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<blockquote data-quote="Hypersmurf" data-source="post: 3670528" data-attributes="member: 1656">We have an archmage who says to himself, &quot;Now, shall I annihilate the adult population of the neighbouring kingdom and enslave all their children, or shall I have breakfast?&quot;Annihilating the adult population of the neighbouring kingdom and enslaving all their children is an evil act.If he instead chooses to have breakfast, this saves all those neighbours from annihilation and enslavement.&nbsp; Does that make having breakfast an act of good?To me, having breakfast is neutral - neither evil nor good.If an army of devils oppresses people, that's evil.&nbsp; If an army of devils doesn't oppress people, that's not evil... but being not-evil doesn't automatically make it good.Similarly, the archmage might decide to forego breakfast; now his decision is between attacking neighbour kingdom A, or attacking neighbour kingdom B.&nbsp; If he chooses to attack A, this means that B is spared the attentions of a powerful evil villain!&nbsp; His choice has saved the lives of thousands of innocent citizens of B!&nbsp; Does this balance out the evil of his invasion of A?&nbsp; I'd say not.So whether the devils are waging a genocidal war against the demons, or waging a genocidal war against the humans, isn't the basic point that either way, they're waging a genocidal war?&nbsp; The fact that this means they aren't doing other stuff isn't relevant; what's relevant is what they are doing.-Hyp.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hypersmurf, post: 3670528, member: 1656"] We have an archmage who says to himself, "Now, shall I annihilate the adult population of the neighbouring kingdom and enslave all their children, or shall I have breakfast?" Annihilating the adult population of the neighbouring kingdom and enslaving all their children is an evil act. If he instead chooses to have breakfast, this saves all those neighbours from annihilation and enslavement. Does that make having breakfast an act of good? To me, having breakfast is neutral - neither evil nor good. If an army of devils oppresses people, that's evil. If an army of devils doesn't oppress people, that's not evil... but being not-evil doesn't automatically make it good. Similarly, the archmage might decide to forego breakfast; now his decision is between attacking neighbour kingdom A, or attacking neighbour kingdom B. If he chooses to attack A, this means that B is spared the attentions of a powerful evil villain! His choice has saved the lives of thousands of innocent citizens of B! Does this balance out the evil of his invasion of A? I'd say not. So whether the devils are waging a genocidal war against the demons, or waging a genocidal war against the humans, isn't the basic point that either way, they're waging a genocidal war? The fact that this means they aren't doing other stuff isn't relevant; what's relevant is what they [i]are[/i] doing. -Hyp. [/QUOTE]

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