Mar 5 2013: There is no such thing as "objective right and wrong". The abstractions of philosophy and the assertions of religion can entertain the most absurd ideas as if they had validity that, in the world of experience, will come crashing down when confronted with practicality. What is 'real' is what is pragmatic and utile. No one can demonstrate, in experience, a pure objective reality or, for that matter, a pure subjective reality. On that basis God, a pure objective reality, is a fiction in as much as it requires a subject with an awareness of something, the thinker or experiencer. The thinker is also a fiction in as much as no one can demonstrate the validity of a pure experiencer either.
So it seems to me that you have a continuum, experiences that are very meaningful to you ('subjective') and experiences that are not meaningful to you ('objective'). But experience is fluid, what may upset me in one moment can, in the next moment, not bother me at all. If you are going to use some sort of criteria for 'good' and 'evil' it must be experienced based. I would suggest it is the mundane observation that no one or thing - a society e.g., likes to suffer. The yardstick for behaviour is therefore the 'Golden Mean' which if followed alleviates suffering. Proper behaviours are therefore those that approximate the Golden Mean (good) or move away from it (evil). Good and evil are simply actions which are 'harmonious' or 'inharmonious' in relation to the golden rule. It is because we chase after non-existent ultimate's, divorced from experience, that we allow neurotic behaviours, religion and ideologies etc. to flourish and cause incalculable harm. The true evil is therefore a belief, not rooted in a pragmatic/utile world view, which must be constantly reinforced by violence, physical or mental about some sort of ultimate that is a pure abstraction. On that score, belief in God or some ideology, are dangerous psychoses about false ultimate's.
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A comment on Conversation: Do right and wrong exist?
So it seems to me that you have a continuum, experiences that are very meaningful to you ('subjective') and experiences that are not meaningful to you ('objective'). But experience is fluid, what may upset me in one moment can, in the next moment, not bother me at all. If you are going to use some sort of criteria for 'good' and 'evil' it must be experienced based. I would suggest it is the mundane observation that no one or thing - a society e.g., likes to suffer. The yardstick for behaviour is therefore the 'Golden Mean' which if followed alleviates suffering. Proper behaviours are therefore those that approximate the Golden Mean (good) or move away from it (evil). Good and evil are simply actions which are 'harmonious' or 'inharmonious' in relation to the golden rule. It is because we chase after non-existent ultimate's, divorced from experience, that we allow neurotic behaviours, religion and ideologies etc. to flourish and cause incalculable harm. The true evil is therefore a belief, not rooted in a pragmatic/utile world view, which must be constantly reinforced by violence, physical or mental about some sort of ultimate that is a pure abstraction. On that score, belief in God or some ideology, are dangerous psychoses about false ultimate's.