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Two Drink Minimum
Maybe my best of this year was this comment on morality in response to a question by Juni: “How is it reasonable for God and evil to both exist at the same time?”
The assertion that everything must have an opposite to exist is false. Things exist. Some are opposites. Good and evil are not opposites, nor even in the same genre of existence. Good exists in physical reality. Evil only exists in human psychological constructs. There are ‘bad’ things without humans (rabies, for example), but they aren’t ‘Evil’.
I define Evil as an action taken based on an unquestioned belief.
People can believe in God and also act in evil ways. In historical sense, this is the source of more evil than any other (so far). People who are skeptical of their own beliefs, and who use experiences or empathy to moderate their beliefs through compassion, etc., can believe in anything they want, and probably won’t act in evil ways.
Bad things happen. Good things happen. Humans and other living things are physically “good” when they contribute more to their environment, community and/or future than they consume in resources.
Religion (a system of some belief or another) is a tool for community building and is often very good for the people and places where it has been implemented.
Fanatical (unquestioned) beliefs, on the other hand, are usually bad for people, their places and the future of their community.
God’s existence is irrelevant to good and evil discussions in the real world, especially when people don’t stay anchored in the real world when discussing their morality.
God can’t tell anyone to do good or evil acts (Santa, either), but people often use such an imaginary belief to make decisions. Few who follow Christianity, for example, will openly discuss the construction of the modern bible books, the editing of them, and the translators and humanists that decided on the words to be passed down from available histories and mythologies.
