h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Y'know, I got to wondering.. all this talk about whether humans are good or evil inside... what's it all about? Some religions are saying that they're evil because Eve ate fruit from the Tree of Knowledge way back then... And then some people say that humans are honestly good inside, they just have evil bits sometimes. But now, the question is what is good, and what is evil?

You might say well, you can't have one without the other. That doesn't really define what they really ARE does it? If you said that to someone who didn't know they still wouldn't have any good idea what you think good and evil are. We're always having stories and movies and everything where evil springs up somewhere after lurking around for some time, and then a wonderful good that comes and drives it away. Happy ending, *cheer, clap clap*, the end. But now do you really think the evil really wanted to be evil just for the sake of being called evil? Humans seem to have their own selfish motives about things, (wait, am I human too? I seem to be quite like them anyway) so they always think they're in the right, that they're 'good.'

So now we've established that everyone is good in their own eyes because they do things they -they themselves- think is for the better, whether for themselves or for others. So it's all just a matter of perspective.. Which only makes it harder to define.

But now let's consider the relation between hate and love, since that's emotions we feel and I guess understand better. What is the opposite of hate? The immediate answer might be love. But is that really true? Haven't you ever had times when you felt like you'd rather be hated than ignored? Or have you ever gotten the feeling that in order to truly wholely completely love someone with your entire soul, you have to be able to hate them as well? So what if the opposite of hate was indifference? That would make indifference the opposite of love as well. Which would... make love and hate perfectly equal. The same thing!

So now if we apply that thought to good and evil, we've got that neutrality is the opposite of both good and evil, making them the same just like love and hate. So then... what is the battle? There isn't any in this case.. every act of good and at the same time evil, while every act of evil is at the same time good, in their own ways.

Hello Lene I don't think of good & evil or love and hate as opposites cause like you said they are not. good is good and evil is evil. they are just words humans use to decribe nice things and horrible things. I enjoyed reading your journal, very interesting for one so young, me thinks you will go far!

Read some stuff by Zecharia Sitchin (like the Twelfth Planet) for some alternative insights into why humans may or may not be naturally evil. Very interesting, if somewhat leftfield theories.