Assignment 3 Hannah Pauley

"Good" and "evil" are completely vague terms. It would be a more precise question to ask what is "moral" or "ethical," but there are two completely different answers for those respective categories. Likewise, there are different answers for what is moral/ethical within personal, societal, and governmental parameters of action. And on a personal level, people have different perspectives of what good or evil actions are.

Taking into account these different areas of civilization, how could it be that there is a general guideline for good/ethical/moral that stretches across all of them? Doesn't this create a gray area? 

And what of complex and varied subjects? Religion is a prime example of this. One non-religious person could believe that organized religion is good for some personal lives, but bad for society, and bad for governments to promote. They could believe that it is good moral standing of a church, which believes all non-believers will perish, to promote conversion, but that it is unethical for them to pressure kids, who are too young to think for themselves, into becoming part of the church. And what would this non-religious person think when they see the headlines about the oppression of Middle Eastern women by followers of Islam, and then the other headlines about church-organized community service in America? How would this person decide on whether organized religion is "good" or "bad"? They'd most likely say, "yes, and no." They'd explain that some things have a gray area, and I would agree.