Good and Evil

Two weeks ago I discussed the evidence for the supernatural and the origin of God. I would now like to talk about a related topic which is perhaps closer to our daily lives: the idea of good and evil. The notion of good and evil is also self-evident, like the supernatural. We saw that the supernatural can be seen by observing the natural world. Similarly, we can see good and evil in our observation of the natural world.

It is easiest to start with evil. Its existence is obvious and reminders are around us. Something in the nature of a human being is curious about evil, and leads us to seek it out. This is sometimes just to observe it, as some of us spend hours each day reading the news, which is always full of bad news, catastrophe, and the evil that individuals have committed exposed for others to see. There is something very sad about this desire, but it is the reason there is a show called “Cheaters” that has aired fifteen seasons and almost 300 episodes so far, exposing people committing adultery and betraying their partners or spouses. Incidentally, it has been proven that some of these incidents were indeed fake. The reason that this was hidden in the first place is that the viewers are wanting to see a specific type of evil and the real genuine consequences. They want to see real people, and not acting, as they already know the concepts surrounding adultery and how people generally behave regarding this act.

The reasons that people watch this program probably often include a sense of self-righteousness in comparison with the cheaters they see, but that is another subject. The popularity of this program and the myriad of other “reality” entertainment media which seek to expose individuals’ actions prove the existence of good and evil. If there was no good and evil, these things would not be interesting at all, but merely a series of events, collectively about as exciting as a dinner recipe. But we watch these programs because we know that the characters are doing wrong, and we want to see them do it. We want to see the consequences of evil. Their reactions while doing it, the reaction of the person who has been wronged once they find out, and the entire fall out. This is good and evil, not merely a matter of personal preference.

The matter of good and evil hits closest to home when we are on the receiving end of it. Some people attempt to argue for the existence of good and evil by discussing the idea of a conscience, which is a good idea. Of course, the obvious defense to this argument by those who wish to deny good and evil is an example of some serial killer or other “heinous” figure who they think (or may even claim) has no conscience. At this point the argument becomes a stalemate. A better approach would be to point out that even this person supposedly without a conscious knows when they have been wronged. They know when an evil act has been committed which hurts them. They know that they do not want their property to be stolen, not merely because of the loss of value, but because of the concept.

In my mind, the best example of understanding the concept of evil is adultery. It is always amusing in a very sad (and perhaps twisted) sort of way when an affair is made public. We can find many example of couples who are both betraying each other. When each finds out, they are both devastated to find out that the other person was cheating on them, despite the fact that they were doing the same. We can also find other cases where a woman finds out she was not the only mistress, and is upset. Why? Because, despite our denial that we have committed wrong, we know when others have wronged us.

The good news is that good exists as well. The mere existence of evil proves this. My favorite band Switchfoot has a song on their fifth album “Nothing is Sound” called “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine” on this topic. There cannot be merely evil, and nothing else, just as we cannot define the concept of “negative” without the concept of “positive”. So where is the positive? If evil is a shadow caused by the absence of sunlight, where is the sunlight coming from? This source of light does not seem to be temporary or changeable. Indeed, the concept of good and evil seems absolute and permanent, like the laws which rule our natural world. This all points to the supernatural.

The reason that good and evil must be of supernatural origin is that they do not follow natural laws. We cannot create good or evil as concepts. If we could, then we should be able to destroy them or disable them, yet we cannot. Not only can we not disable the concepts, we also cannot mix them or change any particular act to make it good or evil when it was not before. Adultery cannot be evil now, but previously good.

I realize that a growing popular idea is that the idea of good and evil are relative to things like culture or time period. This is simply not true, and appears to be a way to explain good and evil using natural means, once one has assumed that the supernatural does not exist. Yet good and evil cannot be both relative and absolute, as that defies the definition of absoluteness. Either adultery is absolutely wrong, or there is some time period, culture, or context in which a spouse can knowingly go behind the other spouse’s back and sleep with a third party without having committed evil. I propose that this is not possible, as that other spouse will always know that they have been wronged when they find out. Will those advocating moral relativism agree that there is some context in which their spouse can knowingly cheat on them without committing evil? I highly doubt it.