If none can be untouched by evil, then why to judge a person as good or bad..... isn't it all just relative?

Question

However, aren't we all the time advising our children to mix only with good people and shun the company of 'bad boys'?!!?

Answer 1

a normal human makes mistakes and gives into weakness.
a truly evil person does not have empathy and has consciously made terrible and inexcusable choices and only makes the correct choices when they are observed in public for the sake of their image.

true evil propogates evil . common bad deeds are forms of weaknesses which is exploited by evil.

Answer 2

Life is all about the flow of energy. Good and Evil are not separate things, they are a description of which way the energy is flowing, relative to you.

If you're eating the shark it's good, if the sharks eating you it's bad. Unless you're viewing this relative to the shark, then it's the other way around.

We form societies out of self interest. But the social contract is to always weight personal good against social good. Sooner or later almost everyone 'cheats' the social deal, and so we are all 'touched' by evil.

But stealing a pen from your employer is not the same as rape and murder. Society survives only if it judges and excludes chronic cheaters.

The need to punish a thief is not affected by the fact that theft is, with respect to the robber, good.

Answer 3

To those curious about the premise, that's one of the premises of Christianity - that all have failed or missed the mark.

We are born with a sense of right and wrong, and as we grow older, we are both taught and decide for ourselves what is good or bad (in Christianity, however, God is our basis for good or bad, but that's a debatable and often misunderstood subject). In some tribal cultures, it's the modest women that don't wear shirts, and the immodest that wear shirts. In the Middle East, it's lawful and necessary to cut off the hand of a thief. Why do you think there are so many people for or against abortion, capital punishment, communism, war, religion, females, blacks, and everything else you may agree or disagree with. Do I believe that because someone has a warped sense of good and bad that it makes what they do okay? Of course not. But their viewpoints are just as valid as mine, if that makes sense.

As for who our children mix with, you want life easier on yourself. It's a lot easier to control (and not need to control) a well-behaved child as opposed to a rebelious one. The "bad boys" are the ones who oppose authority, generally good authority. There's always the families that want to "stick it to the man", and in some cases, like a dictatorship, that can be good.

Since, for the most part, contrary to all the jokes, we have a good leader, we can tell our children to respect authority, and that will show the children to respect their parents as well.

Answer 4

So someone pointing a gun at you is not evil but a good guy who just needs your money more than you do?

Do you really think your kids should mix with junkies, sexual perverts and psychos?

You miss interpret the saying. If the robber shoots you, the pervert molests your child etc - you have been touched by evil.
It most certainly does not mean all people have evil in them!!

Answer 5

Of course we are all touched by evil and we all have sinned and yes it is all just relative, but still I would encourage my children to choose companions that were positive role models for their lives and not negative ones. Pax - C

Answer 6

I believe the point is to choose wisely who you associate with as association tends to influence actions which occur around you and therefor may affect you. Personally, I'd a lot rather be affected by beauty then evil. But that's just me.

Answer 7

It's the 'judging' that we have to let go of, not the mixing. I would any day prefer to be with people of a similar value system like mine.

Answer 8

YES IT IS ALL RELATIVE, BUT IF A PERSON WHO IS THREAT TO THE SOCIETY MUST BE BRANDED AS BAD , NO ONE CAN BE PERFECTLY GOOD BUT ATLEAST TRY NOT TO ACT LIKE A PURE SADDIST OR PSYCHO. AS FOR KIDS MIXING WITH PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT CHARECTERS, JUST GUIDE THEM SO THEY LEARN ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE BUT DONT FOLLOW ALL THEY SEE AROUND THEM{THAT IS THE BAD THINGS}

Answer 9

"If none can be untouched by evil"; where did you get this premise? That is the basis of being able to intelligently answer your question.

Answer 10

Yes sir it is and yes sir we do and some of them children are smarter then us sometimes and they have to teach us about this stuff or at least remind us at times, if you talk to your children and allow them to talk to you they get to smart, LOL