Leighanne Guettler-James- Assignment 3

Personally, I don't think there is a clear cut line between good and evil in the world. Maybe so in biblical stories and sci-fi book series but in real life, none such distinctions can be made. I'm not even sure if any one person can say someone is good or evil. All people have motives behind their actions. For example, in my mind a beggar who steals money from a dishonest rich man is no worse than a rich man who sees such poverty and doing nothing to help. Although the rich man "earned" his money, it was by cheating others to rise to the top with advantages that weren't awarded to the beggar. In this way, the beggar deserved the money just as much as the rich man did. This same logic can be applied to almost all actions that anyone makes. In the end most people are just doing what they think will give them the optimal success. People who seem to be all good may only be that way because they have a hidden agenda to impress someone (God) or because they can more easily hide their malice than others. Someone who seems evil could just be acting on what they have encountered in life (the beggar man encountered poverty). Google defines "good" as "that which is morally right: righteous." This definition strikes a sort of chord with me as there are inevitable religious ideas associated with morals and righteousness. I think many people assign their "morals" based on religious belief, and so one can not judge the human race as a whole on these things, seeing as there are countless religions. Google defines "Evil" as "profoundly immoral and malevolent." This definition, again, brings up the topic of morals but adds the concept of malevolence. So I suppose the basic meaning is wanting to do bad things to other people.  I would say evil in that sense can be assigned more easily, not taking into account the moral part. There are definitely people who want to do bad things to others. In the end, Good and Evil are highly debatable terms that can't justly be assigned by individuals.