Does good and evil really exist?

[d0gbreath]

Basic evil is the absence of all light. Goodness is light.

 

[jet57]

The more I read about moral psychology, the more I become convinced that moral behavior is based on instincts and adaptations necessary for survival.

The story as I see it is that humanity developed pro-social strategies to enhance our chances at survival as individuals or as a species.

Some examples:

Murder versus justified kills. Murder is seen largely as causing the aggressive and illegitimate death of an ingroup. That ingroup may be based on nationalism (tribalism) or some other identifier. Yet the death of the other (an individual who belongs to a competing group, like ISIS, a communist (given US mainstream culture) or maybe a monarchist in the 1700s). But the justification tends to rely on how close this person identifies with ones culture or tribe. Because war is nothing but competing tribes, no different then 10,000 years ago.

Competing groups. Social and moral psychology both have research showing that tribalism or nationalism tends to increase in presence of competing groups. This is true even in trivial groups as small as young teens at summer camp, rival sports teams, or even cliques in highschool. People tend to demonize what they see as an outgroup and attribute all sorts of nasty traits. For example, this forum is rife with people demonizing other political groups with only anecdotal justification. This behavior rewards pleasure centers and less intelligent people will blindly follow that pleasure.

Even religion, based on the fact that there are thousands, even in the modern world, is theorized to be an adaption for pro social behavior that helps us overcome personal selfishness (natures answer to the free rider problem) but is just a trick our brain plays on us. Remember, evolution is not guided and will take even inefficient methods, so long as they work.

In conclusion, all of this points to survival strategies not actual good and evil. Just animals doing what animals try to do, survive.

Personally, I see these instincts should be followed even if they are an illusion. It increases my pleasure and the pleasure of those around me, even though its arbitrary. Why not feel good if we can. So I am a supporter of these instincts. But the truth is, all morality is an illusion.

even things like supposed logical applications of morality, when examined under an MRI or anything real (real = science and not some logical equation, logic being mostly arbitrary) and verifiable. Shows the prefrontal cortex as built to justify instincts after the fact. Humans largely are not capable of true logic.

To paraphrase Friedrich Nietzsche; morality/ good vs evil are inventions of society and it's leaders. "One man's good is another man's evil. You are correct; it is a game. If you want to stay in good with your society, you play the game. Or - you create a country wherein you don't have to. We call it the US...

 

[Fearandloathing]

The more I read about moral psychology, the more I become convinced that moral behavior is based on instincts and adaptations necessary for survival.

The story as I see it is that humanity developed pro-social strategies to enhance our chances at survival as individuals or as a species.

Some examples:

Murder versus justified kills. Murder is seen largely as causing the aggressive and illegitimate death of an ingroup. That ingroup may be based on nationalism (tribalism) or some other identifier. Yet the death of the other (an individual who belongs to a competing group, like ISIS, a communist (given US mainstream culture) or maybe a monarchist in the 1700s). But the justification tends to rely on how close this person identifies with ones culture or tribe. Because war is nothing but competing tribes, no different then 10,000 years ago.

Competing groups. Social and moral psychology both have research showing that tribalism or nationalism tends to increase in presence of competing groups. This is true even in trivial groups as small as young teens at summer camp, rival sports teams, or even cliques in highschool. People tend to demonize what they see as an outgroup and attribute all sorts of nasty traits. For example, this forum is rife with people demonizing other political groups with only anecdotal justification. This behavior rewards pleasure centers and less intelligent people will blindly follow that pleasure.

Even religion, based on the fact that there are thousands, even in the modern world, is theorized to be an adaption for pro social behavior that helps us overcome personal selfishness (natures answer to the free rider problem) but is just a trick our brain plays on us. Remember, evolution is not guided and will take even inefficient methods, so long as they work.

In conclusion, all of this points to survival strategies not actual good and evil. Just animals doing what animals try to do, survive.

Personally, I see these instincts should be followed even if they are an illusion. It increases my pleasure and the pleasure of those around me, even though its arbitrary. Why not feel good if we can. So I am a supporter of these instincts. But the truth is, all morality is an illusion.

even things like supposed logical applications of morality, when examined under an MRI or anything real (real = science and not some logical equation, logic being mostly arbitrary) and verifiable. Shows the prefrontal cortex as built to justify instincts after the fact. Humans largely are not capable of true logic.

Some other examples:

rape
racism
genocide
torture
child sex
serial killers....

Evil is real, be a general reporter in TV news for one year, your mind will change