Thank you, Arjun Sambhi, for this important and profound question. This is an important and profound question. Hitler did horrible acts, but did he think his actions were bad? To answer that question, we need to be honest about how we think about moral issues. Popular culture has instilled in us a simplistic vision of […]
Did Hitler know he was a bad person? Read More
Thank you, TG Dee, for this perennial question. To understand why this seems to be the case, we have to understand what it is to be good or to be evil. It seems to me that to be good involves acting, desiring, feeling, in accordance with certain standards. For multiple reasons it is not easy
Why is evil consistent and the good is faltering? Read More
Thank you, Kurt Elarcosa! A classic question, and timely too! If ever there was a year that prompted a question like this, it’s 2020. Let’s get to it. First, we need to distinguish between evil and suffering, as they are actually mutually exclusive. Physical suffering, pain, can come from growth or healing, as in growing
Why does an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God allow evil and suffering? Read More
How practical is it to not fall into the trap of good vs evil dichotomy? Thank you, Kirti Lamba, for this fascinating question. It is difficult to define the concepts ‘good’ and ‘bad’, if by “define” we mean analyzing these concepts into better-understood constituents. For example, it’s not clear that we can do to ‘good’
How can we define good, bad, and evil? Read More
