Good and Evil †<

"If God didn't want me to do it he would have stopped me"

“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

When we think of good and evil we are talking of justice, and religion as a rule has a lot to say on the matter. We will first look at traditional religions concept of good and evil in this case I will again use the bible as an example. In the Christian faith and many others the part of good is played by god and evil by the devil, but as in the following examples show stating precisely what are good actions and what are bad cannot create justice but rather it creates an environment ideal for bigotry and harsh intolerant laws.
 
Only 144,000 people will be saved on judgement day (Rev14:3-4)

As mentioned earlier The worlds current population is around 6.5 billion of which 2.1 billion are Christians when you add to that the number of people born in the entire history of the world this number 144,000 to be saved means the vast, vast majority of humans born in the whole of history including Christians have a one way ticket to hell how about that for justice.

God according to the Bible created not only good but also evil “I am the Lord and there is no other. I form the light and I create the darkness, I make the good and I make the evil” (Is 45:7-9). Therefore he should be responsible for evil acts, however although he creates evil he is very intolerant of those who break his laws. Not only is he very intolerant, but also his idea of justice is cruel and strange.

God punishes the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren for their ancestors’ actions:

“I the Lord am a jealous god, punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to the third or fourth generation of those who hate me” (Deut 5:9)

Even minor offences should be met with death. For example those who work on a Sunday should be stoned to death. Once a man was caught collecting firewood on a Sunday and god said to Moses and the people who had caught him:

The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp and so the assembly took him outside and stoned him to death as the Lord had commanded Moses (Num 15:32-36)

The Bibles justice is not true justice, but an example of the kind of cruel archaic law and punishment that was in fashion at the time Bible was written which thankfully in the west for the most part we have now grown out of. 

A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner:
 
"Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time."
 
When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, "The one I feed the most."

The truth is that good and evil are within us all; in the moral minefield that is life there is no black and white only grey. No one is whiter than white, for the drop of black within us, makes us all various shades of grey, and as such we are all fallible and we shouldn’t judge others or ourselves too harshly. As fallible beings in a confusing world, even the best of us commit what the church calls sins every day; we cannot fully control our human nature. Although we may love our partners, other attractive people will turn our head; Although we have a nice car we would still prefer our neighbours new BWM; Sometimes one chocolate just isn’t enough, but to judge based on this natural response is foolish because it is our nature.

We can but try to control the dark side of our nature. This holds true for all human action when we criticise others for their actions we are really criticising them for following instinct over intellect. There are exceptions to this rule, my aim here is to explain that the ability to commit the most heinous of crimes is within us all, given the right circumstances; a loss of control could cause us to become that which we so detest. The possibility of evil is within us all, however this does not mean all hope is lost, in fact the converse is true. Good is there as well and even those whose grey is so dark it is indistinguishable from black, the white is still there. If one thing gives hope for mankind in a time of darkness it is this. Many have called it human weakness but that is not the truth, rather it is humanities true strength. It is always within every human being, it shines out in acts of compassion and kindness and is dimmed in times of evil, but like an eternal flame it will never be extinguished, and even in our darkest days it will shine through to light the way. And somehow the struggle between the two sides of our self, of yin and yang, black and white, we find a balance in which the good outweighs the evil. Therein lies our true salvation. For this does not mean we should give up, instead we should stand and fight against the dark. And in doing so those who have within them enough light will shine through the darkness with truth and compassion, and perhaps tip the scales a slightly further to the good.

Hell is empty and all the devils are here. – William Shakespeare

Now having said all of the above, I want it to be understood that although it is human nature to have these instincts, the decision to act upon those thoughts and feelings has to be made through the use of reason. For example although your boss may push your buttons and make you want to smash his new car up, the decision to do so would result in you losing your job and possibly your freedom. So you should take the time to think before you act. And sometimes our actions affect others exclusively. In these circumstances especially where we have the time to premeditate our actions we should seriously examine the impact that our actions could have on others before we act. And if we still commit the act do so in the knowledge that those things that fall into this category cannot be excused by pointing out it is simply our nature. Our ability to control such actions is the very thing that distinguishes us from other animals. We have the ability to consider these acts before we commit them and therefore we should reap the consequences when we do so. A good example of such actions is paedophilia and other such sexual predators, because although they may argue that their feelings are natural, their actions are clearly wrong, as premeditated acts by people who understand that their actions are wrong, such actions demand that these people are punished for the harm they do to others. In this I disagree with Christian liberals who say they will be judged in heaven, we must be responsible for punishing the criminals. If mankind’s justice relied on our being judged after death, we would be in a bad way. Of course there are those situations in which we cannot be held responsible for our actions and this is the case in circumstances where for example the actions are committed by those who are very young, or because of illness or disability have no ability to be responsible for their actions, in a modern society we understand that every act needs to be judged based on the specific circumstances not merely on the rules which are set down in a book.

"If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are." -- Zen proverb

- Duncan Rossiter