I use the word "assume" in this question because if we are not infinite beings then the answer is simple - all that matters is our temporary, physical stay on this planet. We try to be good in order to live our short existences in relative comfort rather than chaos. We are the only measure of good and evil, as per Jeremiah's compelling response. If there here and now is really all that matters, then this question has little purpose. So, for the sake of argument, assume we are eternal beings in some way.
Thank you Wombat for your very thorough discussion. It gave me things to think about. I agree with a lot of what you said. I wanted to address this part because I think this is an example of my question. Few people would argue that child abuse is anything but evil, but is it evil on a cosmic scale? Is one person's pain during a temporary existence meaningful? If you were "dead" or in some other sense out of your corporeal body and had the whole of existence from beginning to end (or without beginning and end, whatever) would one person's suffering matter? I think it may be our brains' reaction to others' suffering that makes us judge the abuse. Our psychological and social upbringing causes us to judge child abuse as evil.
There are cultures that foster an atmosphere of what we would call child abuse. Rites of passage could be considered forms of child abuse. Circumcision could be seen as abuse. There are many levels of abuse and suffering, many causes and circumstances behind suffering and abuse.
For the record, I am NOT defending any form of child abuse. I do believe that it's evil. I am simply trying to find a good place from where I can judge things as good or evil because I don't know if my physical body is qualified to make those judgments from an eternal perspective.
Oh, and thank you for the Hitchhiker's Guide clip. I love that show!
I like this way of looking at it, but the opposite makes just as much sense - Good doesn't exist except as a relative lack of evil. I haven't figured out how I feel about this definition of evil yet, but I don't think I can go with it. Also, I have a hard time with scriptures. They often offer great wisdom, but they almost never prove themselves to be true, it is just sort of understood that they are true...which I can't do.
After reading many of the responses, I figured out the main point of my question. I am searching for a basis for morality. I was fed Christianity as a child, and I believed it strongly for a while. But the idea of an old man with a white beard on a throne judging people for things they do or do not do seemed absurd to me. There are so many technicalities and gray areas that this rigid moral doctrine no longer made sense to me. Our actions are not black and white, 100% good or evil. I lost that faith over the last 10 years or so, but now I am left with this moral emptiness. I judge things, but from what basis? At this point, all I can figure is that I am as much god as anything else, but my physical body can cause me to do what I would consider evil things. I have stolen, both to eat and for comfort. I have been unfaithful to a lover, etc. I was able to justify the "sins" to myself and it made me realize that my physical body has no business determining right and wrong. I don't want to have to appeal to some higher consciousness, or whatever, to set my morality for me, but I am as bad as a lawyer in looking for loopholes to justify an action that may not be wholesome.
So that's the basic reason for this thread. What is a good basis for a moral code? Is it strictly a matter of maintaining social order and looking out for the comfort of future generations? Or is there a reasonable, infinite perspective that holds the key?
Jeez. I'm kind of a rambler, huh?
