"Evil" and "Good" are magical incantations.
Evil? depends upon the scale of "doing Good" one looks at.. in this "world of dualisms" and the umm collateral damage on that Great Undertaking. Evil.. to seek progress? Which entity shall judge?I'd agree.
Sorry but.. my view is that our sordid history of fright-derived 'entities' and concepts like 'Evil' - which we associate with the behaviour of some of these phantasms: has done and always shall lead to endless succession of warring 'herders of different-named fantasies'.Again, I'd agree.
No change in sight, until we are done with the toys of childhood and recognize that WE must construct societies whose laws and mores tend to promote "good behaviour" towards sentient animals and respect.. for the others. Ditto laws and mores which provide deterrence and finally punishment or incarceration for "bad behaviour". (Killing off the defectives - merely devalues the above societal intent to foster respect. It's hypocritical and it doesn't deter 'badness', we have noticed. States killing people is .. rilly a stupid way of teaching 'goodness')Step #1. Determine what is "good". That is, determine what the basic values, mores, etc will be.
Step #2. Determine what is "bad". That is, determine what the taboos and such are.
Be able to express these in societal context.
We don't need a Demonology to accomplish this - we merely need to grow up. And along the way: lose the freight (and the fright) of our primitive period.:)
If I may borrow your phrase, no one thinks of themselves as "immature" or "primative" or "superstitious".
We also need to realize that society is NOT something layered upon a group of people. Society IS that group of people.
The same thing with politics.
Society and politics are BOTH derived from the group.
Which was the point of my posting on Fascism.
Deconstruct society and the laws and the politics and you get......
The individual.
Determine WHAT it is in the individual that results in various societies and political systems and so forth.
We don't need magical terms like "good" or "evil" for this.
This is nothing more or less than the INDIVIDUAL's value system in practice.
When someone's value system clashes with your value system, then that person is "evil".
On the other hand, when your value system clashes with the other person's value system, then you are "evil".
When his value system supports your value system, he is "good".
etc.
Now, since it is very unlikely that both value systems are complete opposites.........
In fact, the value system of "whatever I want, I should have" usually leads to conflict AMONGST PEOPLE WITH THE EXACT SAME VALUE SYSTEM.