I think Sparks is wrong and as an agnostic I find his thesis that Good is equal to God and only God (and I suspect he means the God of his type of religion ... e.g. Catholid) to be very disturbing. Since I don't believe that we (as humans) can be sure whether or not there is any higher power(s); by his logic, I cannot wonder about good.
Mercedes Lackey had a section in Arrows Fall about "what is evil" in which the heir to the throne gets some understanding. One of the people (IIRC) said that evil is the ultimate greed. It only sees things/ideas as that which can be possessed and gets no joy out of the things it possesses. If it cannot have an object, it prefers to destroy it rather than to allow others to have it (happiness, love, house, whtever). It cannot create, only copy, it can mar and destroy.
I see evil in people who use religion to do horrible things. I also see evil in doing things for the purpose of harming others. This can include the small things (like the class bully), it can include ignorance (spare the rod, spoil the child ... who cares that the kid is yelling because the diaper hasn't been changed), it can include malicious gossip.
It isn't necessarily good vs. evil. Many actions can have components of both good and evil.o
(no subject)
Mercedes Lackey had a section in Arrows Fall about "what is evil" in which the heir to the throne gets some understanding. One of the people (IIRC) said that evil is the ultimate greed. It only sees things/ideas as that which can be possessed and gets no joy out of the things it possesses. If it cannot have an object, it prefers to destroy it rather than to allow others to have it (happiness, love, house, whtever). It cannot create, only copy, it can mar and destroy.
I see evil in people who use religion to do horrible things. I also see evil in doing things for the purpose of harming others. This can include the small things (like the class bully), it can include ignorance (spare the rod, spoil the child ... who cares that the kid is yelling because the diaper hasn't been changed), it can include malicious gossip.
It isn't necessarily good vs. evil. Many actions can have components of both good and evil.o