Good and Evil

Hello! I'm here to share with you one of my favorite beliefs.

DISCLAIMER: THESE ARE JUST BASED ON MY OWN OPINIONS. THERE IS NO TRULY RIGHT OR WRONG OUTLOOK ON THIS.​

With that out of the way, let's begin!

Good: An act or quality of an action or person being righteous and just.
Evil: An act or quality of an action or person being unrighteous and unjust.

Good and evil are very common and popular concepts. I'm going to use one of my favorite games as an example of good and evil- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

SPOILERS BELOW(But seriously, who hasn't played this game? )​

In the Ocarina of Time, you play Link. Like usual, Link is on a mission to stop Ganondorf. He does this by going on a quest through time to stop the corruption of Hyrule and Ganondorf's rule. While it is a great game and it has a magnificent story, it seems to only depict Ganondorf as an evil warlock. However, let's use another great LoZ game to create a rebuttal to that perspective..... THE WIND WAKER!
In The Wind Waker, you play Link once again, and he's against Ganondorf once again. However, in this game, we actually get a peek into Ganondorf's story. Ganondorf is what us writers would call a complex character. On the surface, he just seems like a sadistic tyrant. But contrary to popular belief, I've come to believe that Ganondorf's actions are justified. Here's a dumbed down version of his story:
Ganondorf and his people lived in a desert with harsh conditions. This great poverty led them to rely on stealing to make a decent living. One day, Ganondorf caught wind of the first-world kingdom of Hyrule and went to check it out for himself. He saw the overwhelming majestic land of Hyrule and instantly made a comparison between the kingdom of Hyrule and his harsh homeland of the Gerudo Desert. He asked the Royal Family to help his people, as they were plagued by famine and living in a desert. They refused. Ganon was about to give up when he learned of a very powerful object that could grant any wish to the individual in possession of it. The Triforce.
Due to his anger at the Royal Family for ignoring his dying people and his own lust for power, Ganondorf eventually got his hands on the Triforce and ending up going on the path of power. His goal was to take over Hyrule. Putting the kingdom into a land of zombies (redeads) and eternal darkness wasn't part of his plan, but the corruption and his greed of power led those to happen.
After analyzing all of this (and personal experiences), I've come to believe that good and evil don't exist. There are simply two things that exist in their place: good and bad decisions. Logical and illogical decisions. When someone makes a bad decision that places them and other people in a scenario that is more harmful than beneficial, it will ultimately lead to more bad decisions. People aren't good or evil. There is only good and bad logic.

What do you think? Am I crazy? I'd love to hear your opinions as well! As always, thanks for reading!​

Credit to Anet for giving me this idea: "I'm a huge believer that the universe is a battle of good and evil."

 

Good and evil are relative, artificial concepts based on the values we adopt as we grow and change as human beings. It is not that they don't exist, but simply put there is no universal frame of reference as to what it actually means.

Example: in a cannibalistic native tribe of some kind, it could be seen to be normal to eat the dead, while most people in developed nations around the world would find the concept repugnant and foul. Some would possibly even try to impress anti-cannibalism laws on to such a tribe.

To the tribe, the people trying to change their ways of life could be seen as evil. To developed society, many people would see their customs as evil. No-one is wrong, no-one is right.

 

There is no way to say it exists or doesn't.

We can say it exists because we, as humans, created it. We base our morals around what is good, and are told to avoid the evil. But to every person, what is good and what is evil is different, as Swan showed in his example.

We can say it doesn't exist for the same reason. We had to create it, and there is no real meaning to it.

 

Good and evil are simply good and evil because we perceive them as that. Your learn growing up what's good and bad by getting punished when doing bad things, and rewarded when doing good things. You pick it up by just looking around and seeing peoples reactions aswell. We decided what's good and what's bad and started living our lives around it. Swan described it clearly.

 

Exactly this. Good and evil depend on morals and there are no universal morals. We assign good and evil such that we see ourselves as good. Hitler did not think he was evil. He thought he was doing the world a great service (I would assume).

 

We are Conscience beings, we make Conscience decisions before we think we make the decisions, and with that being said our lives are rolling out like a red carpet in front of us. Perspective between individuals varies widely and we as Conscience beings are aware of this.

peace lovee

 

Good and evil are simply good and evil because we perceive them as that. Your learn growing up what's good and bad by getting punished when doing bad things, and rewarded when doing good things.

 

all things are evil because GOD himself perceives those things as evil, GOD is the only GOD that is actually "good" Because he is omnibenevelont. "Perfect goodness. Some gods well most are good but have "Evil characteristics" Which is why god is the actually ONLY good god.

 

If you have intentions to hurt another being, and do not care at all about how it pains them you might just be evil

 

But what makes the good god superior to the evil ones? This judgement is purely a matter of personal circumstance.

 

what? All I read was that everything is evil except god because he is the definition of good. You're assuming 1. God exists (not even going to bother) and 2. Good exists. As it has been stated already in this thread goodness and evil are relative. We don't make decisions based on whether or not something is good or bad, we look at the outcome of the action and then decide whether or not the result is prefferable. Many people try to simplify it by trying to tag certain actions as good and others as bad (which works on a ground level basis e.g. children) but in reality making generalizations like good and bad just stunt social progression.

 

It exists under cultural laws.

 

Good and evil are determined by society