Morality, Ethics, Good and Evil, and to a lesser extent, Right and Wrong

There are many names assigned to this concept and it has been a major part of our culture for millennia and now im going to ask one simple question, does it exist?

For many people that is a stupid question, of course it exists comes the reply, the Germans were evil, thieves are evil, terrorists are evil, and anyone who doubts that is either stupid or evil themselves.

That was the answer I received when I asked the question in one of my English lessons when we were discussing whether an act was good or bad. Truthfully I was expecting that answer, generally people do not want to think about whether their enemies are good or evil, the question brings up a lot of other questions that are difficult to answer, it is a lot easier for example to class a terrorist as evil or insane than to say that they are someone fighting for a cause and they have taken what action they see appropriate for whatever reason.

That was only one example, I am not trying to say that terrorists are good but that they consider themselves good and their enemies evil, whether it be an animal testing corporation or an entire country, that should not concern us in this essay, its about whether or not there is such a thing as good and evil.

The Christian religion tells us that it is the epitome of goodness and yet has caused more deaths than most other religions; the crusades, Spanish inquisition, the burning years, does this mean it is actually evil?

Incest is another example, in our cultures it is considered wrong and 'sick' but during the Egyptian era it was considered perfectly normal, does that mean that their views are wrong and ours are right? In a genetic sense yes, but im not talking about genetics, only morals. Morally their views are no more right than ours or more wrong than ours, simply different.

Is the thief who steals bread to feed his family evil? Interesting dilemma, he is breaking a law, but are laws always moral? The simple answer is no, many laws have been passed through the ages that could be considered immoral now, the banning of the Christian religion in Rome for example. Here is another question, if the thief who steals the food causes the merchant to go bankrupt, is he evil then? I doubt he is concerned whether he is good or evil, but whether he will be able to obtain food for his family, that is all that will concern him, he believes he did what was necessary and it was simply bad luck that the merchant was bankrupted.

I don't have an answer to whether right and wrong exist, my personal view is that they don't and most of those people who were considered evil had their reasons for doing what they did, im not saying all of them did, and they may have done horrible things along the way, but to them, their ideals were pure. Just think of this, Hitler believed he was doing the right thing.

I don't have the answers, and I did not write this to inflame controversy but to hopefully make one or two people think. I would also like to clarify that I do not believe that terrorism or the Nazi regime were the right things to do; I was simply using them as example on good and evil.

If you wish to respond to this then do in anyway you like although I request that if you disagree not to flame me but to construct a review that says why you believe I am wrong in a rational manner.

Thank you for your time.

Ash.