The Problem with Good and Evil

My previous post reminds me of a subject I've been mulling over after reading The Shack (read post here). The subject is good and evil. Actually, the subject is the human heart and judgment.

When I decide what is good and what is evil, I am making a very subjective but very real judgment. I determine whether an event, an opinion, a circumstance, even another person is good or bad based solely on an imperfect set of personal standards. My good is never exactly the same as someone else's. My "good" and my "bad" judgment calls are made based on how something or someone affects me.

Subjective? You bet. Broken? Absolutely.

Now take me and my judgments and place us in a crowd of thousands. Millions. Billions.

On October 12, 1999, the United Nations Population Division estimated that the human population exceeded six billion. That's 6,000,000,000,000 sets of beliefs, values, and principles. Six billion individuals, all with their own subjective list of standards by which they are determining what is good and what is evil. Absolutes are pretty much lost in all that subjectivity. Things like good and evil are no longer penultimate measures, they are opinions. But they are opinions that cause conflicts, wars, and desolation. Opinions that, since they have overwhelmed absolute standards, are baseless and empty. Baseless, empty opinions become death sentences for far too many.

When we decide what is good and what is evil based on our own standards, we make ourselves Judge. Yep, Capital J: We allow ourselves to play God. I'd love to play many roles, but deep in my heart of hearts, I don't want to play God. Only problem is, it's much harder to relinquish my "right" to judge things that affect me according to my standard and let the Holy Spirit guide me.

Israel thinks they are right. Many fundamental Christians think they are right. We Gentile believers are instructed in the Bible to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem." And I do.

But Palestine thinks they are right also. So do the majority of Middle Eastern countries. If one honestly listens to both sides of the argument -- remaining honestly neutral, taking into account culture and background -- one finds there is no right. There is no wrong.

Only opinions. That's a problem.