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"The subjective depends on the situation, the people involved, the time, and the environment. The objective is true for all situations, all people, all times, and in all environments. Many issues are uncontrovertibly subjective. However, is anything objective? Current intellectual secular culture (which includes Post-Modernism, Post-Modernity, Atheistic Existentialism, Pragmatism, and Post-Structuralism) claims that there are no objective truths (everything is subjective) and that each individual can pick his or her own goals and values. This book investigates the inadequacies of this secular approach when dealing with the purpose of life and the problem of evil by contrasting the behavioral imperatives of secular culture with what the sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Theravada Buddhism say. If everything is subjective then each individual does not have inherent worth. "Inherent worth" implies an objective value - a value that is not determined by the situation. The notion that everyone has inherent worth is the foundation on which lying, stealing, murder, rape, adultery, and genocide are judged as "wrong." If everything is subjective then we cannot condemn Adolf Hitler for wanting to kill all the Jews or for one group of people for wanting to enslave all of another group. There are two important consequences of current intellectual secular culture's rejection of all objective values. First, by interpreting everything as subjective and self-centered, current intellectual secular culture cannot provide purpose to life that is bigger than the individual. In contrast, the five religions considered in this book demand that people embrace goals that are bigger than their self-centered desires. Second, current intellectual secular culture's rejection of all objective values makes it impossible to condemn some acts as evil. When evil is not condemned, it thrives. The five religions examined do condemn evil and provide answers to the following "problem of evil." If God is all good than He would not want the innocent to suffer. If God is all powerful, He could prevent the innocent from suffering. We notice that many innocent people suffer in this world Thus God must either not be all good or not all powerful. This is a particularly difficult problem for the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) because they affirm an all-powerful and all-good God. This is less of a problem for Hinduism and Buddhism because these eastern religions believe in reincarnation. Under reincarnation, what may look like an innocent suffering is actually a guilty person paying for his or her evil deeds from this or a previous life. However, the sacred texts for all five religions provide answers to this problem, but not the answers that we often hear from theologians. This book aims at satisfying some of humanity's greatest needs - the need for purpose and the need for an answer to why innocents often suffer"--

Secularism --- Religions --- Good and evil --- Good and evil --- Religious aspects

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The most comprehensive book on the topic, Thinking about Good and Evil traces salient Jewish ideas about why innocent people seem to suffer, why evil individuals seem to prosper, and God's role in matters of (in)justice, from antiquity to modernity.

Yetzer hara (Judaism) --- Good and evil --- Religious aspects --- Judaism

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Plato's Sun-Like Good is a revolutionary discussion of the Republic's philosopher-rulers, their dialectic, and their relation to the form of the good. With detailed arguments Sarah Broadie explains how, if we think of the form of the good as 'interrogative', we can re-conceive those central reference-points of Platonism in down-to-earth terms without loss to our sense of Plato's philosophical greatness. The book's main aims are: first, to show how for Plato the form of the good is of practical value in a way that we can understand; secondly, to make sense of the connection he draws between dialectic and the form of the good; and thirdly, to make sense of the relationship between the form of the good and other forms while respecting the contours of the sun-good analogy and remaining faithful to the text of the Republic itself.

Good and evil. --- Evil --- Wickedness --- Ethics --- Philosophy --- Polarity --- Religious thought --- Plato.

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"One of the most challenging passages in the book of Job is the Lord's long description of a hippopotamus and crocodile. In this NSBT, Eric Ortlund argues that Behemoth and Leviathan are better understood as symbols of cosmic chaos and evil, helping readers appreciate the reward of Job's faith (and ours) as we endure in trusting God while living in an unredeemed creation"--

Theodicy --- Good and evil --- Behemoth --- Leviathan --- Biblical teaching --- Biblical teaching --- Bible --- Criticism, interpretation, etc.

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La mechancete et la cruaute se mesurent-elles? Ces formes de violence decrivent des comportements qui prennent leur source chez une personnalite deviante, dangereuse. Interroger ces perversions, c'est comprendre les motivations qui declenchent l'attitude, les amonts de la violence, etant entendu qu'elle peut demeurer à l'etat de projet. Le discours legal a ses degres de gravite, et tout un spectre pour evaluer la premeditation. Que retient la litterature de cet examen ? La litterature accueille volontiers l'illegitime, de sorte que le partage de l'acceptable s'y effectue difficilement. Quels codes du potentiel dangereux s'appliquent alors à l'esthetique litteraire ? Alors que l'epoque donne plus volontiers son attention aux "bons sentiments", à la bienveillance et au care, cet ouvrage collectif se risque à mettre en lumiere les voix de la violence. Decrivant un objet textuel marginal dans la litterature canonique comme dans le discours civique, ce collectif se penche sur les fictions litteraires malveillantes qui reposent sur un projet esthetique cruel ou mechant. Traquant le romancier malin, soit celui dont la mechancete est aussi astucieuse, les auteurs privilegient les dimensions tant esthetiques que sociocritiques afin de comprendre les nuances du malefique. Cas sinistres, situations inquietantes, narrations torves, les auteurs de ce collectif se risquent à quantifier la perversion litteraire, sinon à en determiner la valeur et les criteres de la reception manipulee.

Violence in literature. --- Cruelty in literature. --- Good and evil in literature.