Are "good" and "bad" subjective?

Question

If, say, a group of people who called themselves "Satanists" banded together and rebuilt New Orleans with their own money and labor, would it still be good, or would some people consider the work, despite the benefit to society, to be evil because of the name the people go by?

Is a good deed only as good as the doer? Or do good deeds speak for themselves? Why would a Good God reject the doers of Good deeds? Would "Satan" be pleased by the acts of such followers? If not, would not these deeds please God?

Answer 1

Yes, it is subjective. There are good things/people for me that may not be good for you. It depends on each one conception and perception. However, the example you gave us, I would certainly doubt that Satan was behind the Satanists charity. I think it would be God instead working with people's actions although some would not give God the credits. It is like my religion itself. My religion is Spiritism and many people tell me it is satanic, because we interact with spirits, but I say how can it be satanic if we only do good things? If we are working for the good, we definitely have God with us!!

Peace!

Answer 2

God judges the heart. You use the example which I think is unhelpful. The last actions of Satanists I recall which made the papers in the States were the Charles Manson gang murders of Roman Polanski's pregnant wife Sharon Tate.

The Pharisees viewed themselves as good - Jesus said they were the sons of the devil.

To know if a deed is good or bad you have to read the heart of a man. As only God can read the heart only He knows if it is good or bad.

All our actions will be tested by fire at the end of days. If a man gives millions to charity and secretly he is a child molester are the charities taking dirty money and therefore the deed is bad?

When Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery the end result was that he saved both them and their families from starvation. The Bible quotes Joseph as saying to his brothers "you meant it for evil but God meant it for good".

The devil is only pleased when he sees another soul entering his kingdom and being parted from love.

Only God knows the intentions and thoughts of a man's heart and as such only He alone is the judge of all mankind.

Answer 3

If you accept that those two beings exist, you would need to rationalize that the "good" deeds may have been good, but done by evil. One of the strangest things in Christianity is the thought that you must be "godly" or a believer to be good; this is not a biblical teaching but an extension that the Church has bought into. The reality is that most people do good and some minor bad - most people don't murder, they don't try to intentionally harm others etc. True there are those that weigh in on the really bad side and even fewer that are evil.

Answer 4

I believe that they are objective but that good and bad should be viewed not as rules but as relative to a situation. For example, Thou shalt not kill - but what if a raving madman is about to slowly and methodically dismember a toddler?

I believe that there is Way, a Tao, in the universe and taht way is Love. We can act to support Life and Love or act to diminish it - which corresponds to good and bad.

Each discrete action can be judged as serving life or hurting it and over time a person takes on characteristics of those actions and form a character - which at some point allows us to judge them as good or bad at a given point in time.

Bad people doing a good thing is even better, in my opinion, than good people doing good becaus ethe good action will affect a small change in the bad person and open their heart a little more. If their character eventually changes - because we cannot be evil and do good all the time - then I think we can say God would be very pleased. (Which doesn't mean anything becaus ethose words apply the metaphor of man to God, which I'm sure doesn't apply.)

Answer 5

My heavens, I never have been flashed, but I did unintentionally flash a few folks once. I was in the hospital some time back and decided to take a stoll to the vending area. Well, I wasn't thinking about what I was wearing and, let's just say that those hospital gowns don't leave a lot to the imagination on the backside. The nurse came up from behind me and put a blanket over my shoulders . . . I was wondering why it was a little drafty back there!

Answer 6

Doing good deeds is not a spiritual thing. It is a physical act. God doesn't judge man by the things he does, but by the state of his heart. Many times in history, non-believers have performed good acts. Many times, believers have done evil things.

Certainly God approves of all good things that mankind does. But those physical actions have nothing to do with salvation.

Answer 7

good question.

Depend's which tack you want to take. Morality is never black amd white. The good in our lives is always in context. The context of the situation. Yes, a group of skinheads, could hypotheticaly make their own society, in what would be called good.by that society.

The Nazis thought that their system was good,,,,,,, ok it's good to beat and starve people. We can all think that it's ok to harm others, if that's what we've been brought up with. However we can go beyond our up bringing, to another place.

Answer 8

Law: is "both good and evil", so ends evil
Grace: is good only, none good but God

Law: is corruptible, oft corrupt(politicians, judges, police)
Grace: is incorruptible; doesn't tempt, nor can be tempted

So: either make the tree good OR corrupt: Mt 12:33
allegory becomes either make the tree grace OR law;
Not both, as contrary things make an oxy-MORON,
which is good and bad mixed, with a BAD end.

If grace "is", and law "added", then
only plausible combo is grace + law,
which is as blessed + cursed = accursed, and
as saved + destroyed = extinction, not salvation.
So the end already written ends with grace only:

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.

Answer 9

Subjective? Yes it can be.
I see them as more relative then subjective. Good is that which works toward a desired result. Evil works against that desired result. For example: Lets say a pack of wolves ate my children. That would be evil to me yet it would be good to the pack of wolves who used them for food.

Cool question!
†

Answer 10

Anything can be good for one person and bad to other person or Vis varsa. Therefore, Good and Bad are not subjective but both are relative factor for certain people in a certain circumstances.