: Finally we've reached a debate level that I can enter
: without blasting off with lots of anger and little
: logic.
: Evil is evil based on its deeds, not its motives.
: (although you can have evil motives, such as destroy
: all Jews the way Hitler did). There is a saying I want
: to say before I send this post; "The path to Hell
: is paved with good intentions." I'll leave that
: food for thought for you guys to feed on.
The problem with judging entirely be actions is, then the Light is guilty of mass-murder too. We killed hundred of thousands of living servants of the Dark, Ghols and Mauls and Fetch and such. You say that's justified, because they were evil, which you determine by the fact that they kill people. But therefore, us killing them makes us evil too, if killing makes one inherantly evil regardless of motive.
I still hold that intention determines whether one is "evil" or not. One can be in the wrong and yet not be "evil", by doing harm that they think is justified but actually isn't, or by unintentionally doing harm (like, say, if the Light had drained the Deep Mire to make more habitable farmlands, and in the process deprived the native Skrael of their home without realizing it - it's wrong, but not evil).
This is why, in my story, both sides are in the wrong but neither is evil. The Light is occupying the Dark's lands and killing them when they try to take them back, which is wrong, but they didn't mean to do any harm or even have any choice but to be there, so they're not evil. The Dark is trying to destroy the Light, which is wrong, but they're doing so because they deserve to have the world that they were kicked out of, so they're not evil.
The "right" solution would be to let both Light and Dark forces occupy the same realm and come to some kind of compromise, but there's no chance in hell of that happening, since both sides consider the other a faceless evil, and as far as either side can tell, they're right.
