What is your criteria for measuring good vs evil ?

[kentuck]

Is it the end result - by their deeds you shall know them? Or is it something instinctual - you just know when something feels right? Or is it how it might affect your fellow man? Or do those terms have no significance for you?

[Qutzupalotl]

1. It's bad if it harms others,

it's evil if it encourages others to harm even more people.

[Hoping4Change]

3. Many times there is a difference of opinion whether harm has

been done, so I don't think that outcome is the best measure of whether someting is good or bad.

I think goodness is dependant on humility, and awareness. Being good means dispensing with moral certainty and attending with all one's being to the effect one is having in the world. Never being closed and self-righteous.


Mencken wrote "Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on 'I am not too sure.' "

[Qutzupalotl]

5. It's not a hard and fast rule,

more like a rule of thumb. It allows me to harm myself and not be evil. :)

Also, just as there are degrees of harm, there are degrees of good and evil. Personally, I shy away from using the term "evil", for the reasons you suggest, that it smacks of closed-mindedness. But I thought I'd chime in here for the sake of discussion.

[phantom power]

2. I think that applying the term "evil" has to do with lack of understanding

I tend to refer to actions as "evil" when I just can't conceive how anyone could do such a thing.

Once I understand, I don't generally consider it evil. It becomes "misguided", or "wrong", or "unhealthy", etc.

[izzie]

4. The Golden Rule is still pretty good.

-------

[Hammie]

6. Using force or fraud to compel others

Especially to compel them to act against their own interest.

[Just Me]

7. Why don't we start by discussing common human priorities.

For example: our common value of our life.

How do we go about prioritizing that value?

Do we start by caring for the life that is,...or go for the life that could be or the life that was?

<on edit - let's start from the "basics", the core values, and expand from there - and then maybe we can actually get a handle on the "good vs. evil" stuff --- know what I mean?>

[OKNancy]

8. No significance to me

There is no such thing as evil. I believe that some people act in their own self-interest, and when their self-interest clashes with your self-interest...people call it evil.

Now, good is, in my opinion, when people try really hard to make sure that their self-interest does not harm others or is beneficial to others.

[mike1963]

9. Asimov's 3 Rules of Robotics capture the concept fairly well...if humans

would obey them. Lemme see how I can recall them -

1. A robot may not injure a human or by inaction allow one to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders of humans unless those orders would conflict with #1

3. A robot must protect its own existance except for any conflict with #1 or #2...

[Cheswick2.0]

10. have you ever read Scott Pecks "People of the Lie"?

He gives a great explanation of Evil. He talks about the banality of evil and how you don't even have to be intentional to do evil. We are all capable of it.

He talks about a couple who give their secound son a gun for his birthday. The problem is that it is the gun his older brother used to commit suicide. Of course the kid became sick and had to seek therapy. His whole life fell apart and it took years to recover.
Evil is how we damage other people by doing things we don't have to do...but choose to anyway out of selfishness or ignorance.

The problem people have with the word evil is that it sounds like it should only apply to a red faced guy with horns. It is just a word that means something bad, having a bad effect for no good reason.
When Reagan called the Soviet Union the Evil empire he was right. There was much evil in the system that sent people to siberia for being against the system. There was much evil about trying to swallow up the countries around it when they did not want to be swallowed up. The Ukrainians hate the Russians for good reason. But there was also some good in that system.

What Reagan failed to see and what bush fails to see is that there is much we are doing in this country which is also evil. Unjust war, torture, throwing people in prison and denying their civil rights..all these things are evil. Letting corporations exploit citizens.... the list goes on.

Al governments, all groups, all people have the potential for evil. It is both about results and intention.

When I was in 4th grade there was a little girl in my class who lived above a bar. It was just her and her young mother living there. They were very poor and this child was partially deaf, so she "talked funny". She was also tiny and emaciated and kind of dirty most of the time. One day a mob of kids decided it would be fun to chase her and make fun of her on the playground. It ended up with her on the ground sobbing "NO".

I was part of that mob. I don't even know what made me participate. But I do know that our behavior was evil. It caused that child and her mother to leave town. Every time this subject comes up and I think of her I say a prayer for her. Then I ask for forgiveness because I feel shame all over again.

No I don't think I am too hard on myself. I am greatful to have that shame. It has taught me so much. So yes, "by their fruits you shall know them". Some people reek of evil, like bush (who has no idea he is evil or shall we say, too weak and deluded to resist doing evil). But we are all capable of dipping into that well.