The definition alone is sufficient for me to choose good over evil.

Unless it is in self-defense, or in defense of someone I care about, or someone/something who is incapable of defending themselves.

There is a great quote, but for the life of me I don't know who coined it. but.
"If you can't tell the difference between right and wrong, you don't lack religion, you lack empathy".
I've always loved that quote.

I don't always choose good...I don't consider myself evil...sometimes we inadvertently hurt people and sometimes we do it on purpose for reasons other than being evil...being an atheist does not preclude me from being human and making some bad decisions that hurt others or myself...

I think the concept of good vs evil is such a strange contrived thing to explain things in one way...I rather think of it all as normal human behavior in varying degrees of action...I can think bad thoughts and not act on them...I can be perfectly "good" and kill my family...

Morals come from basic human instincts and how we learn to interact with each other. Having empathy and decency never came from religion. Plus treating others badly has negative consequences for the perpetrator. Everyone does good and bad stuff. Some things are both. Evil is way to simplistic.

a significant % of the population are socio/psychopaths.
greed also plays a big role. just look at the ruling class in the US; running up huge deficits(which they benefit from) added to a huge national debt that can never be repaid & will result in drastic cuts to social programs, resulting in even greater income/wealth inequality, in the not too distant future.

We are a social species. We depend on the group, therefore it behooves us to behave in a manner that doesn't hurt the group or cause us to be ostracized by the group.

Being a decent human being. Believing that other people’s needs are as important as my own. Feeling personally responsible for making the world a decent place instead of thinking it’s up to some supernatural being to make it so.

I'll say it again. To have morality, all you need is empathy and self-respect.

If you have those two things, you'll try to be good to yourself and others. If you don't, you won't, regardless of your religious beliefs or lack thereof.

I have a temper that is legendary . And this is now , at near fifties . When on my thirties it was worse ! " evil " thoughts , I have plenty ! For many situations and many assholes that I encounter almost daily . Pedophiles and abusers in general are the first on my list . What keeps me in check is not gods or goodness . A) I don't want to go to jail . B) my temper lasts few hrs . When I calm down , I reason and exhale . And that's all I know I think about good or evil .

Because even psychopaths and sociopaths recognize that there is more benefit in living in a cooperative society rather than an uncooperative one?

Empathy doesn't need a reason, you feel, and you realize others feel too. It's an evolutionary trait that preserves our existence, it never needed to be chosen. Atheists don't cling to any idea that gets in the way of the basics of being. We don't put as many stipulations on empathy.

That fact that we experience pain and recognize that others experience it too is the foundation of empathy and civilized behavior. However, it seems there are instances where we desire to inflict pain. It comes from a position fear and weakness, of wanting to hurt that which can hurt us. That fear and weakness is the root of true evil behavior.

What makes a person be good? When one can look past fear and weakness, and look at controlling and neutralizing a threat without harming, to do the extra hard work of converting a person intent on an evil act to become good, rather than destroy that person...that person is good.

It takes a lot of intelligence and experience and hardwork and risk to be good. It requires almost no intelligence or hardwork or risk to be evil.

its just words really. a lion enjoying a meal is pure hell for the zebra

I have no desire to do bad things to others. "Bad things" are those that do harm in some way. This does not stop me from wanting harm to come to the man that killed my grandson. I have told my family that if one of us do that harm we will be dealt with by law enforcement. I stress this to an extreme and the killer is still alive. I have no doubt that someday he will be killed also, but I do not want to lose any other family members to get that job done. What you do can be traced even if you have others do the deed. We have watched him for close to 3 years now. Invisible men and a heavenly justice system have nothing at all to do with this. They never did and never will.

The last sentence says it all. Who would want to do those things?

I believe evil falls under our ruthless instincts from the hunter part of our evolution.

People who choose good, so to speak, are indulging our other basic instinct: Nurturing.
We probably choose this because of emotional inclinations and observing that life is better following this side of our nature in our current environment.
If we switch environment for a warzone or something else where violence/abuse is common, that may change.

Now that I am closer to death, my definitions have become simpler:
Good actions are good for everyone involved;
Bad actions are have bad outcomes;
Evil actions are done with malice aforethought.

From the Affirmations of Humanism "We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences."

We learn that good is better than bad/evil and we act accordingly.

Self preservation. If you betray, hurt, harm, kill others; you won't last long

you don't know? Good is helping others evil is hurting others.

Good and evil are subjective and depend entirely upon consensus for validity in terms of definition. Mine is that good is whatever affirms and supports love and life. Evil is whatever thwarts and opposes them.

I also believe love and life to manifest in ourselves and our animal cousins inseparably. And that the first order of business for societies (cultures) is to separate and impose conditions upon them as soon as possible.

Based primarily on observations of our animal cousins and some so-called 'primitive' human societies, I also believe 'morality' to be in-born (instinctive) and self-regulating. And, that it is best and most dependably expressed without external interference by 'kultur' and pathogenic males presiding over it.

We can learn more about morality, decency, dignity, loyalty, veracity and selflessness from our animal cousins who never set paws in churches, synagogues or mosques than we can from propagators of myths with two legs who aggrandize themselves as 'agents' of an invisible creator; who also happen to be male and lovingly violent...

I don’t know that anyone does choose. Those of us who are doing evil never think of themselves as evil. They’re just reacting out of fear, insecurities, self interest and they may not have the capacity for much more than that. How evil they are seen as depends on how effective they wind up being. Evil is just successful fear in a lot of ways, or empowered desperation.

Those of us who aren’t afraid and realize that we aren’t separate from the world but apart of an integrated system, of which every part effects every other part, act good ultimately out of self interest as well. Because on some level we understand that’s the only way to really preserve our necks, personal autonomy and have a shot at fulfillment. No person is free until everyone is. The measure of success in a society is how well the worst off among us are doing.

Hi Lisa, I know you from when I was here the first year. This question asked by anyone else would be THE stupid question of any year, usually asked by religious/spiritual/debate trolls... but I know you're just posing it as a conversation starter... right? Anyway, I don't care to explain the difference between good and bad, right and wrong and how I know that. The easy answer is as a human being you should figure the basics out as a young adult before you leave the nest, and for those who can't we have religion, or the penal and mental health institutions.

In my view, evil means actions based solely on the self with no regard of the effect your actions may have on others. Pure evil means actions that are designed to deliberately have a negative effect on others.

Penn Jillette covers this topic well....

[i.pinimg.com]