Forget Religion For a Second & Just Consider This

[mugabe]

of course there is good and there is evil, otherwise these words would not exist. these words are names which we give to certain behaviors. the real question is which behaviors are to be called evil and which are to be called good and its all a matter of opinion.

[Ponto Hardbottle]

ienjoylurking said:

holyjesus said:

I am Scorpio too. Surprise, surprise eh. Look, we humans make moral judgements and ascribe good and evil things to otherwise normal mundane actions. One man's good is another's evil. The main thing is to live according to your concepts of good and evil, not those imposed on you or belong to others. And be prepared to suffer for your individuality.
There is an old dichotomy. Evil is more powerful than good. That Star Wars stuff. And it is true. The power of the dark side overrides everything, as Winston found out in 1984, or the savage in Brave New World.
P.S I am actually Libran, but close enough to the M with the phallic point.

Nah, the savage in the brave new world already had wars, human sacrifices and genocidal campaigns before they had found anything.
Men are evil everywhere, I think we are getting less evil with time though.

I am glad you have read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. May Ford be with you. I don't read much except science books. What I meant is that the Savage had his concept of good and evil, but could not reconcile those concepts with a society of humans who believed in free love, promiscuity, malthusian belts and lack of belief in the afterlife, so he killed himself.

[geo]

xcalator1 said:

Wolves kill sheep. Sheep are beneficial to shepherds. Therefore wolves are pests. Thus the analogy. You are OWNED!

So, wolves are evil for shepherds and shepherds are evil for wolves - and me too since i find more use in nature for a wolf than a shepherd. If nothing else, we have lots and lots of the latter while the former are endangered species.

Thus the terms 'good' and 'evil' are highly dubious and subjective and they better be replaced by the more decriptive 'beneficial' and 'harmful'. There goes the answer to your question.

mike2 said:

And I think this question is: Do you believe in good and evil?

[accarroll]

The concept of good and bad comes out of the ego and self conciousness, what we see in chimps, dolphins, and a few select species of apes is a base form of self conciousness where the animal can identify its own appearence, these are the seeds of the ego from which the infamous human ego started the systematic destruction of the world. We talk ourselves in circles about good and evil when we all know that there is no such thing we tried the dualism thing with descartes and it didn't work it's time to move on from our black and white, good and evil, mind and body distractions.

[Igu]

wadaad said:

"good" and "evil" are IMO human creations. good/evil is the crux of morality, what truly seperates us from the animals besides the opposable thumb and our ability to speak.

Because its a human creation, does this mean that the universe operates without good and evil? well lemme just say...the concept of good/evil, lets call it "Morality" is to help man and only man, in applying as adeptly as possible his evolutionary advantage...Intellect. Now, intellect is not unique to the human, it is quite well developed in a number of other animals. Intellect developed as a control over instincts...and later on, Morality developed as a sort of HIGHWAY that guides intellect to its desired effect. Just like on HWY 401, theres eastbound and westbound traffic, if the certain Man's goal is to head east, than a cognizant decision will be to take 401 EAST. Intellect directs man to the road, and his morality directs him to which path to take. It becomes "Good" for him to take the east route...and "Bad" for him to take the west route...

Then lets remember that man is designed to modify any behavior that would normally be instinctive to one that would provide optimum benefit (survivability). This process is called self-control or self-discipline. Self-discipline, is the measuring stick of the human. The more disciplined behavior (behavior determined by intellect) displayed by the individual, the more human he becomes as well as more "good" "kind" "nice" "smart" "cool" etc. The less disciplined behavior (behavior in response to instinct) displayed by an individual, the more he becomes like the animals that are lacking in intellect and are driven by their instincts. This is why you dont start dry-humping a random woman just because your instinct tells you its time to get it on, lol. This is why also, our basest, deepest feelings (instinct) more often than not, are considered bad, and a proper Man never reacts or does things on impulse...its all to maintain self-control and composure, something quite advantageous in the long run for that particular person.

I could not have said it better.

[accarroll]

The ability to speak is not an exclusive human characteristic, research has shown that apes can understand and form simple syntax with use of sign language also they have proven that the apes possess forethought by building simple sentences such as "i want to play with the ball in the other room" what really separates humans from animals is our ability for abstract thought. These abstract ideas allow us to come up with a standard of behavior which we call morality that we apply to all humans. The problem comes when you get to cultural relativism, for example there exists a culture in africa that considers stealing as a badge of honor. Certain areas of the Dani culture in papua new guinea also practice infanticide, or ritual killing of children. So keep in mind at all times that morals can never be absolute under any circumstance, the idea of good and evil will change cramatically depending on your geographic location.