Before reading this  first ask yourself what you believe the main role to be in determining whether you believe a person to be good or evil. Do you believe it to be the intent behind an action or the result of the action that determines this? If you believe it to be the result, or effects of an action that determine whether or not the person committing them is good or evil, then you are stuck in the stone age and need help out of it. If you believe it to be what is in people’s hearts that counts you are much like me and most people today. Now that we we’ve established that it’s what’s in the heart that counts let me present you with a scenario…

Hypothetically- what if a person believed that only people who have been murdered go to heaven? Then, would it truly be evil for him to go around killing people in order to save them from hell? This may be a drastic concept for those who haven’t thought about these things before or a relatively simple one for those who have. All I’m trying to establish here is that nobody can truly be judged from actions alone. Actions may lead you down the wrong path in understanding somebody else’s motivations. And since nobody has really any clue what is in anybody else’s heart, nobody has a right to judge others.

Let me present to you another reason that the actions of an individual are a barbaric method in determining his alignment. I must do this first and foremost by destroying the pre-conceived notion of “good” by saying that all actions are selfish. Even an action like giving money to the poor has it’s rewards for the person doing it- it makes them feel good on the inside. Is that not selfishness? Doing something for your own emotional benefit because you feel good about it? People get too caught up in their actions believing them to be “good” as they look down on thieves and murderers believing them to be “evil”. In the end everybody is out for themselves. I’m not saying that you should quit helping people, because I like to help people. I’m just saying that you should be humble about it and get off of your high-horse. Everybody is just as bad as everybody else. And guess what? Actions don’t matter!

If actions can’t be good or evil then what can be? Ralph Waldo Emerson is somebody I’ve gained quite a bit of insight from. He believed in a “universal soul” that everybody is a part of. He believed everybody to be a part of God. Cells in a body will often work together to make the body better. In the same way he believed all of us to be a part of the same force that is working towards a better end . If you strip everything down and simplify everything it should be apparent that we aren’t in control over any action we do and we are in fact being carried on by the force that “God” is a part of. Think about it. When you are born you have an extremely basic personality that leads you to make your first decision. The next decision you make is based off of your experiences from the first decision and your personality. Can you really help any decision you make? It’s the manner of interpretation you were born with that determines everything you do. Now imagine that you were knocked out as a baby and cloned. Imagine that the clone was given the exact same personality as you and placed in an environment exactly the same as yours. Wouldn’t you both live your lives out in exactly the same manner?

With computers if you input certain information you will get a certain output. If you go over to an identical computer and you input the same thing you will get the same output as what the first computer gave you. People are exactly the same way and that is why the clones would live their lives out in exactly the same manner. We are the result of everything put into us. And the personalities we were born with are the start of the plethora of decisions we make. This is why I believe decisions made by other people can never really be judged. Every single person is the result of everything they’ve been through and you just need to sort of trust that the personalities that nature gave them are only furthering our evolution. And if everything is in fact working towards this better end that Emerson described, then how could any action be truly good or evil? If absolutely everything is working together than absolutely everything is good.

            Absolutely everything is good. For some sad reason people have trouble realizing this. Picture this absolute goodness that everybody is a part of to be like the core of the earth. It is the fire within us- the center of everything. It transcends physical actions (actions aren’t important in determining good or evil, remember?) and simply exists as the core. Now, as people are exposed to the world they begin to adapt to their environment and they begin to learn things. They learn that stealing will get them what they want so they resort to it. They learn all kinds of other little tricks and shortcuts to get them what they want. All of this is what society considers evil and builds up the rock surrounding the core. When other members of society (being the selfish bastards they are) see this evil their immediate action is to say “no!” and they often punish the member who was committing an act that they’ve learned will get them what they want. Because of this, people start steering clear of these actions because they are afraid of the consequences. This creates a false “good” that is simply created through fear. People are doing what society believes to be “good”  and they believe themselves to be  “good” people because they are doing as they are told. (*cough cough*). This false sense of good builds up as the crust of the earth and only pulls people further away from the core. “Evil” actions are closer to the core than “good” actions are. Herein lies the problem. Most people live on the crust of the earth in a false sense of goodness. They see the evil lurking just below the surface and they are often afraid of it. If one were to truly examine this sense of evil and dig their way through it they would find that they aren’t really evil at all. Good is not found within the method of existence. Good is discovered through existence itself.  (wow, you should quote me on the last two sentences….it would make a really nice quote)