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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CyberSpyder" data-source="post: 1404551" data-attributes="member: 12199">Yet there have been many good people who have killed in a moment of rage.  If they were truly good, deep inside, in the part that matters most, how could this be?  You could say that they were really, secretly evil, but I believe this is a simplification at best.  Circumstances alter cases, and bad situations can drive good people to behave in extreme ways.A perfectly good person can be driven to do an evil thing.  This, I think, is a crucial point - if you can accept it, you should be able to see why basing alignment on a person's innermost being will not work, for if it were based on that, if in fact someone's innermost being can be so quantified, then it should not be possible for a good person to do something evil.  Alignment must be based on something else - like action.  Our innermost selves are beyond such classifications.Atheist, actually.  Now, what if that serial killer walked out with the full intention of turning his life around, saw an innocent child, and immediately succumbed to old impulses?  Was he, then, ever truly good?  Why?  Yes, he intended to change his life, and he felt certain that acting in such a heinous way was behind him - but what use, and of what true meaning, are such intentions if they are not backed up by action?  Is a good person actually good if they never help anyone in any way?</blockquote>