RE: What is Good or Evil? The Good and Evil Continuum, Spectrum, Scale or Degrees
This is one of my favorite topics. The same people that subscribe to the moral relativist position are the ones responsible for the self esteem movement that has prevaded American education. Reason has been replaced by emotivism. Without logic or reason, people are unable to distinguish between right and wrong. Things that "feel" good are seldom moral. I realize that the old Star Trek series was merely fiction, but the dynamic between Spock who viewed reality only in terms of logic and the Captain whose emotional reactions (most often anger) was most telling. Moreover, it is difficult to apply terms like good and evil to people (a common fallacy) in their entirety. For example, Hitler (everybody's favorite example) we generally view as an evil person. But not ALL of his actions were evil. He loved animals and was instrumental in fomenting laws prohibiting animal cruelty, even to those that were to be killed for food. A different scale is necessary; perhaps a linear scale with a balance where actions can be "stacked" on either side of a center point in relationship to the moral impact on other people. Forgive me, I'm rambling...your posts get me thinking and this seems to be the result lol!
Indeed, no one can be pure good or evil, but they an embody different aspects of each polarity. Evolving consciousness requires a conscious awareness of willful effort to align with the good over the evil, moral over immoral, truth over falsity. That's the purpose of all human beings. Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad my posts get you thinking, that's intended :)
Thank you...Without the ability to think critically, one cannot distinguish truth from falsity- hence the focus on a feelings based curriculum in public education. It's all by design.