What makes someone a good person? Or a bad person?

[RogueScholar]

Is it someone who follows the rules? And whose rules? Rules of religion? Rules of society?

Is it someone who contributes more to the people around them than they take? And what is a big enough contribution to count? Does a "Robin Hood" who steals only to give charity get judged as bad simply for the stealing or can we use someone's motivations to determine if they're good?

Is it someone who offers wise counsel? Are words enough to make you good? Or do you have to actually do something?

Does attitude have something to do with it? Can you treat people like crap and yet still be good for doing work that is valuable to the community? Or does being universally nice to people make up for doing nothing for the people around you?

Are you a good person?

[BatemanPatrickl]

No. I am a bad person and hate most good people.

[MonkeyF0cker]

There is no such thing as good and evil.

[DwightShrute]

Pretty sure he would go under the Bad Person category

Jeffrey Dahmer

[jjgold]

I am a good person, I care about the elderly , less fortunate kids and handicapped children. I also am a generous man and have no hatred to anyone and love all people except Black QB's mainly in the NFL. I like straight men and gay men alike.

[smitch124]

Good Person: Beats the closing number

Bad Person: Doesn't

[MonkeyF0cker]

What if there is still value in the closer, smitch?

[smitch124]

What if there is still value in the closer, smitch?

This, like all things, Monkey is never completely black and white

[AgainstAllOdds]

Everything is in a state is "being".There is no such thing as good or bad. Just ones perceptions of these.... If a mass population believes it is a good thing, it will be good and therefore acceptable. If the same mass population thought the same idea to be bad, it would be wrong and unacceptable. Therefore there really is no good or bad, right or wrong, there is just "it".

[MonkeyF0cker]

This, like all things, Monkey is never completely black and white

LOL.

[Willie Bee]

Not sure what the answer is, but fairly certain the answer won't be found at this message board.

[RogueScholar]

Everything is in a state is "being".There is no such thing as good or bad. Just ones perceptions of these.... If a mass population believes it is a good thing, it will be good and therefore acceptable. If the same mass population thought the same idea to be bad, it would be wrong and unacceptable. Therefore there really is no good or bad, right or wrong, there is just "it".

It's true, you exposed the question as being very subjective, which it most certainly is. It exists only to ascertain the opinions of the people to whom the query is posed, and we can certainly never achieve a definitive answer, unless it is simply a concensus formed to suit SBR Forum dot com.

Although many believe that good and evil are Divinely-instituted concepts, it is us humans who have to define them for ourselves and each other in order to live and work together. Even though the answers mean nothing in the grand body of human knowledge, we can all learn from each other by sharing our personal opinions on the matter.

[Casperwaits]

Rogue, thank you for posing such a thought provoking question. As the resident thought provokee, I can say with certainty that being "good" or "bad" is all relative to the person that is the perceptor. That said, there are certain boundaries that once crossed puts you into one of those two categories worldwide. If I eat a baby for the hell of it..BAD. If I save a baby from drowning...GOOD. If I use a terminally ill baby to block a bullet coming right at the president...that is up for debate. I will now lay down and ponder more situations in which to share at a later time.

[RogueJuror]

Good Person: Beats the closing number

Bad Person: Doesn't

[wtf]

rs, didnt they teach you this answer while you were in philosophy school? you should be telling us, not asking

[pico]

anyone who is still living is not a good person.

[reno cool]

I think we all consider ourselves good people. Most of that is due to ignorance.

I was going to give an intelligent answer but realized I was just trying to make myself fit into the good category.

But, I certainly wouldn't worry much about laws and religion when deciding what's good. "Due onto others as you would have them due onto you sounds good".

[betplom]

worldwide. If I eat a baby for the hell of it..BAD. If I save a baby from drowning...GOOD. If I use a terminally ill baby to block a bullet coming right at the president...that is up for debate.

That depends on which president you were protecting.

If his name rhymes with "morge w tush" it is prolly a bad thing.

PS: Where can I get my hands on a terminally ill baby, just in case?

[Casperwaits]

That depends on which president you were protecting.

If his name rhymes with "morge w tush" it is prolly a bad thing.

PS: Where can I get my hands on a terminally ill baby, just in case?

I agree Plommer, I agree. Right now they have terminally ill babies in Mexico. Some of the kids were exposed to Winnie The Pooh DVD's and got swine flu from seeing Piglet in short shorts....that dirty pig!!!

[sickler]

Buddha said it best.

Study his teachings.

[Masu485]

Philosophically, there does seem to be absolute good and absolute bad, although WITHIN that there is a great degree of relativity and subjectivity. I have absolutely no idea what should be an absolute good or an absolute bad, although society already puts in place it's own ideals of good and bad for you to follow. If a person does a good deed by societal standards, not only may it not have been the person's intentions, but there will always be another side of the story, the silent side, which society doesn't accept, claiming that the good deed may have in fact been detrimental. Maybe helping that girl study slowed her from developing the capacity to study on her own. Maybe helping people with problems stops them from facing them and growing into the full person they are supposed to be. These are the other sides of the story, which society doesn't accept.

That being said when someone commits a 'good' deed or a 'bad' deed, they themselves are either rewarded or punished, if caught or seen by society, and are labeled good or bad as a result. This also is ridiculous, as each person on this planet is in a different situation, be it financially, socially, biologically, etc... Why should the rich business man be praised for giving away some money to charity? Why should a man who steals food from the store be punished? It all seems like black and white, good vs bad scenarios, but how do you know what the business man's intentions were. Maybe he was giving money for the recognition, maybe he was giving to fulfill a karmic balance. How do you know if the man who steals food is a bad person for doing so? Maybe he was going to feed a starving family, maybe he was even just biologically wired differently and more prone to commit crimes. Some people are wired to be more aggressive, more 'bad', When you watch tv and wonder how people could be so 'evil', why does no one stop to wonder why? If it is so unbelievable, yet you see it in front of your eyes, why do you not delve deeper into the problem instead of just labeling them as evil. We are all wired differently, and biologically all along the scale of societal 'good' and 'evil', there aren't just two sides for us to fall on either good or bad...

To be a truly absolute good person, not in the societal sense of good, but the ABSOLUTE philosophical sense, I believe one has to shed physical possessions, meditate, introspect, and attain a higher state of being to achieve TRUE happiness. The kind of happiness that is higher than emotion altogether, the kind of happiness that is from the soul and not from chemicals in the brain, a true enlightenment. Your true happiness would, I believe, cause a flow of positive energy, being released when your physical body perishes.

[Mudcat]

Very deep question. I find it a lot like the question of What is Art? or What is pornography?


The answer being, I don't have an exact definition, but I know it when I see it.

Which of course has the problem that I have declared myself the ultimate judge of all things. But I'm actually pretty okay with that.