Who is really good or evil?

What I'm asking is how do we know something is good or evil? Is it just when someone tells us a group is evil? If that is the case then how do we truly know they are correct on what they say?

by taking a look at it carefully, and from more than one perspective.

For me, a good operational definition of evil is 'bad shit that happens to me and mine.' And I am against evil or, IOW, bad shit that could happen to me or mine.

What you do to yourself is one thing but once you step over that line and deliberately harm or kill other living things be it people,animals,or the ecological system one should be considered evil. Once you take away,part of the negative of life,you become a liability to the happiness of others.

observation will show if a group is good or bad. Look at Jim Jones. That all started out looking like a good thing. over time it turned into the works of a madman

Subtitle: Hope for healing human evil
By: Dr. Scott M. Peck.

While I could do without some of his flights of fancy into his religious theories, he makes many brilliant and illuminating points on evil. Individiual and "group evil". I highly recommend reading this book in order to learn more.

Julie

The Twilight Zone of Relativism. There are only a few ways to escape ;)

First, you can study ethics. Second, you can study history and anthropology. Third, you can study Theology and do some comparative religion investigations.

Logically, you can try to posit that there are no absolutes. That creates an initial problem. Your statement tends to negate itself, as well.

Science, as empricism, is essentially without any specific moral values inherit. That is, if there were a science "bible, the litany would be 1, 2, 3, etc. Not one of those numbers has any more value or ethic than the other. They are all relative. Anyone who tried to live exclusively through the "eye of science" would probably behave and live as insane. Many scientists have their own personal beliefs, (Einstein for one).

You will find that there are relative, cultural taboos. Those can be distinguished from what is called by some the "Eternal Golden Thread" that traverses all religions, cultures, etc. I don't see many valid arguments or problems with the Golden Rule, as it is referred to. Do unto others?

Then you have what is called conscience, or your own sense/understanding of what is right or wrong, or more strongly put, good and evil. The verbiage used is not my point and another subject.

I can say that a person who obeys no laws, personal or otherwise, is certainly a candidate for some negative categorization either ethically or morally depending on your bent, espeicially if they behave and act from that perspective.

From there, you can work out your personal and culteral Ontology and compare it to others. Good and evil? Right and wrong?

Santa has the naughty and nice neatly categorized already.
You'll throw him into an unresolveable quandary and the American economy depends on him. :D

To make a judgement, there must be a mind, recording, auditing and
otherwise "understanding" events. Minds come with bodies, and that
is your "who". That said, it seems the "who" is the originator of
good and evil, not life itself. A volcano blows and kills 1000's of
people. It is not good nor evil except for the mind state of the
thinker.

Then perhaps, years later, the person is travelling and sees the
volcano in a lovely sunset. Except, that the person has given up
making relativist judgements and no longer has issues about "who".
In the silence of the sunset, there are no judgements, and as with
human life, immersed in an ocean of silence.

When "who's" mind in silent, there is no good or evil. For the
mind to be still, however, the person's ego is not operating, and
after a period of silence, the person might glimpse a photo of *
and "know" that he is acting out of his ego, and not silence.

So is acting out of your ego, evil? In one definition of white and
black magic, white magic is action without "self", and black magic,
action with self. So it seems that the reflection is both in the
mirror and in the perceiver. Self stands up and recognizes ego
in the mirror and says "evil". Awakening, sees self stand up, and
sees the myriad of the garden, and simply is aware.

So, Yes, there is really good and evil, by people's motives,
something that does not weigh in a courtroom. But in our terribly
dark and degenerate world, by merely living, you cannot but help to
see evil, actions and unrepentant persons. They are a mirror of
that seed of ego inside our own minds, and to reconcile evil one
must let go of the inside-"who" who cares, and be at one with it
all.