good and evil

In religion, ethics, and philosophy, the phrase, good and evil refers to the evaluation of objects, desires, and behaviors across a dualistic spectrum, wherein in one direction are those aspects which are morally positive, and the other are morally negative. The good is sometimes viewed as whatever entails reverence towards either life, continuity, happiness, or human flourishing, while evil is given to be the support for their opposites. By definition good and evil are absolutes because any moral statement claims to be valid independently from who is making it and independently from any object the statement is referring to. For example, "Murder is morally wrong" claims to be an objective statement as it is not a statement regarding the subject making the statement. The statement also claims to be absolute because it implies that murder is bad in general as opposed to murder being morally wrong for one person and morally acceptable for another person. People who live their lives according to statements like these, no matter what the cost, are called idealists. However, extenuating circumstances have considerable force and it has often happened that someone who would not normally dream of committing murder feels obligated to do it, e.g., in order to save other lives. For the average person, morals are (admittedly strict) guidelines and not absolutely hard-and-fast rules. Whether this pragmatism is justified or not is a moral issue in itself.
See more at Wikipedia.org...