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<blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1277956" data-attributes="member: 3146">That's a very good point and I think that the possibility of detecting evil would certainly have an impact upon the legal and ethical systems of most societies.However, I'd argue that most moral codes don't have a means for detecting if someone is evil. They don't have a magical one but most of them have had fairly reliable methods of determining who was in the bad group by simple observation. To the 1st century Jews, for instance, drunkards, tax collectors, and prostitutes were generally thought of as evil. And, as readily identifiable groups, it wasn't that hard to figure out who was who.Hyper-calvinist Christians, have an even more infallible method of detecting evil. Everyone is evil. That's the point of their &quot;total depravity of man&quot; theology. I don't mean to be completely flippant (as this example may or may not even be applicable to alignment depending upon the interpretation of alignment and the particulars of the way the theology is expressed) but it seems to me that the changes would be incremental changes in the degree of certainty afforded by the reasoning and proceedures employed rather than changes in the nature and fundamental structures of society.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Elder-Basilisk, post: 1277956, member: 3146"] That's a very good point and I think that the possibility of detecting evil would certainly have an impact upon the legal and ethical systems of most societies. However, I'd argue that most moral codes don't have a means for detecting if someone is evil. They don't have a magical one but most of them have had fairly reliable methods of determining who was in the bad group by simple observation. To the 1st century Jews, for instance, drunkards, tax collectors, and prostitutes were generally thought of as evil. And, as readily identifiable groups, it wasn't that hard to figure out who was who. Hyper-calvinist Christians, have an even more infallible method of detecting evil. Everyone is evil. That's the point of their "total depravity of man" theology. I don't mean to be completely flippant (as this example may or may not even be applicable to alignment depending upon the interpretation of alignment and the particulars of the way the theology is expressed) but it seems to me that the changes would be incremental changes in the degree of certainty afforded by the reasoning and proceedures employed rather than changes in the nature and fundamental structures of society. [/QUOTE]

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