Can anything ever really be Good or Bad?

Sure, killing some is bad, unless it's baby Hitler. We don't know the eventual outcomes of our behavior over time. What appears to be good action can eventually result in something bad, which can later result in something good - and so on and so on. How can we know for sure whether the net cumulative consequences of any action will be good or bad?

 

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We don´t know, that is why we should accept everything that happens to us, and not interfere (turn your other cheek). Karma is the only fair justice.

 

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But accepting everything that happens to us is still action by omission. Omission is just as much interference as action. I don't see how omission will lead to a greater good than action.

 

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Well, if someone slaps me on the street there is a good chance that their Karma will come via me. I see no reason to decide that my own reactions and emotions are bad. Again this is a dualism I see in many religions: accept what is outside you, but repress, deny and judge what is inside you.

 

That's another nice tack to take on this issue. Indifference is not natural or neutral.

 

I think you are right about that, an action that comes from within you is good. As I see it, there are things beneficial for you or damaging. Love is beneficial for your physical and emotional health, hate is damaging to the liver and everything else.

Like the parable:
“There was a man walking in the forest, and he saw a big bag of rocks. He got the bag and started throwing rocks at the river, one by one just to see them bouncing in the water.
When there was 1 rock left, he started crying incessantly, another man passed by and saw him crying, asking him what is wrong.
The man said he had been throwing rocks at the river, and when there was only one left, he realized he have been throwing gold to the river the whole time.”

We have a given amount of energy to give until we die, like the sun, and virtually everything that is born. You can spend that energy to benefit or damage yourself, and therefore others by loving or by hating.

I am talking omission when your action would be non-beneficial to you or others. I´m talking omission when you think that by hating you would solve anything, you would be wrong.

 

A little bit of evil can be a good thing. Killing weeds can promote the growth of a flower. Equally, a little bit of good can be an evil thing. Letting little Janie rid your bike, just before she got hit by a car in the street. Hard to say whether any given action is really good or evil, in the long-run.

 

It is really hard to say as you posted, that is the reason why we shouldn´t judge others...

 

Ahh, but remember, actions are not just judged one time ...they're judged all through history, sometimes as good, sometimes as bad. Historians, among others, are still judging the actions of man throughout all of history. And lest you forget, some historians judge an action as "good", while other historians judge that same action as "bad".

The "long-run"? It ain't over yet! And I might add, the never-ending, and mostly useless, "what if's" will never be over.

Baron Max

 

Surely, you can judge a person's intent to do harm - regardless of whether the eventual outcome was good or bad. And, regardless of the second-guessing of historians, we do believe that certain things are good or bad.

 

Anyone can judge anyone or anything, but that doesn't make it right or correct. As to the "eventual outcome", how could anyone know? "What if" is simply a game that's played by people in some misguided attempt to show or prove something ....and it does neither.

Sure we believe things ...but that doesn't make them right 1,000 years from now. In 1945 most Americans and Europeans thought dropping the bombs on Japan was a good thing ...because it ended the war. Now some historians are making half-assed attempts to call it "bad". What will historians in 2254 say about it?

Good n' bad are judgement calls based on ones own ideals and/or training and/or social status. What's "good" for one, might be "bad" for someone else ...at the same time!

And you might be a little more explicit when you use the word/term "we" ....who is that "we" you're talking about?

Baron Max

 

All just a matter of perspective.

 

you would allow your entire family to be slaughtered? even buddha himself would have kicked some ass to save his family. why do you believe this?

peace.

 

Usually, when one starts spouting his ideals, without thinking clearly, he gets himself into just such dilemmas! And the only way out, other than showing that he didn't think it through, is to continue with the idealism ....ridiculous tho' it might be.

I've always found staunch ideals to be full of holes ..and sometimes big, BIG holes!

Baron Max

 

Because I am only responsable for my own actions, not others. I wouldn´t allow my family to be slaughtered but I don´t think I would react violently. I´m inclined to think I would be in the first line to be slaughtered, telling them what they will receive from that actions.

If you are innocent and your blood is spilled in those basis, God will make justice, I trust this. I know most people won´t find this as good, but I just don´t care, I only intend to be good in the eyes of God, nobody else.

 

OMG! Why would you kill baby Hitler? He's just a baby

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Giving is good. Selfishness is bad.

 

Not to the poor and destitute. For them, receiving is good; selfishness is survival, which must be good for them.

Baron Max

 

No, one shares with a buddy, and the buddy shares with him. They look out for each other. That's how you survive.
Some of the crazy ones might be like that, but I'm sure they are sharing with all the people in their head.

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You've never seen two homeless, wino buddies fight over the last drop in a bottle of booze that one of them finds, have you?

Well, see, ...it only takes one person to change that ideal of "good" to something "bad", don't it? Just one person proves that the concept of good n' bad is not universal ...even if that person is what YOU, or perhaps many, consider crazy.

Good and bad are concepts of a society, nothing more, nothing less.

***Although I'm still thinking that somewhere, somehow, there's at least one thing that all humans would agree upon. ...although I ain't found such a thing.***

Baron Max

 

Nope, giving is good, selfishness is bad.
I will not believe that what a person does while under the influence changes that.

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