Good vs. Evil

A friend of mine and James, who is an Athiest, once asked us "How do you define Good and Evil to someone who doesn't believe in a Singular divine God?"

Go ahead and think about that one for a minute. We didn't really know how to answer him 6 years ago when he asked that question, without using words in monotheistic ideology such as God, Satan, righteousness, wickedness, etc. His question was asked of good and evil as a noun, specifically defining a person.

We couldn't really give a satisfiable answer to him, without using terms based in doctrine of a Theological understanding. Because that was the key foundation of OUR understanding, but not his.

The definition in the dictionary of evil says:

• a force or power that brings about harm or wickedness
• a wicked, or morally wrong act or thing
• (of a person) deliberatly causing great harm or misery
• (of an act or idea) causing great harm or misery, morally wrong
• very unpleasant

But take out your understanding of God, scripture, prophets, prayer, societal environments, and institutions which have guided YOUR moral compass, and consider the level of understanding of someone else. How do you measure morals without all of the before mentioned things in your understanding?

Well, back to my foundation of understanding, the philosophy rings true to me though it is based in scripture, and can be translated across the board of philosophies when Jesus Christ taught:

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Wherefore by their *fruits* ye shall know them.

So back to our moral compass as Christians. What guides my morals is what I've been taught since I was young, what I have learned through teachings of the spirit since my youth, and what I have learned through application. The fruits. My choices of governing my life are conservative because that is what brings further happiness and teachings through the spirit in my life.

I now have a different answer for my friend.

Good and evil is a polarized spectrum to represent opposites to gain understanding of truth. Of what is. It is a measurement. But the truth itself is the fruits of each spectrum, not the definition specifically. For what I deem to be good in my life may cause misery in yours. Here's a thought I cherish and want to share with you.

"The power of intention has to be creative, or nothing will come into existence. This seems to me that this is an irrefutable truth of intention and spirit, because its purpose is to bring life into a suitable environment. Why do I conclude that the life giving power of intention intends us here to have life and have it in increasing abundance?

Because, if the opposite were true, life as we know it couldn't come into form. The very fact that we can breath and experience life is proof to me that the life giving spirit is creative at its very core. What is clear is this: You are here in your physical body. There was a time when you were an embryo, before that a seed. Before that, formless energy. That formless energy contained intention, which brought you from nowhere, to now here. At the very highest levels of awareness, intention started you on your path towards your destiny. The face of creativity intends you towards continued creativity, to create, and co-create, anything that you direct your power of intention toward. Creative energy is a part of you. It originates in the life giving spirit that intended you here in the first place."

And if opposition is in all things, than the opposite of creation is destruction.

My moral compass of understanding comes from the belief in a God who created me. Who is the source of all creation. And anything of a destructive nature whether in intention, creation, or manifestation cannot be of the same divine source. So there is opposites. Whether you believe in God and Satan, Good or Evil, or Universal Energy and empty space, it is the same source of intention. And it is the very intention of each spectrum how you come to know good and evil.

For me, the life giving source of all creation in my existence is my Heavenly Father. And that is where my moral compass points true North.