The Nature of Good and Evil

It amuses me whenever I hear people described in such terms as good or evil. To me, it's such a childish notion, instilled into us by fairy tales and cartoons and reinforced by Sunday school. Parents tell their children to "be good" when they really mean "do as I say". My theory is that while we are young, absolute concepts such as good or strong or hot are much easily able to be absorbed by our brains than relative concepts, so we latch on to such fallible ideals.

It did strike me as odd, when during a conversation I had with a Christian friend of mine a month back, that some people still believe in absolute good and evil. Not just believe, but vehemently defend these ideals as set up by the Church. Normally I try to understand others' viewpoints but in this particular scenario I was stuck.

It has since occurred to me that it's been a very, very long time since I've thought of anything - human or otherwise - in those terms. As I've grown up I've learned that conflict is often between one person's beliefs and someone else who doesn't share that belief, not between some unseen forces taking place in a religious wonderland.

I'm not saying that everyone is always right, but the truth is that trying to categorize human interaction into abstractions is not satisfactory. Many people do not comprehend that there are other views of the world, as others have had their lives shaped by events and circumstances which differ from their own. Without this understanding there will continue to be conflict.