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June 15, 2012
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Replies: 92

Do you believe good and evil exist?

Forums > Community > Philosophy & Religion
:icongentlemenk:
~gentlemenk Jun 15, 2012
Hey guys,

This topic may have been explored before here. I was wondering if I could discuss the following question with two persons: "Do you believe good and evil exist? If so, where does good come from?"

Thanks! :)
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:iconkiosma-0-0:
~KIOSMA-0-0 Jun 24, 2012   Writer
I wasn't really brought up with a sense of good and evil, and my morality has suffered for it. In my afterlife, I don't believe in condemning people to hell (because I cannot wrap my mind around it) but I can't justify a heaven either. So there's just empty space.
A few nights ago I was having a debate with my family about this same thing about Nazi Germany and I realized that I didn't even think that the people remaining in Germany after 1936 were good or evil, and this: I look at actions and decisions and there is empty space. It's all subjective to me.
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:iconjenna670:
~jenna670 Jun 24, 2012  Student Writer
My feeling on good and evil is kind of mixed. To be short with my answer, no, I don't believe they exist. I personally believe there is a shred of 'good' and a shred of 'evil' in ever single one of us.

However, to go more in depth, you have to think about what is considered 'good' and what is considered 'evil'. For example, murder is pretty much universally considered wrong, correct? However, let us say that there's a man who sees his wife brutally murdered and later goes out and kills the man who perpetrated the act.

At face value, this is, of course, 'evil'. But there remained that shred of good in that he was avenging his wife and possibly preventing future murders. At the same time, that murderer could have been murdering to pay off a debt to the mob so as to feed his children.

Every action holds good and evil intentions, therefore I do not believe anyone is wholly either.
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:iconhikarimoyami:
~HikarimoYami Jun 23, 2012
I think they do exist as universal concepts outside of human society, but what is defined as good or evil is subjective.
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:iconcandanceamy:
~CandanceAmy Jun 23, 2012
There is good and evil like there is black and white. The whole universe is constructed on this, which is chaos and order.
You need a balance of both to function best.
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:iconjonobrow:
~jonobrow Jun 22, 2012
Do you believe good and evil exist?

I believe some people are good and some people are evil. I'm sure I believe good and evil exist though, for the same reason that I'm not sure Thursday, the colour blue or centres of mass exist.

If so, where does good come from?

This is almost certainly illformed. Let's say good came from the bladders of geese. What would that even mean?
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:iconjonobrow:
~jonobrow Jun 22, 2012
Whoops, I meant I'm not sure I believe good and evil exist
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:icontianithen:
=Tianithen Jun 22, 2012  Hobbyist General Artist
Good and evil are a human interpretation of actions based on our morality. Most people have the same idea of what is 'good' and what is 'evil'. Everyone has the capacity to be good or to be evil. 'Good' doesn't come from anywhere, we evolved a sense of morality due to social living and good is a concept that arose from that, same is true of evil.
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:iconsilentcicada:
=SilentCicada Jun 21, 2012  Hobbyist General Artist
Good and evil exist in people's interpretations of what is right and wrong. What one sees as evil may be neutral or good in someone else's eyes.
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:iconblackvertigo1:
~Blackvertigo1 Jun 21, 2012
I think good and evil is a morality thing.
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:iconplutonia-v41:
~Plutonia-V41 Jun 20, 2012  Hobbyist Digital Artist
"Good" and "evil" don't actually exist. They are concepts that we use to define things that have a positive- or negative impact on social interaction. If you do something to someone that you definitely wouldn't want anyone to do to you, that is considered evil. The concepts themselves are not physical static variables that actually exist in the universe. Just like numbers. Humans just use numbers for calculation, but things like "two" or "eighteen" aren't actually real. They have been completely made up to help process the information we recieve from the universe with our senses. Water isn't H2O because it just has to have "two" hydrogen atoms. It is H2O because the forces of nature form it in a way that we humans define as "two" hydrogen and "one" oxygen. Nothing is out there "giving it a certain number" of atoms. There's just us counting them.

Is the Sun good? It's good for us now, because of the circumstances. We get a lot of light and therefore 99,999% of all our energy (the rest is nuclear, from the Earth and not the Sun) and we don't get a lot of radiation. But the Sun is indifferent. It's amoral. It doesn't care about anything. After a few billion years it will destroy this planet. Is that "evil"? No. It just does what it does. just like everything else that exists, it just exists and nothing more.

So humans can be productive and contribute to the well-being of society, or counter-productive and do harm. Who they help or harm are just defining their actions good or evil because humans like to have words for pretty much everything. We like to form explanations and file them under concepts and words.
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