In this work, we try to find answers, in clear and simple language that agree with the common sense of most people, to questions such as: What are the basic aspirations of human being? What are goods and values? Can we aspire to find truth, beauty, goodness, love and happiness? Is there a commonly accepted concept of good and evil? What are the motivations that move human beings to do good? Are there universal moral laws? Is man good by nature? Does the problem of moral and social evils have a solution? What is conscience? Can ethics offer a solution to current human problems?

1. Good and Evil
Values and Norms: The Search for Happiness

2. 1. Commonly accepted concept of good and evil
2. Good and evil from the point of view of the individual
purpose and purpose for the whole
3. Giving and receiving: The priority of giving over receiving
4. Attitudes and motivations: The starting point of good
and evil
5. Good and evil and desires
6. Intentions, actions and its consequences
CHAPTER 2 GOOD AND EVIL

3. It could be said that the value of good
and its counter value, evil, are the central
themes of ethics and religion.The search
for goodness and the rejection of evil has
been a constant throughout human
history.
In a sense, what we are going to do in
this chapter is to outline some basic
notions about good and evil, and its
relationship to attitudes, motivations, and
desires, which will later serve to explain
various ethical issues, such as moral laws,
moral development, moral and social evil,
and conscience.
INTRODUCTION

4. «A good person sacrifices him or herself for the sake of others while
an evil person exploits others for his or her own benefit.This is my way
of teaching about good and evil.»
Sun Myung Moon, Speech Collection Books, Seoul, HSA-UWC,
102:234, (January 1, 1979).
«It is also true that the good man does many things for his friends
and his country, even die for them if necessary. He will abandon riches,
honors and, in general, all the goods for which men fight, seeking for
himself the noble; he will prefer an intense pleasure for a short period
than a weak one for a long time, and live nobly a year than many
without object, and perform one beautiful and great action than many
insignificant.This, perhaps, is also the case of those who give their
lives for another: they choose for themselves the greatest good. (...) It
is natural, therefore, to be regarded as good, since they prefer the
noble to anything.»
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Gredos, Madrid, 1988, p. 369.
COMMONLY ACCEPTED CONCEPT OF GOOD AND EVIL
Although in every culture
and religion conceptions of
good and evil are multiple
and varied, there is a pre-
philosophical concept, based
on common sense, about
good and evil that is widely
shared by all cultures and
civilizations.
Sun Myung Moon and
Aristotle, in the following
quotes, express in a simple
way this commonly accepted
concept of good and evil.

5. When someone helps or does something
for the benefit of another, this one feels
grateful and cannot help but appreciate
and value him as a good person. For a
young child, his parents are valuable and
good because they take care of him and
feed him, and give him affection and
protection.
If a person devotes all his life, energy
and efforts to selflessly serve and help
others, to the point of being willing to
sacrifice all the valuable things that he had,
even his own life, without a doubt
everyone would agree that such a person is
really good.
Such persons would be considered by their
relatives as good sons and daughters or
exemplary fathers and mothers, and by their
neighbors as good friends. And if they were
public servants they would be considered as
great patriots or national heroes, and could
even become the president of the country.
If he were an inventor, physician, scientist,
artist or thinker who —transcending national,
racial and cultural barriers— would perform a
task that benefits all mankind, then he or she
would be loved and respected throughout the
world as a great man or woman, or a living
saint.
Commonly accepted definition of good

6. When, on the contrary, a person takes
something from us or hurts us, we cannot
help but regard him as a bad person.
If a person spends his life cheating and
sacrificing to others for his own benefit,
everyone would agree on qualifying him as
someone really bad.
Such persons would be considered by
their own relatives as bad sons or daughters,
or bad parents, and would also be rejected
by others as bad friends or neighbors. If by
deception they became the ruler of a nation,
they would be deposed or overthrown for
being a corrupt president or dictator.
In the case that they had massacred their
people or a particular ethnic minority, or had
initiated a war of aggression against other
nations in order to conquer the world, then they
would be hated by all humanity and described as
genocidal or war criminals, as were the case of
Nero, Hitler or Stalin among many others.
Commonly accepted definition of evil

7.  The individual purpose and the
purpose for the whole
 A good person is one who
subordinates the individual purpose
to the fulfillment of the main
purpose of his life which is to serve
the whole
 A bad person is one who puts the
individual purpose as the sole or
principal end of his life ignoring the
purpose of serving the whole
GOOD AND EVIL FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE INDIVIDUAL PURPOSE
AND PURPOSE FOR THE WHOLE

8. «There are two basic types of people in the world: those who
think and act altruistically for the sake of the greater good, and
those who think and act to benefit themselves. Most people do
not like to think about the world and act for its benefit.They
prefer to think about themselves and act out of their self-
centered thinking. (…)
The altruistic person admires the saints who were dedicated
to the welfare of the world, patriots who lived for their nation,
and righteous leaders of the current era, taking them as role
models for his own life.»
Sun Myung Moon, Speech Collection Books, Seoul, HSA-UWC,
117:214-15, (March 7, 1982).
GOOD AND EVIL FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE INDIVIDUAL PURPOSE
AND PURPOSE FOR THE WHOLE

9. Man has not been made for the sole
purpose of survival, let alone to fight with
others for his own survival, but has two
complementary ends;The individual
purpose of preserving their own existence
as well as the purpose of forming ever
larger groups of human beings.
These two purposes are not opposed or
contradictory to one another, but
complement each other. Someone who
improves himself can better serve others,
and when he helps to form a stronger and
more united group, that group will protect
and help him in return.
All the beings and things of the universe are
also configured to fulfill these two purposes,
the individual and the whole. Living beings are
composed of cells, which —while preserving
their individual life— sustain the life and
functions of the whole organism.
Small animals serve as food for the larger
ones, thus forming delicate ecosystems in
balance that guarantee the survival of all
species. Minerals, plants and animals serve
humans, and humans would have to protect,
care for and safeguard nature.
The individual purpose and the purpose for the whole

10. The reason why a person who lives and
sacrifices for the benefit of others is generally
considered a good son or daughter, a good
father or mother, a good mayor or a good
president, or a great man or woman, is
because he is subordinating his individual
purpose to the fulfillment of the main
purpose of his life, which is to serve ever
larger units of individuals.
We can say, then, that he is a person who
fulfills his duty, mission, function or purpose
for which he has been made.
A good person is one who subordinates the individual purpose to the fulfillment
of the main purpose of his life which is to serve the whole

11. On the contrary, a person who
sacrifices others for his own benefit is
commonly described as a bad son or
daughter, a bad father or mother, a
corrupt official, or a tyrant and genocide,
because he does not fulfill the main
purpose of his life, which is to serve the
whole.
Instead, he places individual purpose
as the sole or principal end of his life,
regardless of whether he destroys larger
units of individuals to satisfy his own
desires, thereby miserably failing to fulfill
his duty, mission, function, or end of
existence.
If the first particles that were formed after the Big
Bang had decided that the individual purpose was
the only end of their existence, it is very doubtful
that the process of formation of the universe would
have advanced much more.
If each of the cells of an organism decided that the
only purpose of its existence was its survival, even at
the cost of destroying the other cells, the organism
would quickly fall sick and disintegrate.
If a planet decided not to turn around the sun,
demanding that the whole system should revolve
around him, there would be blows and cataclysms
that would end up destroying the whole system.
A bad person is one who puts the individual purpose as the sole or principal end
of his life ignoring the purpose of serving the whole

12.  Giving and receiving:The most simple and
fundamental law of the universe
 The priority of giving over receiving
 The universe would never have been originated
if the first force had not been an expansive or
creative force
 The capacity to give must be cultivated through
a voluntary, responsible and creative effort
 The heart behind the expansionary and creative
force of the universe had to be a motivation to
unconditionally give or love
GIVING AND RECEIVING: THE PRIORITY OF GIVING OVER RECEIVING

13. Plants absorb minerals at the same time as they
transform the earth and enrich the atmosphere
with oxygen.
Animals absorb oxygen while releasing the
carbon dioxide needed for plants, and then serve as
fertilizer for them.
Giving and receiving:The most simple and fundamental law of the universe
It can be observed that the earth is like a great
organism formed by delicate ecosystems in
balance that makes everything interrelated.
A simple cell maintains its existence through
relationships of exchange of elements between its
nucleus and cytoplasm, and of exchanges of
elements with its environment.
Living organisms maintain their existence
through relationships of exchange and cooperation
between their cells, tissues and organs, while
exchanging elements with the environment.
All processes of multiplication occur through
relationships of exchanges between male and
female parts or beings.

14. «Love is the supreme law and the
sacred bond that unites two or more
beings in harmonious unity.»
Sun Myung Moon, Un Profeta habla hoy,
Iglesia de Unificación, Madrid, 1981.
«Because there is nothing sweeter
than a reciprocal love, nothing more
pleasant than an exchange of
affections and services.»
Cicero, De amicitia, 50, Gredos, Madrid,
1989.
Thus it can be concluded that the simplest,
basic and fundamental law of the universe
and nature is that all beings and things are
made to maintain relationships of reciprocal
exchanges of elements or, what is the same,
to establish cooperative ties with each other
centered on the common purpose of forming
ever larger units.
Put simply, we are all made to establish
relationships of giving and receiving of
affections, love, ideas, knowledge, goods and
services.
Giving and receiving:The most simple and fundamental law of the universe

15. When two people enter into a
reciprocal relationship there is an
exchange of affections, goods or
services.
But it is impossible for a relationship
to be initiated between two parties if
first there is no an act of giving.
If both parties expect to receive
something from the other, there will be
no exchange. So the action of giving
must always occur first and it is also the
priority action.
The priority of giving over receiving
If each part thinks of giving less than what they
receive, their relationship is bound to fail. If, for
example, one person gives 10 to another, the other
will return 8, and so on until the relationship is
interrupted.
But if, on the contrary, each one thinks of giving
more than what he receives, then when one gives 10,
the other, grateful, will return 12, and in this way the
relationship grows continuously.
This example illustrates that relationships can only
be maintained and increased when the impulse of
giving is greater than that of receiving. If motivation
is selfish, relationships eventually deteriorate and
destroy.

16. «Which is more joyful, the joy of owning
something precious or the joy of giving your
prized possession to someone else?
Giving leads to multiplication. What you give
with a sincere heart will be returned to you
many-fold.
You have initiated give-and-take action, a
virtuous cycle of ever-increasing giving.
It comes back to you, and the next time you
want to give more.That is how giving
expands.»
Sun Myung Moon, Speech Collection Books, Seoul, HSA-
UWC, 248:96, (August 1, 1993).
The priority of giving over receiving

17. To give is an expansive, centrifugal and
creative force.To receive, on the contrary, is
a contractionary, centripetal and dissolving
force.
In the universe a balance occurs between
these two types of force, but it would never
have originated if the first force had not been
an expansionary or creative force.
And, indeed, the universe is continuously
expanding and develops unceasingly because
the expansionary or creative force is greater
than dissolving or contractionary force.
The universe would never have been originated if the first force had not been an
expansive or creative force
The multitude of interrelationships
or reciprocal exchanges between all
beings and things of nature could
neither be maintained nor developed
if the impulse or instinct to receive
was stronger than that of giving.
Therefore, it is impossible that the
universe had originated by a selfish
motivation.

18. The two types of basic desires of the human
being, the desires of the body and the desires of
the mind —which are those that impel him to
fulfill his individual purpose and the purpose of
serving the whole— can be defined in a simple
way as a desire to receive and a desire to give.
One is the desire to satisfy individual needs and
to receive things, attentions, appreciation and
love.Another is the desire to give, invest, create,
build, express, contribute with something that
benefits others, and love others without
expecting anything in return, simply to make
others happy.
Although the desire to give is innate and
universal, to fully develop the capacity to
give in a selfless way requires a voluntary,
responsible and creative effort on the part
of man.
It is not a capacity that is developed in
an automatic, natural or spontaneous way.
To cultivate the capacity to give is
necessary to go through a process of
development or moral growth until
reaching maturity or perfection.
The capacity to give must be cultivated through a voluntary,
responsible and creative effort

19. The process of moral development, which
basically consists of the stages of childhood, youth
and maturity, can be summarized by saying that
first children go through a stage of immaturity and
dependence in which the desire to receive is
stronger than giving.
Then young people enter into a more
autonomous and independent stage in which,
after cultivating or developing the capacity to give,
a sometimes unstable balance occurs between the
desire to receive and the desire to give.
In order to arrive at last —after cultivating even
more the capacity to give— to a stage of moral
maturity in which the desire to give is stronger
than the desire to receive.

20. When the capacity to love is perfected, the desire
to give or make others happy becomes stronger than
the desire to receive or to be happy oneself.
That is, the desire to give is no longer a means to
be able to receive. It becomes an unconditional desire
that cannot be repressed.
Proof of this is that many parents cannot stop
loving their children even if they rebel against them
or hate them.They still love them even though they
suffer for not being reciprocated.
This is the case also of many lovers who still love
their loved ones despite not being loved in return.
However, the desire to be reciprocated and to be
happy together never disappears, because we are
made to have relationships of giving and receiving,
and to enjoy a common happiness.

21. It could even be said, as the
UnificationThought does, that the heart
or intention behind the expansionary
and creative force that gave rise to the
universe had to be a motivation to love
and make others happy.
In other words, the motive that
impelled God to create was the desire,
which springs from His heart, to give or
to love in a selfless and unconditional
way, and to experience joy and
happiness with His beloved ones.
«Thus, God’s Heart can also be expressed as the
“emotional impulse to love infinitely.” Love necessarily
requires an object partner.
Especially, the love of God is an irrepressible impulse
and therefore, an object partner of love was absolutely
necessary for God…
With Heart serving as the motive, God created human
beings and all things as His object partners of love.»
Sung Hun Lee, New Essentials of UnificationThought, UTI, Korea,
2006, p. 24.
The heart behind the expansionary and creative force of the universe had to be a
motivation to unconditionally give or love
This is the so-called “Heart MotivationTheory” that
Sung Hun Lee explains as follows:

22. «No action is straight, unless
the will [motivation] is straight,
because from it the action is
born.
However, the will is not
straight, if the disposition of
spirit [attitude] is not straight,
because from it the will is born.»
Seneca, Epistles 95, 57.
ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATIONS: THE STARTING POINT OF GOOD AND EVIL

23. The starting point of evil is the immature and
ignorant attitude of focusing exclusively on oneself,
which leads one to think: “I exist for my exclusive
benefit,” “my family exists to satisfy my desires,”
“society and the nation exist only for my own
benefit” or “the world is there so I can exploit it and
get some benefit from it.”
The starting point of good is the wise and mature
attitude of focusing on others, which leads us to
think: “I exist for others,” “the main purpose of my
existence is to live for others,” or “I have been made
to help, work or do things for the benefit of my
family, my society, my nation and the world.”
ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATIONS: THE STARTING POINT OF GOOD AND EVIL
The selfish motivation: to pursue first the
satisfaction of my own desires before or at
the cost of others’ desires; seek my own
happiness before or at the cost of making
others unhappy; or, worse, deceiving and
sacrificing others in order to increase my
own benefit.
The starting point of good and evil are two types
of opposing attitudes.
These two attitudes give rise to two equally
opposing types of motivations.
The selfish motivation: to pursue first the
satisfaction of my own desires before or at
the cost of others’ desires; seek my own
happiness before or at the cost of making
others unhappy; or, worse, deceiving and
sacrificing others in order to increase my
own benefit.

24. GOOD AND EVIL AND DESIRES
«All appetites or desires are passions
as they arise from inadequate ideas,
and those same desires are regarded as
virtues when they are excited or
engendered by appropriate ideas.»
Espinosa, Ética, Aguilar, Madrid, 1978, p. 363.

25. Evil is not in human nature, namely, it is
neither in the body nor in the intelligence,
emotion or will. It is not, as some religions
and cultures have believed, in the
appetites or passions of the body.
The human being has been made to
fulfill the purpose of maintaining his
individual existence at the same time as to
serve the whole.The desires of the body
are there to fulfill the individual purpose
and the desires of the mind to fulfill the
purpose of the whole.
GOOD AND EVIL AND DESIRES
All the basic desires, such as the
desire to eat and sleep, the desire to
have clothing, shelter and material
goods, sexual desire, the desire to
know, the desire to do good, desire to
create and appreciate beauty, and the
desire to love and to be loved, are good
and have the function of impelling us to
fulfill the ends for which we have been
made.

26. However, the immature and ignorant attitude of
focusing exclusively on oneself, which leads one to
think that “I exist for myself,” produces a deviation in
the direction of desires.
The desires of the body, instead of being
instruments to fulfill the desires of the mind —more
oriented towards the others— become ends by
themselves to which all other desires are
subordinated.
Oppositely, the mature and wise attitude of
focusing on others, which leads one to think that “I
was born for the benefit of others,” directs the body's
desires in the original direction of being instruments
for cultivating the talents of the mind in order to do
something that benefits others.
It is the two contrary attitudes and motivations that direct
desires in two opposing directions

27. Emotions like love, anger, jealousy, envy, joy or
sadness are not good or bad in themselves, but
become good or bad depending on the
motivation behind them.There is one possessive
and selfish way of loving, and another sacrificial
and selfless.
Even feelings that have traditionally been
considered bad as pride and ambition, are not if
they are directed to doing good to others.
Aversion or jealousy —not motivated by
selfishness— fulfill the function of protecting the
love relationships of intruders who want to
destroy them. Envy can be a stimulus to work
harder or improve yourself.
Desires and emotions are not by themselves good or evil but they become good
or evil depending on the motivations behind them
Sexual desire, when accompanied by a love
that first thinks of the happiness of the other
person, becomes something pure, or even
sacred or mystical.
On the contrary, if the motivation behind it
is selfish, sex can be used to commit all kinds
of abuses, aberrations and crimes.
The ambition to achieve the maximum
grade of happiness, which is the most
common and universal desire of human
beings, depending on the type of motivation,
can also lead a person to fall into the worst
vices or become a great saint or mystic.

28.  Good and evil actions at the individual level
 Good and evil actions at the social level
 Two exactly the same actions can be one of
them good and another evil depending on
the intention
 Good intention is a necessary but not
sufficient condition for an action to be good
 It is impossible to completely eradicate
moral evil by repressing desires or freedom
of action
INTENTIONS, ACTIONS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

29. All actions, even reflex, automatic and
instinctive actions that are usually unconscious
and involuntary, are intended to satisfy human
needs, desires, or aspirations.We have very few
innate instincts because we have been made to
fulfill our end in life in a conscious, voluntary,
responsible way.This is why most of our actions
are conscious and voluntary.
As desires are the force that drives or
encourages us to fulfill our purposes, when we act
in order to satisfy our desires, we are actually
trying to fulfill the ends of our existence.
However, as we have just seen,
our immature and selfish attitudes
divert our desires into the wrong
direction, and these deviant desires
lead us to do evil deeds.
Therefore, actions are good or
evil depending on the attitude,
motivations and desires that are
behind them.
INTENTIONS, ACTIONS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

30. So on the individual level, good deeds will
be all actions —motivated by a mature
attitude centered on others— that
contribute to preserving and improving the
life and health of the body, as well as those
that contribute to fulfill the aspirations of
the mind to receive a good intellectual
education, to cultivate artistic talents, and
to achieve a moral maturity by developing
the capacity to do things for the benefit of
others in a unselfish way, thus achieving a
unity or harmony between mind and body.
If, on the contrary, because of a self-
centered attitude, the desires of the
body are put before the desires of the
mind, the actions motivated by this
attitude will be evil and will cause a
degradation of the character and a
conflict between the body and the
conscience of the person, as well as
disputes with other individuals.
Good and evil actions at the individual level

31. At the social level, good actions will be all
that individuals do, motivated by an altruistic
attitude, for the benefit of their families,
thus contributing to family harmony and
happiness; those made by different social
groups, families or individuals for the sake of
their nation; and those made by nations,
institutions, families or individuals for the
good of the whole world, including nature,
thus contributing to the unity, peace and
happiness of all mankind.
On the contrary, if people starts from
selfish attitudes and motivations, their
actions will provoke disharmony or conflicts
in families, society, nation and world.
Even if an individual sacrifice himself for his
family, but excluding or harming other families, his
actions will be considered evil or the fruits of
nepotism or family selfishness, and will cause
conflicts between families.
If a group people works for the exclusive benefit of
their clan or social group harassing the other social
groups, their actions will be considered as mafia like
or corporatist practices, and cause social conflicts.
If a leader sacrifices himself for the exclusive good
of his nation, race or religion, ignoring or even
hurting other nations, races and religions, his actions
will be considered as fruits of national egoism,
racism, ethnocentrism or religious fanaticism, and
will provoke wars between nations, races and
religions.
Good and evil actions at the social level

32. As you can see, two actions, exactly the
same, can be one of them good and another
evil depending on the attitude, motivation or
intention behind them. Attitude, motivation
and intention are like the seed or root, actions
are like the tree, and the consequences are
like the fruit. If the seed is not good the fruit
cannot be good either.
Abelard is famous for defending the thesis
that the moral quality of human acts depends
exclusively on intention, as can be seen in this
quote:
Two exactly the same actions can be one of them good and another evil
depending on the intention
«To the intention we call it good,
that is, straight, by itself; but to
action we call it good not because
it contains some good in itself but
because it comes from a good
intention.»
Abelardo, Ética o conócete a ti mismo,
Aguilar, Buenos Aires, 1971, p. 158.

33. With this, we do not try to say that any
action, whatever it may be, can be good
if the intention that moves it is good. In
other words, we do not deny that there
are evil actions by themselves.
If by ignorance wrong means are used
—as noble as the intention behind may
be— the results of this type of actions
cannot be good.The correct attitude and
intention is a necessary but not sufficient
condition for actions and its
consequences to be good or beneficial.
As QuintanaCabanas says:
Good intention is a necessary but not sufficient condition for an action
to be good
«It might be said that intention is the first
element of the morality of an act, if not the most
important and decisive one: good intention is
already a good thing in itself, and vice versa.
So much so that the bad intention with which an
act is done automatically turns it into bad (even
though it was good in itself).
In contrast, this does not happen in the opposite
case: if an act is evil in itself, it will not cease to be it
by the fact that it is done with good intention: it is
the famous principle that the end does not justify the
means.»
José M. Quintana Cabanas, Pedagogía Moral, Dykinson,
Madrid, 1995, p. 34.

34. Attitudes, motivations and intentions are invisible and
remain hidden within the hearts of people. In addition,
human beings —being morally immature— fluctuate and
change their motivation often, since few people
maintain a consistent attitude throughout their life.
Because of this opacity and fluctuation of intimate
attitudes and motivations, as well as the impulsive
nature of desires, many have thought that it is useless to
expect people to control their intentions and desires.
Therefore, in most religious traditions it is taught that
the only solution is to try to suppress all or certain kinds
of desires considered evil, and to refrain from
committing certain actions considered evil in order to
avoid their bad consequences.
But the problem is that evil desires are
misdirected good desires, and therefore it
is impossible to completely suppress them.
Trying to eradicate evil by repressing
desires or freedom of action is like cutting
the tree to prevent it from producing bad
fruits, when what is wrong is the sap
flowing from its root.
In addition, cutting the tree will also
prevent it from producing good fruits.
Therefore, the most important thing is to
change the attitudes and motivations,
which are the direct cause for desires to be
diverted and bad actions to be committed.
It is impossible to completely eradicate moral evil by repressing
desires or freedom of action