I believe that bad has to exist.

This is a good topic and I have heard comments like this a lot. I’m going to have to of guess where you are going with this since you have the burden of proof: meaning you need to build a case to prove your point and I could simply refute your arguments and not build a case of my own. Bad must exist This is essentially an argument from ignorance, which is in no way saying that you are ignorant. You are not aware of a complex society of animals like our own without a concept of, or a bad type of behavior. Based on this you conclude that no such society could exist. It’s possible that there is an advanced society somewhere in the universe that does not have anything like a bad. A society with a hive mind for example and if there is not such a society it is still possible. You do refer to people but I do not see that you were speaking of anything unique to humans other than a complex society. Even dealing strictly with humans we may make moral and societal discoveries that effectively eliminate bad behavior. That we are not aware of these changes does not mean that they do not exist. You are essentially arguing that without concepts of moral evil we could not cooperate in society It’s likely that morality evolved over time in social animals [1]. Morality is just one way to facilitate cooperative behavior among animals. You are basically claiming that our version of morality is the only way to facilitate this cooperation due to the chaos in our world. There are other ways, for instance ants cooperate to form bridges [2], find food and protect the hive but do not appear to have any empathy, fairness or compassion which are common measures of morality in animals [3]. The same is true of schools of fish that move together to avoid predators and birds that migrate together in formation (some birds do demonstrate moral behavior). Based on what we know about the evolution of morality or anything complex it arrives slowly over time with incremental changes over time. Here on earth we have many simple examples of cooperation without concepts of bad. It’s likely that more complex versions of cooperation could arise without bad as well. There is no reason to leap to the idea that the bad idea is necessary to promote cooperation for complex societies of animals. Without moral evil we would not know what the good looks like I’ve heard this one before and it sounds like you are implying something like this so here’s an argument up front. If there were no theft, murder or violence to compare more commendable actions to we could still compare them to a neutral state. Cooperation is still better than working alone and fairness makes more sense among groups to encourage reciprocation. Empathy and compassion are useful tools to build effective communities on their own. Neutral could not become ‘the new bad’ since bad implies harm and is not just one side of the scale. Standards of bad/evil change between societies Standards of moral behavior change from society to society. I could ask you what type of bad you are referring to. If all standards of bad are equal then why do they contradict each other? If you are referring to one type of bad then why is it necessary for that form of bad to exist? What about the alternate versions of bad from cultures that have gone extinct? Which bad is necessary? If morality is Objective it is still dependent on people and other social animals I think that bad is objective in the colloquial sense but the previous problem still applies since no moral Albert Einstein has emerged to clarify many issues we’ve had defining it. Morality may be ultimately objective but there is no consensus on what ‘bad’ is. Bad does not need to exist because people do not need to exist. I do not see that life must exist at all and since morality is completely dependent on life I do not see that bad must have existed. For 3.5 billion years no bad existed on earth because there were only single celled versions of life. There is no bad for inanimate matter and it has not been established that life has to exist. - You see now the general problems I had with your set up. By saying that bad must exist you have a difficult position to represent. A softer claim like, ‘bad is useful in our society to encourage cooperation,’ would be more focused and not leave room some of the objections I brought up. Looking forward to your arguments! [1] http://en.wikipedia.org... [2] http://kaheel7.com...- [3] http://www.motherjones.com...