What is good without evil?

Question

Would it really be doing good if there was no alternative?

Is this, perhaps, the reason for satan/lucifer/hades/whatever you wish to call it?

For Christians, if you knew there was no God, would you still do the right thing?

[Perhaps this is a reason we should respect atheists that do the right thing anyway??]

For Non-Christians, why do you choose to do the "right" thing, without the fear of punishment?

This is not intended to be an anti-Christian vs. Christian argument, and I am not trying to demean either. I am honestly curious. Please don't take offense!

Answer 1

Uh, as a non-beleiver, I do the right thing because its the right thing to do. I guess my motivation is "Man, if I ever find myself in that situation, I hope someone treats me with the same respect..."

Good without evil is like life without death and light without dark. They are opposites, and are both philosophically necessary.

Answer 2

For Christians, if you knew there was no God, would you still do the right thing?

That's a good question. First you have to define what the right thing is? Not all non-Christians agree on what the "right thing" is. That's a very deep philosphical question that can't be given justice in some knee-jerk yahoo answer response. Without God is there some objective verity by which to adjudicate right and wrong? Is the it the will of the majority? Obviously not, look at the majority in Nazi Germany. Is it the laws of the land? No, laws are made by imperfect leaders who are prone to err. So what exactly constitutes the right thing? How much of our conception of right and wrong is a mere result of cultural conditioning?

Answer 3

Eternal bliss?
Hell was translated from the original Greek & Hebrew texts to mean the word grave. No fire and torment for eternity in any scripture in the bible. No loving God would do that.

It is obvious that man has come up with alot of these "tales" as control tactics.

I am personally in my own hell right now, so to say, because I need to make recompence for my recent mistakes. I am happier as a result of trying to make things right or fair.

I was raised as a Christian, but I like the simple idea of Karma.

Armageddon is my biggest wish come true, the best story of all. No more evil.
Then there's my alternate survival theory for Armageddon - If we live perfect here and now, then we can find perfection here. I admit it's a little far fetched though, giving the fact that some never learn anything but evil and then die.
Of course, the bible's answer for all the dead, is a chance to come back, reserected after Armageddon, for a chance at perfection.
Just be as good as you can be, search for good in everything, and you might be able to say, it's been a good life.
As for EVIL, like Jesus said, "Get behind me Satan."

Answer 4

Good is a Supreme Spirit Value; so is Truth and Beauty;

evil, error and ugliness do not, and can not, exist in God and His/Their infinite Paradise perfection.

Evil, error and ugliness can only relatively exist briefly in an evolving space-time universe. As Humans (all Divinely Beloved by God as His sons !) grow up in spiritual wisdom; they will then know and believe the Truth that we all do live and progress in a Fatherly and very friendly universe ! Jesus made it, and is still making it to all be eventually PERFECTED !

"Good and Evil" as equal opposites is the terrible error (untruth) of ancient Persian-Mithraic-Egyptian-Jewish "duality".

GOD IS Infinite UNITY (Monism) and Triune ONENESS and all Perfect. No mere human errors of "duality" there.

Many atheists and agnostics, who falsely think there is or may be no God, ALSO do have the same spirit Essence of GOD within ! Later, they will learn to see that all goodness, beauty, truth, mercy and love come from GOD Above and within and One.

God is "hard to find" as an outside of you reality "concept"; as He/She/They (Trinity) each have NO OUTSIDE and NO BEYOND. A fish in a tank of water also can not discover/understand the water unity of H2 plus O. Grok ? :))

Peace and progress,
Brother Dave, a Jesusonian Christian Truthist
http://www.PureChristians.org/ Gospel enlarging website,
proclaiming worldwide the True Religion
OF JESUS and ABOUT JESUS and IN JESUS
Come and share !

Answer 5

You are making an excellent point. The contrast is at the very basis of God's diverse creation. Excellent.

And this is why the Monks, Mystics and Yogis choose to go beyond these superficial differences.

Answer 6

#1 - I am happy to be enjoying a fairly healthy life. However, I could do without all the children with cancer and birthdefects. If someone would make their pain and suffering go away I would feel just as good about my health.

#2 - I try to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Anything less is childish and self-serving.

Answer 7

I think without evil,,, "good" would be undefined, there would be nothing. I asked a simalair question about being a good person, becasue YOU chose to be,, Some answers were yes, but through Jesus he can help make you truely want to be a good person. Sometimes it seems if we do something out of fear then its not really worth it anything anyways, and I think if smeone has terrible thoughts and doesnt act them out,,, does that still consider them good? Some answers said,,, by not acting, and resisting your showing your dedication to God, overcoming bad thougs by not acting,,, idk I'm still working it through myself.

Answer 8

But you are saying without the range of behavior we could not identify good. But good can exist without our identifying it. If every one was exactly the same there would be no identification of good or bad, we could not identify it our selves even though we were good or bad since there would be no objective reference. Identifying and the existence of something are not the same, everyone could be good and we might not know good but we can still be good.

Answer 9

What is life without death? What is yin without yang? Life consists of opposites. Joy wouldn't feel so good if it wasn't for pain. Sunshine wouldn't be so nice if it wasn't for rain.

Answer 10

To Answer your Question, GREAT!!!!

In (on Planet Heaven) Heaven, you get to Choose between GOOD and GOODER!!!

Isn't that Just Dandy?
Tony the Tiger says:
"GGGGGRRRRRRREEEEEAAAAAATTTTTT!"