Good vs Evil; What Does it Really Mean? – Part One
I have been reading the book “The Shack” (or actually listening to it on CD) for the second time. This time something stood out which was a discussion by the main character, Mac, and the Holy Spirit about good and evil.
So here is the question I pose to you…what is good? And what is evil?
Before you answer this think about it for a minute. I mean really contemplate the questions, what is good, what is evil?
To stimulate your thoughts i thought i would provide the definitions from dictionary.com of each:
* good – morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious
* evil – morally wrong or bad; immoral; wicked: evil deeds; an evil life; harmful; injurious: evil laws.
Read those definitions again.
Now what is good? And what is evil?
Let’s start with what is good?
I challenge you to list some things you think are good.
Here is a list of things I feel are good:
* God
* America
* Freedom
* Serving others
* Being a parent
* Friendship
* Married life
* 12 Stone Church
* The BCS
* Georgia Bulldogs
* New York Yankees
* WrestleMania
What does your list look like? Is it exactly like mine? If not why not? You may disagree with some of my list and I may disagree with some of your list. So if what I listed is good and what you listed is good, what really is good?
Stay with me here…
I know many people that absolutely hate married life, they hate the BCS, they hate the New York Yankees so in their world these things are … EVIL. However on the flip side millions of people love these same things so in their world these things are … GOOD.
Have you ever thought about that? You know that the things you think are good are actually evil to someone else and on the flip side the things you deem evil are good to someone? When I thought about this I was stopped dead in my tracks. It staggered me.
I was like what really is good? And what really is evil?
That is what I plan to dig into over the next couple of days on this blog. Let’s take this journey together…
One real challenge with this question is the weakness of our language. We use the term Good to describe dinner last night when there is not moral judgement. We use the word Good when refering to God.
English is a weak language here. The test is to form a strong definition of your terms a determine whether the items on your list meet the criteria of that definition.
Using the Definition of Good you listed above:
Is the BCS morally excellent, virtuous, righteous, pious?
Are the Bulldogs morally excellent, virtuous, righteous or pious?
I make no comment either way here as I believe there is no real moral question to your finding these as good as they are not inherently evil.
Is the question whether they ARE good or whether they ARE NOT evil?
Good question, Greg. We need to explore this in all aspects of our lives.
David you are correct in your assessment but let me ask it another way; what is morally right? And what is morally wrong?
There is still no definition which is what I plan to get to in part two. Wouldnt this be a fun one to sit around and debate?
Good thought challenging quest: I’ve challenged my team to do the same…
* God
* Family
* Married Life
* Parenting
* Quality Friendships
* New Hope Baptist Church
* Carrollton Trojans
* Dallas Cowboys
* Coaching the kids
* Sam’s House Memphis Style BBQ