The nature of all physical reality is based on duality, yin, and yang, male and female, in and out, up and down, black and white, etc. Both are necessary and exist synchronistically to maintain overall balance and harmony within the universe.
This pocket of time and space that we currently inhabit is also governed by the need to maintain balance and therefore needs this duality, both the good and bad, (as we perceive them), to manifest. It is together that they serve our desire, as a soul, for continued growth because of the diverse experiences offered through contrast.
If we were to eliminate either good or bad we would in effect render this ‘school of life’ ineffective. Think about it this way: if we had no friction to work against or no polarity, our lives as human beings would become a neutral experience where we, as emotional beings, were not stimulated either positively or negatively. We would in effect become mindless zombies with no purpose, no desire to change anything, and no reason to create anything new. The effect of this is that we would have no incentive to grow as individuals or as a species.
How do we form ideas about what is good and what is bad: Are my ideas right?
Rational people consider themselves to be ‘mostly good.’ Whether this is true or not comes down to the criteria we use to define good and bad or one state of being compared to another. This requires judgment on our part and our judgments are based on our individual perceptions of reality, nothing else!
This means that any ideas we have related to morality, decency, principles, ethics, etc. come from within our own minds and are based on our individual belief systems. Our beliefs are the result of the culture we are brought up in and our history. Therefore, our beliefs are not necessarily the same as everyone else’s and cannot be considered as absolutely true.
We each have acquired a unique set of beliefs that forms our individual personalities. When we are born our minds are blank, and we are then programmed by our peers (parents and significant others who have influence over us) as we grow throughout our formative years. From birth to around seven years of age our minds are like a sponge and just absorb all information, sensations, and experiences that we are exposed to.
Around age seven, we begin to develop the ability to think for ourselves, and we begin adding other information that we consider ‘real’ based on our personal experiences to our base programming. We become unique individuals because our programming and experiences never match perfectly with any other person.
It is through this personal belief system that we form that we view the world. This is where our definitions of right and wrong, good and evil, etc. reside. And although there may be many others that may share similar ideologies, e.g. within families, religious groups, political organizations, or cultural and sporting groups, it is our unique set of subconscious beliefs that are the basis for the way we, as individuals, think about life and act/react in the ways we do.
Good versus bad: How do we know which is what?
So, it is our beliefs that lead us to think certain thoughts, which leads to us feeling a certain way, which leads to us acting in ways that correspond to our beliefs.
The concepts of good and bad are therefore subjective and very personal depending on the conditioning we inherited from those who were responsible for ‘programming’ our young and impressionable minds.
So, what is good, and what is bad?
If you take the time to examine your beliefs about this concept, you will likely come to the conclusion that your ideas are probably closely aligned with the beliefs held by those who you were close to while you were young.
So the current ideas you have about good and bad ARE inherited ideas from others- UNLESS you have done a thorough audit on your subconscious belief system and formed your own unique ideas based on personal observations and experiences.
Have you done this yet? Are you aware of why you judge certain things, events, actions, etc. as good or bad?
Are you still judging others and yourself based on your beliefs?
Do you understand that beliefs are not based on reality? That is why we call them beliefs and not the ‘truth!’
We, the ‘good’ people, do not want to live in a world with ‘bad’ people in it:
Many people believe that they have a duty to eliminate all that they consider evil or bad, and are constantly searching for and crusading against all sorts of ideas, beliefs, and actions that they consider negative.
This in itself is a negative way of thinking and behaving and is in itself considered bad or evil by those being persecuted just because they hold to a different ideology or belief system.
Who is right, and who is wrong? Well, that just depends on what we believe in.
Saving the world from all the bad, (or evil,) people and stuff out there is not the purpose of our life. And if we were able to achieve it, the game of life would be useless as a learning center: Creation would effectively be ‘undone.’
How do we benefit from the ‘bad’ in the world?
Like it or not, as mentioned, we need friction in our lives to encourage us to develop OUR potential as human beings.
It is the opposition we experience through the thought process that antagonizes us as thinking and feeling beings and urges us towards wanting to improve situations that we consider ‘bad’ in our lives. For example, we may look at an event https://healthywealthyhappyandwise.com/wealth-dna-code-review-alex-maxwell/and consider it bad or undesirable, and therefore have certain thoughts and feelings which then cause us to act a certain way to improve the situation. In this way, we are creating something more, something different, and hopefully in our opinion, something better than what we had before.
Therefore, it would not serve our purpose for being here, (continued growth and development), if we eliminated all that we considered being adverse or bad. We would find ourselves with nothing to grow against, or nothing to ‘fix.’
The reality is that the negative stuff that is happening outside of us will always exist, either here or elsewhere, and it helps us if we can come to understand the necessity for it to exist……. It exists so that ALL OF CREATION can exist and evolve to something greater than it already is.
Do I have to live in a world with evil in it or do I have options?
Every day we make many conscious and subconscious choices that contribute to creating the future person we will become. Every choice has the potential to dramatically affect our future wellbeing by making it better or worse. 
However, most of us do not take time to consider the cumulative effects that our choices are having on the life we will be living in the future. This means that we are not consciously choosing to evolve ourselves, step by step, day by day.
If we can reframe our thinking to consider that the ‘bad’ is a necessary aspect of life and can be used to bring out the best in us, then it can no longer be considered to be bad. Therefore, when viewed from this perspective, ‘good and evil’ don’t actually exist, however, the illusion of it remains for the majority of the world’s population.
We are all free to make choices with regard to our own lives.
By not choosing a path towards either the good or bad aspects of our-self, we will continue to remain trapped and react in similar ways because of our current social conditioning. This renders us unable to move beyond our current reality to a better or different way of self-expression and therefore into a better future.
A better choice is to learn to see beyond our programmed mind, (subconscious beliefs) and seek to become consciously aware, or mindful, of our thought processes. We can then begin to view the people and events that are happening in the world with a new and improved mindset. This new mindset would include the beliefs that everything needs balance, 
and that everything is already perfectly balanced within the universe and all of its subsets, including on our tiny blue and green planet.
With this in mind, we can begin the task of transforming ourselves from a ‘human doing’ (who is locked into reacting to ‘that which is external,’) to a ‘human being,’ (who has reconciled the opposite’s within- good/bad, male/female, etc.) In this way, we can become a clear channel for the higher vibrations of Universal Energy/God to express through.
What do you think?
Will you choose to live in ignorance by continuing to support this game of good versus evil?
Perhaps we are now ready to seek out and embrace a greater reality with the understanding that everything needs balance.
It is our opposition to the natural balance of life that causes us the friction, tension, and stress, that we feel in our lives.
Remember the Law of Attraction? What we focus our thoughts on the most is what we attract into our lives. Therefore, if you are thinking negatively, that is what you will receive.
The quality of our life comes down to the choices we make. With this in mind, I suggest that you leave it to those souls who are here to learn about negativity and bad stuff to have the lessons that they need for their personal development. They are helping to create the necessary balance that allows us to have a more enlightened experience in this lifetime. I am sure that we have returned the favor by switching roles many times in many other lifetimes.
What is the best option now for us now? By thinking uplifting, positive, loving, and supportive thoughts, we will ensure that our future is a great experience.
An abundant life is yours for the choosing.
What are you going to do about it?
I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
Shared with love and respect for all beings ……. even the bad ones!
Andrew
Hi Andrew, Apparently Mother Theresa was asked if she would attend a demonstration against war, she replied “no, if it was a demonstration for peace, I would attend.” In my opinion negatives are simply lower vibrations and positives are higher vibrations. Perhaps we are obsessed with labeling? A car battery needs both positive and negative to work. Like it needs BOTH vibrations. Our world needs BOTH lower vibrations and higher vibrations for it to be. What the reason is for this, I wouldn’t hazard a guess. The closest I could come to is something about synchronicity. I’m leaving it there!!! Great debate. Cheers Jill
Hi Jill. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Yes, everything is vibration and balance is a natural law that we cannot break. However, as individuals, we can choose to live in a higher vibrational state or a lower vibrational state. One brings up joy, peace, and love, and the other does not. I don’t think knowing the reason for duality to exist is important, but playing the game to our advantage is. Always choosing love is a wise option. Kind regards,
Andrew
I think there is bad in the best of us and there is good in the worst of us. I also believe true love is not attainable on our own, and that we need to daily to connect to the author of love.Have you read” The prophet ” by Kahlil Gibran. I found it difficult to understand alot, but in his thoughts on crime punishment, he seems to think we are all partly responsible for the bad that happens.
“Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.
Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.”There is more but thats the drift of it. To me if we learn to love one another then we cut down on the evil. Anyway like Gibrans book I understood somewhat of what you said and I believe we do need to take hold of our thoughts, to create a different life then we want. Thanks for the reminder.
Hi Phyllis. Many thanks for adding your comments to my article. I absolutely love this book, ‘The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran. I think I have read it more than 4 times over the last twenty years. I also found it to be very deep and realized that the wisdom it contains is only revealed to us when we have developed ourselves enough to understand it. It is like peeling an onion in the sense that you read it and understand one meaning, but then another layer is revealed. Coming to understand the second layer reveals a third with deeper meaning, etc. Thanks for the reminder that I should go and read it again. My interpretation of the above passage is that we all exist with duality within us, even if we choose not to reveal or act upon both aspects, and that we are all connected, all one in our true spiritual essence. I agree with you that if we all learn to love each other and ourselves, we will collectively raise the vibration of humanity and evil can become a thing of the past so that it will be possible to live in heaven’ on Earth as a species. I look forward t this day, but look around at the state of humanity and think that we are still emotionally immature at this point in time. Luckily, everything changes, and we are evolving in love each and every day.
I wish you all the best on your journey,
Andrew
A very interesting presentation of balance and its importance and role in our lives. We do have definitions of good and bad that are probably very close from one person to another but what eludes me is how we can have such diverse expressions of the two states (if they can be called states). If we all have a common concept of good and evil that is then shaped by our personal experiences, how are people like Hitler able to shift the mindset of a whole society at a certain point of time? Would the führer be able to push a whole nation to war if that nation was in different economic conditions at the time? If the answer is no, do we then choose between good and bad according to our needs? Looking back in human history, why is Hitler considered evil and a dictator who forced his will upon humanity by most people while Alexander the Great is considered a conqueror , yes but a leader who expanded civilization? In the end, didn’t he pretty much do the same? So many questions! Probably because the subject is intriguing. Thank you for a post that sets you thinking. We need more of those!
Hi Loannis. Many thanks for taking the time to comment on my post. One concept that I now believe is that ‘we get the experience that we need.’ So in this context, the German people at the time when Hilter came to power, got the leader that their collective energy as a nation was able to manifest, as was the case when Alexandria the great ruled, as is the case with Trump, Merkel, or Kim Jong-il today.
Our collective vibration is through the Law of Attraction manifesting those leaders that create the lessons we need so that we may evolve. Whether we like to admit it or not, we get what we deserve. Energy behaves according to strict laws and is never wrong. So we, as a species, as a culture, as a country, community or an individual are constantly surrounded by that which we are helping to create.
However, as individuals, we can step apart from the herd mentality and create our own reality based which will manifest according to our own personal belief systems. This is why we can choose to be living in ‘heaven’ while the person beside us is living in there own version of ‘hell’ on Earth.
Why is Hitler considered evil when other leaders who have committed similar or worse crimes against humanity considered heroes? This may come down to who is writing the history books and what agended they wish to force upon their subjects. The conquers have the power to determine what their subjects will learn. The same is true today where our governments set the educational curriculum for students to learn and ensure that their system of governance is portrayed favorably and other systems are looked down upon. China teaches their students that they have the best system. American students learn that they have the best system. Both systems are very different, so which one is right? The reality is that all systems of power are set up to maintain the power they have over the mass populations that they ‘claim’ to represent!
I hope this gives you more to think about. Kind regards,
Andrew
Found your site quite diverse and actually very interesting – especially the bit about hearing aids as I have been wearing them for the past 5 years.
Would love to know more about the ‘small’ ones that you talk about but unfortunately it is not something I can afford at this point in time – especially with Christmas coming up and all the expense of that too
All the best
Ron (The Old Fella)
Hi Ron. Ummmmmmm, I’m not sure how to respond to this comment. I think you must have been looking at someone else’s site and left this comment here by mistake maybe? Or maybe you were looking at one of the adds that Google placed on my site? Not really sure, however, I wish you all the best. Kind regards,
Andrew
Hey Andrew,
This is a very good post with many important points you make.
The duality of man was also discussed by psychologist Carl Gustav Jung as well as appearing in literature: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to name but one.
However, this kind of polarity is not fundamental or necessary. It is the goal of the good guys in the Lord of the Rings to destroy evil (Mordor, Sauron) which they duly accomplish in the end and get to live in eternal peace. Wouldn’t that be nice? So I don’t think this friction to work against is necessary for creating a wonderful, abundant and peaceful life. Just my opinion of course.
And how do you explain that some people are androgynous and claim not to be neither male nor female? They are living a gender-neutral life without gender polarity.
I agree with you that morality is subjective and that we all see the world differently based on our unique sets of experiences that make up the person who we are. We all, therefore, reference good and evil according to our own subjective prejudices learned throughout childhood and on into adulthood.
All in all, a good post with some good food for thought there. Keep up the good work.
Robert.
Hi Robert. Many thanks for your thoughtful comments. If we break all matter down to it’s basic components we will find duality within. All atoms are composed of three smaller particles called subatomic particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. Positive, neutral, and negative as their names imply. It is only when they are together that balance is maintained. As I understand it, when you separate the protons and neutrons you end up with an atomic explosion! So from this point of view, polarity is necessary as a basic building block of life.
Even though the movie ‘Lord of the rings’ is a fictional story, I do agree with you that in certain spaces or times it is possible for the ‘forces of good’ to vanquish the ‘forces of evil.’ Even on Earth, we have periods from history referred to as the dark ages and the golden ages. I do believe that we will once again when we have evolved ourselves as a species, re-enter into another golden age. However, in this current time period, we are still facing the conflicts between ‘good and bad’ on a daily basis. The amount of polarity that each one of us experiences, is, as you have suggested, referenced and experiences by us as individuals based on our own subjective belief systems.
You asked how do I explain androgenous people that claim to be neither male or female? Its not up to me to explain, how other people choose to live their lives. However, as a male, I also exhibit traits that can be considered feminine i.e. compassion, kindness, consideration, empathy, etc. Many females I know exhibit ‘typical male traits’ like strength, aggressiveness, protectiveness, competitiveness etc. So who decides what is male and female, good and bad, black and white etc. These things are labels that we use so that we can communicate with each other. That’s all! These people that claim to be androgynous as you say will still have a set of chromosomes that are biologically defined as either male or female. However, we may, of course, choose any label we want for ourselves based on our own desires. Thanks for sharing,
Andrew
hello there!
That is a different way of looking at things and makes alot of sense.
It gives me something to ponder on for awhile
Thank you for sharing!
cheers
Laurie
Hi Laurie. I have to admit that most people do not share my views on this subject, and that is ok with me. I know we are all on our own journey and are all here to learn different lessons at this time. Many thanks for taking the time to read my article, and I wish you all the best with your journey through this life. Cheers,
Andrew
Thanks for this excellent post. It sure makes one think! The concept of looking past evil is an interesting one, but I find it to be very difficult. There seems to be a sort of cognitive dissonance where I consciously decide to not judge or assign labels of good or bad. But as soon as I let my conscious guard down, my unconscious mind goes back to the same old negative thoughts. It will take work and effort to align my “programmed” thoughts with my conscious thought decision to avoid good or bad labels. It is tougher than I thought to simple be a “human-being” 🙂
Thanks again for an awesome post!
Hi Mike. Thanks for taking the time to read my post. It sounds like you are well and truly on the right track to being an awesome human being who is the conscious creator of his own life. I congratulate you my friend for your perseverance and dedication to overcoming your subconscious programming. You are right, that sometimes it’s not easy. But hey, so what. Stop, take a deep breath, refocus and begin again. We wouldn’t learn anything if life was too easy. It would not benefit us to be here in this physical realm. We need the challenges to keep us stimulated and to remind us that we are ALIVE!
Every day is a new beginning and every time we are conscious of a success we are one step closer to our goal. I wish you an awesome life experience. Cheers mate.
Andrew
This post really made me think. The world needs balance because even too much of a good thing (or people) can be bad. If there were no evil or bad people in this world, the good people would find something else to consider bad, even though it may not be the case. I guess I believe that without bad people and evil in the world, the good people would have nothing to do and would, in the long run, become evil or bad themselves because as the saying goes, “An idle mind is the Devil’s playground”.
Haha, Hi Aria. You certainly gave it some thought! I have to agree with you, that if the bad was good, the ‘good’ people would just reclassify something else as bad so that they have something to complain about. Unfortunately, judgment and criticism seem to be deeply entrenched into the human psyche. I wish you a ‘good’ and happy life. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Andrew