Where do you draw the line between good and bad if you believe in evolution?

Question

Will every body that believes in evolution agree with the line that you draw?

Answer 1

That is one of the few things I have found religion to be good for. It gave us morals. People will say it's society that shapes our behavior, but our society (America) has been shaped by the belief in Christianity. The laws that we have made coincide with some of the Christian values. Thou shalt not kill being an obvious example. Without the guidelines that religion brought about, our society would probably be very barbaric.

With that kind of integration into the society, it's tough to say that if it's religion or ourselves that decide what's good or bad. Is it because of what your society thinks, is that why you don't kill somebody? Or is it that there's something inside of you that says "no, this isn't right"? Maybe both. That kind of question makes the whole "chicken or the egg" question. Did man first decide that it wasn't right to kill first, or did a religion decide that for him?

Answer 2

Thinking that there is a 'line' between good and bad shows the bias of your western culture -- both religion and science are always marking out lines where none truly exist. Did you notice those state boundaries in dark black the first time you flew across the US in a plane? Yes, I was a little surprised not to see them too, since I had seen them on maps for 20 some odd years before actually getting up in the sky.

Is it possible good and bad are separated by a swirl? Or a circle? Or perhaps they dwell in a 3 dimensional world and exist on two different planes, which would make the boundary some sort of parallelogram?

Some Asian cultures believe in the whole yin and yang thing -- sort of like the motif on the Korean flag -- two paramecium looking forms, not divided by a straight line at all, but by a cochlear sort of form. AND, good has just a tiny bit of evil at its center, and evil has a tiny bit of good.

What does evolution have to do with it? Seems like good is doing whatever it takes to survive, and bad is being dumb enought not to procreate and nurture your young. Not very satisfying, but, hey, it's science.

Answer 3

The line between good and bad, morals, is a personal thing. Some people think it's immoral to be homosexual, and that's their opinion. Some think it's immoral to work on Sunday, again that's their opinion. My line between good and bad is based solely on how it affects those around me. I'm not going to kill someone because it's hurts the person I kill and their family and friends. I'm not going to rape someone for the same reason. I don't use drugs, but I don't have a problem with people who do (in most circumstances), because it only hurts themselves. The same goes for drinking, even though I drink at times.

Also, this question doesn't relate to evolution, rather religion. It would be better directed to atheists.

Answer 4

No, not everyone will agree. I would like to point out that not everyone who believes in creation draws the same line. There's a huge variance in what many christians think. Not to mention jews and muslims.
And I draw the line at what is kind, helpful, and true is good, what is the opposite of that is bad.

Answer 5

What does evolution have to do with good and bad? Just because someone believes in something that is against the supposed christian beliefs does not mean that they do not know good from bad, right from wrong. Good and bad are ethically based and have no bearing on evolution.

Answer 6

Where do people get the idea that morals come from religion?? Do you people not pay attention to history? It is filled with war and misery and torture and intolerance created by all sorts of religions! Oh, and you must have ignored all the stories about pedophile priests and pastors who are raping children while the Holy Spirit does nothing. There are more and more of them every week, it seems, and those are just the ones we know about! Hey, how about telepreachers ripping off their loyal followers, and church leaders embezzling hundreds of thousands from their own parishioners, or hiring prostitutes, or dealing drugs, or getting arrested for drunk driving? Who keeps the porn industry in business--you think it's all atheists buying that stuff?? Why are there more Christians in prison than any other religious group? Come on, theists, open your eyes to reality. RELIGION HAS NO MORALS!! People are moral or immoral all on their own, and joining the religion-of-the-week won't change their basic character. The thousands upon thousands of theists whose behavior is no better than that of non-theists, is proof of that.

Answer 7

I'm not sure what believing in evolution has to do with knowing good from bad. I was brought up taught to always treat people with respect and treat them how I would like to be treated. I follow the laws of our society and give back to my community whenever I can.

No matter what a person's belief is, they know right from wrong, good from bad. No one person will have the exact same view of good and bad as anyone else.

Answer 8

Evolution has never happened in all the years we have lived here so really people that believe in evolution have no facts! Probably not everyone will agree with me but oh well

Answer 9

Morality is a product of evolution.

It's unarguably true that society as we know it could not exist if we didn't have self-imposed codes of behaviour - i.e. we make value judgments about what is 'good' and 'bad' behaviour in any particular situation. This is just one of the things which has made us such an enormously successful species, but many other species have the same traits; They care for their young, they alert others to danger, they co-exist without conflict, they co-operate to hunt prey and so on.

It's hard to say exactly what goes on in the minds of other species but we know from experiments that they experience empathy - this can even be shown in mice - and empathy is one of the key aspects of morality. When you can recognise what another individual is experiencing then that is the basis of moral values which, broadly speaking, cause people to voluntarily limit harm to others and thereby enable us to live in closely-packed co-operative societies. Morality evolved as a very successful survival strategy.

Morality is of course subjective and has the same origin for all of us, theist and atheist alike, even if the theists believe that their morality consists of simply following orders of their deity (which would not be truly moral behaviour at all, but amoral behaviour).

Everyone has their own moral values - the line between good and bad, as you describe it - but there are common themes such as the prohibition against killing another person, or incest. The moral issues of lesser consequence will tend to have less of a consensus of opinion. Naturally everyone who accepts evolution as a fact will have their own set of moral values which will differ from each other, just as any group of people will, but there will be common themes because of the commonality of human nature.

Hope this helps...

Answer 10

The good and bad exist in your mind. You are a part of the power that is bigger than anything you can imagine. You were a part of before you were born. The minute you were conceived you were separated from this power. No in order for you to exist on earth there must be a good and bad for your brain to understand this reality. Now when you die you will return to this ultimate power and be happy. Try this,release your mind from the good and bad theory and let your mind be free for a while. Do you think God would send you to the perils of hell for all eternity for something you may have done bad on earth for the meager 60 or 70 years that you are alive,I don't beleive in that theory. Free your mind.