Some say good and bad depend on the era, culture or scenario. And because of that some say there is no such thing as good or bad. People say it depends on perception. But we can ask what perception is? For now we’ll stick to the question: Does good and evil exist?
A man murdering another man for his own pleasure is evil. Most would agree a firefighter helping a cat down from a tree is good. In obvious or extreme examples as these we can see the difference in things. These extremes can show us good and evil exist. This is like the spectrum between burning hot and ice cold. It exists in all the obvious and not so obvious choices we make. The same goes for good and evil. This is why I think people say “Choosing the lesser of two evils”.
When life’s basic needs are considered, the outright knowing when something is good or bad gets murky. The water also gets murky when our convenience is at stake. Comforts can tempt us to make decisions we know definitely harm others. We can go into justification to create a lower case “right” instead of doing an actual Right. We can go into denial putting our head in the sand. We can even have faith in our IGNORance. What’s more evil? Is it worse to take action or go into inaction? Does my participation in something cause harm? Is not doing something to oppose a harm -like watching a harm being done- causing harm? These are questions we must ask ourselves.
We have responsibility because we can distinguish between a right versus a wrong. But some will say good and bad are made up. The belief that good and bad do not exist can be used as a way to excuse oneself of responsibility. This is Moral relativism, and it leads to sayings like this “The end justifies the means.” Thought-forms like “The end justifies the means” lead to value being put on efficiency and productivity despite the harm being caused. Thinking like that trickles down into all parts of society. It creates a dog-eat-dog type of world in small and big ways. It creates a survival of the fittest mentality. It creates a scarcity mindset. Instead of bringing ourselves and those around us up, we become too busy focusing on petty things that do not matter.
In the end you will see or not see the truth of good and evils existence. All you have to do is spend your time paying attention to the world around you. That will show if you care or not to real-ize the existence of truth for the good of ourselves and others. It shows if you are Willing or not lower case willing (separation from source creation, nature etc) to take responsibility for the things that are within ones control. Questions that can be asked are “Does this cause harm?” or “Is this a voluntary decision?”. It can be used as a measuring stick. And see if you can distinguish good and bad in the murky waters of society.
