good and evil, what is greater?

[Nightfall]

i prefer to be happy.

ignorance is bliss.

Works for me!

Btw Trick your hatred of Calastians and Chardun is readily apparent.

 

[Ranger REG]

i prefer to be happy.

Dominantly happy or submissively happy?

 

[Nightfall]

Dominantly happy or submissively happy?

I think he'll flip flop between the two.

 

[Norfleet]

Evil will always win because Good is stupid. Or something like that.

The quote is "Now you see, that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."

 

[Nightfall]

The quote is "Now you see, that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."

Right well I'm better at Shakespearan quotations anyway than Space Balls. That or Monty Python.

 

[Greyhawk_DM]

"Conan, what is best in life?"
"To Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women."
Others in agreement "Yes, that is good."
From what I understand that quote is a paraphrase of some of the writings of Kubla Khan.

My personal belief is that the human condition is flawed and can no longer reliably tell what the difference between good and evil is. Therefore mankind has to have some sort of example or an example of a life of good to try to mirror their life after. Basically evil is what you get when you knowingly or unknowingly choose not to follow this example or path of goodness. Evilness is not an opposite of goodness, but rather a result of the lack of goodness.
All mankind has the ability to be evil, but that is not what sets us apart from other species. It's our ability to follow the path of goodness and our ability to see the example of that goodness.
That is about as simple as I can put my beliefs into text without a religious discussion. I think it is impossible to define morality etc without religion. Because without it we have no defining points to start from.

 

[Trickstergod]

Works for me!

Btw Trick your hatred of Calastians and Chardun is readily apparent.

No entity of pure chaos am I. Something a little more benign, if perhaps a little harsh at times, and thus one can somewhat tell where my antipathy lies. Which includes toga-clad deities and their patricidal worshippers, aye.

 

[Nightfall]

No entity of pure chaos am I. Something a little more benign, if perhaps a little harsh at times, and thus one can somewhat tell where my antipathy lies. Which includes toga-clad deities and their patricidal worshippers, aye.

Don't forget matricidal as well Trick. But I still think you're just another avatar of the Lord of Chaos.

 

[willpax]

Evil is overly romanticized. Most evil I have encountered is actually boring, unreflective, and stupid--as others have said, a lack of goodness rather than some active force.

WayneLigon has it right--good can sustain itself, while evil is, in the long run, self destructive. Its the basis of my general optimism.

However, the truly good course of action is often hard to determine. That's the basis of my general melancholy disposition.

My general tendency is to play flawed good characters--but I usually ditch traditional alignment altogether.

 

[Pyske]

Evil's about self-interest and selfishness. Teaming up with others for mutual aid isn't abandoning evil if the primary motivation is "So I don't get beaten."

Obviously, we're going to get into some definitional wishy-washiness on questions like this.

My take is that the strength of good grows with time and numbers of participants. For example, your scenario will allow cooperation, but it only temporarily. As soon as one of the evil (self-interested) group is likely to die, they no longer have an incentive to cooperate, while someone cooperating in service of a "higher" principle generally will.

In general, I think the prisoner's dilema of good and evil plays out as follows: a person derives the greatest benefit when they are EVIL, but only if preconditions are met. a) only if most people are good, and b) only if they can avoid getting caught. Why? Because the sum benefit of people helping another is a large number. As long as you can gain that benefit, you are free to maximize you own personal benefit, and evil is the strategy which does so.

Thus, I think good is greater: it is the larger and more important number in the decision of what is best for the individual. One benefits (overall) from being evil only as long as it does not cost one the ability to benefit from good.

. . . . . . . -- Eric