Are the questions of "good" and "evil" based on semantics & culture instead of reality & existence?

Question

"Good" and "evil" seem to be socially and linguistically defined rather than reality-based.

What is "good" for humans can be "evil" for mosquitoes (RAID!).

What is "evil" for one group of humans is defined as "good" by another group (9-11).

Yet religions continue to put forth "evil" and "sin" as objectively defined concepts (within, of course, their own definitions) and define God as pure "good."

What prevents humans from taking responsibility for our definitions of "good" and "evil"?

What stops us from simply referring to relativistic concepts, such as "more or less helpful" or "more or less harmful"?

Supreme answers, so it goes to a vote.

Answer 1

I'm not sure that evil actually exists, obviously not in a religious sense and not even in a colloquial sense, I think that are just good and bad acts.

Answer 2

Wow great question. I think that the masses define good and evil. This allows us to be part of a group. Being social creatures we must conform to this or risk being alone to fend for ourselves. You are correct when you say that what is good for one group may not be good for another. We try our best to survive and that is all there really is to it, we are not perfect and thus could not be right in any instance of this question. As long as we have only speculation on what is good and bad and not fact we can never define what is truly good and bad. We are egotistical to that end because we think we are superior. Would we think the same way and act the same way if for example there was still dinosaurs on this planet? We would feel superior to them and thus we would act accordingly. Hypothetically speaking most religions base this good and evil on the bible so think about this for one moment, no one has ever truly been good,as is defined in the bible; otherwise we would never lie, tell me one person who hasn't and I would say you are lying, however, based on the same book, all of us have at one time been truly evil. What does that mean? We are evil. Based on the bible definiton; yes we are.

Answer 3

Interesting question. Although many claim to not even believe in the existance of good and evil they live as though they do. Example do they phone the police is someone steals there car? And the 911 example those same people would define it as evil if it had happened to them. What we live is what we really believe. I know a couple of good books that delve into these topics quite deeply. One is mere Chritianity by C.S. Lewis and the other is Can we be good without God by Paul Chamberlain. Another good example is the criminal who instinctively knows to run from a crime scene. If you can try and get a hold of these books, you may or may not agree with the answers but you will find them interesting reads.

Answer 4

i think there is no such thing as Good or Bad. There is no such thing as Right or Wrong. Metaphysically.
Having said that, there ought to be a sense of right and wrong at your own personal level.
This is Conscience. It’s important because that defines you as a person, gives you character.
It ensures consistency, and maintains a line of action in your own personal conduct.
It is such dichotomy which led us to believe that there are no Absolutes. Thereafter all hell broke loose.
After having clawed our fellow mankind in endless wars of words we take refuge in this cliché when we find ourselves in a spot. If there are no absolutes then what’s all the argument about.
The fact is there are absolutes. But they too have a context.
Let’s take morality for example. We say that there is no such thing as good or bad because morality itself is time and space specific. This is at the macro level. At a micro level you ought to have your personal morality because that will keep you from giving alms to the poor in the morning and eating your fellow men for lunch.
So why bother about the macro as long as micro is in place? True. That‘s what the majority has been doing for ages anyway, making us such an intolerant race. Awareness of the macro however stops us from becoming judgemental and brings us to a good cliché: live and let live. And while you go about your business of living could you please ensure that you don’t step on my toes. Why? Because they are my toes you dumbass, you say.
The problem arises when we flit between the two in our personal lives, and are not aware of it. The seeming dichotomy is anything but contradiction. Fine tune your world vision and voila, you will see that the two are actually compatible. Its like a picture on your computer screen. Zoom in and the lines will blur but what you will see is the essence. The pixels that you see are also an absolute just like the big picture.
To repeat, we normally live in pixel world, and we lose sight of them while looking at the big picture.
The trick lies in being aware.

Answer 5

OK lets use your logic:

It is "good" for this man to kill his wife so he can marry another . . . .. less helpful?

It is "evil" to some men for their wives to cheat . . . . less harmful?

It is harmful for mosquitoes to get sprayed by RAID and helpful for humans.

911 was helpful to the crazy point they were trying to make. But are you saying it wasn't EVIL to kill all those innocent people? Are you saying this is objective?

good: 1 a (1) : of a favorable character or tendency
evil: b : arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct

now semantics are what you are talking. Good/Bad/Evil/Indifferent/more or less helpful/more or less harmful are just words.

Reality is there is good and there is evil . . . .. . reality based!!

God Bless

Answer 6

A set of values, meaning a moral system also, are always determined by cultural factors. So that many of the things an European would consider bad are in other cultures not necessarily good, but maybe not even important.
The notions of good and bad are cultural creations, and religion was often the way of inheriting and improving them, sometimes even scare people, so they had to follow a certain set of rules.
But the dichotomy of good and bad is relative and suffers slight differences from one culture to an other.

Answer 7

Well of course. All cultures are different. What is bad for a white American may be totally acceptable in Indonesia. What is bad for a CHinese may be totally acceptable in England. The sooner people realize this the better off we will be and get on with tending to our own lives.

Answer 8

Yes

Answer 9

Well, at this point, whatever's been created by society has so much momentum, it will be hard to change. But, yes, it's a matter of perspective as you already note. People like to think of themselves as the good party, no matter what they do, and everyone who is against them as the bad party. As time goes on, we learn more about psychology and how crazy people really are. But before psychology, people just made up crazy religions.

Answer 10

I don't know what stopped you, but knowing Jesus Christ stopped me.

2 Timothy 3:16,17
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.