who gets to decide what is good or evil?

Who decides? Who gets to decide what is good or evil? On the face of it that sounds like a rather simple question but such questions often belie simple answers. Linguistic logic and clear interpersonal communications notwithstanding, modern cultural propensities generally grant anyone full license to define words in whatever manner they find convenient or desirable. This becomes particularly evident whenever the subject of morality enters the conversation, especially when touching upon such topics as good and evil.

Good vs. Evil

Now for those of us who hold a firm belief in God and who confidently share in the conviction that we have been endowed by our Creator with a conscience and the innate ability to know what is good and what is not we find little to question. But for those who may see things differently, things are seldom so straightforward. The question then becomes: how might the word ‘good’ be defined without God? “Simply put: who gets to define what the words ‘good’ and ‘evil’ mean? If we’re not going to derive our understanding of goodness from the character and nature of God, for example, then from where? Who, precisely, gets to step into God’s empty shoes and define the content of the word ‘good’? Now that’s a crucial question, for unless we know what we mean by the word, then to proclaim that something is ‘good’ is utterly meaningless.”[1]

Bertrand Russell once quipped in response to the question “How do you tell the difference between good and evil?” by announcing “On the basis of feeling” which I suspect is how many of us make our moral choices. How something feels (do what feels good, don’t do what feels bad) to us sounds reasonable but then how do I come to terms with your feelings which don’t agree with mine?

For example (please, this is for illustrative purposes only and is in no way indicative of my own personal feelings,) suppose I feel greatly inspired when I play on a piano whose keys are made of ivory obtained from elephant tusks while you feel appalled at the atrocious brutality inflicted upon those unfortunate pachyderms. Whose feelings win out? Who decides?

Obviously, leaving moral choices to the vagaries of personal preference or feelings isn’t at all reasonable, yet these days that is exactly how many of us decide what is good or evil. Words have meaning beyond whatever we declare or wish them to mean. Likewise, allowing constantly changing social custom to define morality raises similar issues. Social customs vary across geographic, ethnic, political, and societal boundaries and who then has the authority to impose their own specific moral values on others. Who decides?

“In the absence of God, there are two options: you can turn every individual person into a little godlet, able to decide good and evil for themselves. But then who evaluates between them when there are clashes between godlet claims? Alternatively, you can turn the state into God and let it determine good and evil, but then might becomes right and you have sheer, naked brutality. In short, if you try this latter route, morality becomes meaningless. If you go down the former route, morality becomes impossible.”[2]

More on this next week.

[1] Andy Bannister, The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist.
[2] Arthur A. Leff, Unspeakable Ethics, Unnatural Law, Duke Law Journal 6, 1979, pp. 1229-1249.