world. And that’s what’s scary about that silence – maybe all intelligent races hit this level of violence and technological advances that they can’t get past. And then they just puff out. You hit the wall and that’s it.”