Dear Editor:
Who gets to define what is good, moral, charitable, evil, etc.? You? Me? MTV? A Saddam? A Stalin?
To ancient Aztecs - cutting out the still beating heart of a human sacrifices (including children) was the highest order of good.
To a large percent of Muslims - killing, raping and enslaving infidels is the highest order of good in Islam.
To Hindus - Attacking, ignoring, prejudicing against and letting die for people in lower order castes is perfectly alright.
To certain Pacific Tribes - eating your enemy was the highest form of good.
And I could go on for pages...
The works we hold in value in the West are good works from a Christian viewpoint:
Matthew 22:37-40 — Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
And Jesus also said “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Luke 6:31; Luke 10:27 (affirming of Moses) and Matthew 7:12)
But by no means has this “philosophy” been accepted the world over as “good or moral.” Not by a long shot.
What makes murder inherently wrong (to Christians) is not that it feels wrong, but that a transcendent Creator to whom we are answerable commands: “Thou shalt not murder.” What makes kindness to others inherently right (to Christians) is not that human reason says so, but that God does: “Love thy neighbor as thyself; I am the Lord.”
For what is “good or evil” without God? Without any footing for moral actions - anything can be rationalized as good or evil. You can just make it up as you go along. Good actions can be whatever society thinks it is with the popular culture at the time. If that be in Nazi Germany or Pol Pot’s Cambodia or North Korea - that means doing “good” is slaughtering millions of people and sending millions more into misery. But, by their own human standards at the time in history, they were all doing good.
You grew up and live in a country founded in Judeo-Christian values, so it may seem obvious to you what is “good.” But that is due to the Judeo-Christian influences on you (even if you don’t believe in God or never have been to Church). To others without that kind of influence, doing “good” can be radically different.
Regards,
2banana
Please speak for yourself. Racism and slavery were also justified once, on a Biblical basis.
| If one of evil life turn in his thought | |
| Straightly to Me, count him amidst the good; | |
| He hath the highway chosen; he shall grow | 120 |
| Righteous ere long; he shall attain that peace | |
| Which changes not. Thou Prince of India! | |
| Be certain none can perish, trusting Me! | |
| O Prithâ’s Son! Whoso will turn to Me, | |
| Though they be born from the very womb of Sin, | 125 |
| Woman or man; sprung of the Vaisya caste | |
| Or lowly disregarded Sudra,—all | |
| Plant foot upon the highest path; how then | |
| The holy Brahmans and My Royal Saints? | |
| Ah! ye who into this ill world are come— | 130 |
| Fleeting and false—set your faith fast on Me! | |
| Fix heart and thought on Me! | |
| Make me your supremest joy! and, undivided, | |
| Unto My rest your spirits shall be guided. |
- Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita, Chptr. IX.