Morality. Good and Evil.?

Question

Are you a bad person if you, say read a book about something you don't agree with? Say a Christian reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche?

Or looking at the p**s-Christ photograph?

Answer 1

...good...i give money to the needy and homeless...i feel good...

...bad...i splash water on people at a bus stop...i feel devilish...

...morality for me changes in the situation of the moment and i act accordingly...

Answer 2

Listen, apparently you asked the same question twice. If you want to read Nietzsche do it, don't be affraid. He will help you undestand the guilt that you seem to be feeling.

Answer 3

No, you are not a bad person. Reading a book to gain knowledge or understand a different viewpoint is not evil. Looking at a photograph of .. p*** Christ..? ... is not evil.

But if you enjoy reading blasphemous teachings, or if you take pleasure in your photograph, then it is evil.

Answer 4

It does not make you a bad person.  It makes you a well rounded person.  It is also a good way of strengthening your position.  By knowing where the other side stands you can better argue your own position.

Answer 5

Not a bad person.

Justification: faith depends on our interpretation of the world. It does not come from reading only the correct books and shutting out information that other people insist is evil, but we don't yet understand why they say so. It's okay to test your own faith, to answer challenges to it, and it's also okay to worry that your faith might not hold up. This is how you strengthen your faith, and find out if you're following a true religion, or just jumping through hoops for your masters. What's evil is, when you assume that your religion must be true, without being willing to have your faith tested - that'd be a pretty good sign that your religion is false.

Answer 6

Truth,good,evil are associated with religious principle and religious principle stem a lot from mythical figures....soo?

Answer 7

No.  You must know your enemies as well as your friends.  To do what is right, you must know what is wrong so you can avoid it in the future.  I think I'm talking more ideas than pictures and such.  Just remember where your allegiances lie.

Answer 8

No,  if you read something like Mein Kampf and agree with it you are a bad person, but if you read it and say " wow, what a load of c**p " you aren't. how many bad things did Jesus look at at read ? Was He bad ?  

Answer 9

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Ñ Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

This is a good read.

Beyond good and evil? A Buddhist critique of Nietzsche

By David Loy

http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-ADM/l...