Atomic scuffle

Why not?

What if it lead to mankind's existence (or at least preeminence)? Isn't that "good"?

What if it lead to an ice age, that resulted in the development of our larger brain? Isn't that good?

I don't mean these questions to be goading or trolling: I'm being totally serious. 

Isn't it possible to look at the near destruction of life on the earth as beneficial? Good? 

I'd say it is clearly so.

Once we see this, the next step is to acknowledge that we are not omnipotent or omniscient. We don't have a large enough scope, or perspective, or understanding of our existence, to know the difference between bad and good. Further I'd say that distinction doesn't even have any meaning, mostly because it is unknowable.

Why not? - Well I guess it led to suffering of living creatures on a massive scale over quite a period of time.  I don't think suffering is a good thing, though it seems to be part of the universe. I am not saying that good things can't come from it. 

If it led to our existence, it was good for us I suppose but not for a lot of the life around then.
Having a large brain doesn't seem to be helping humanity much at the moment :
The process of destruction isn't good but like a lot of things, we can extract good things from it perhaps.

Right I see, jkmac. That's a complicated issue surely. We're talking there about dinosaurs and I guess if you consider them to be equal in value to humans then it would be a bad thing, yes.

And the next mass extinction event? Bad?

From our perspective the last mass extinction has to be seen as a good thing. 

For the next one it would be bad from our perspective but presumably good for whoever comes to flourish next. For many life forms the extinction or near extinction of humanity would be a good thing.

First- I wasn't necessarily saying from any perspective. I'm trying to get to whether something is purely good or bad. I think by some answers I've seen that clearly there's no such thing as "pure evil" or purely bad or good. It's all about perspective. It's all about "who's ox is gored". 

Second- what about the people 10,000 years after the hypothetical event? Perhaps they live in an ideal world. The climate is no longer polluted, perhaps population is much more moderated, perhaps the old infrastructures were replaced with "green" ones. Etc. And maybe they took our increased sensitivity to alternative views of reality and science and progressed in a whole new direction. Perhaps they are fabulously happy. They may all agree that the last asteroid strike is exactly what was needed for mankind to move forward. 

Can't you see that a catastrophe may be considered a miracle? And that goodness or badness are just relative, egocentric and subjective terms?

I am not saying that good things can't come from it. 

Then perhaps that makes it a "good" thing and worth the pain of suffering. 

I'm just suggesting you really think about whether good and bad, those labels, are useful or even accurate from any universal perspective.

Then perhaps that makes it a "good" thing and worth the pain of suffering. 

I'm just suggesting you really think about whether good and bad, those labels, are useful or even accurate from any universal perspective.

Could be. Who would judge the worth?
Youre probably right - good and bad are sometime unhelpful.

Was dropping atomic bombs on Japan good or bad?

Could be. Who would judge the worth?
Youre probably right - good and bad are sometime unhelpful.

Was dropping atomic bombs on Japan good or bad?

Well, let's see-

It showed the world the terrible nature of these things. And they have never been used again.

It may have signaled other (non Earthly) civilizations that we were advanced enough to pay attention to. Which may be a positive step.

It may have SAVED hundreds of thousands of lives. look at the bloody battles in the Pacific especially Iwo Jima and you can see how extensive the cost would have been to invade Japan.

And then there's the fact that my dad was in the task force getting prepared to invade Japan. It very possibly saved his life, and consequently is the only reason I am here now. Is THAT a good thing? I don't know,,, maybe from my mother's perspective it was. 

Again- I don't think we can look at these things as good or bad. They are what they are. 

I'd say we should obviously strive to avoid the killing of hundreds or thousands or millions of people,,, but to look back in history and decide what was good and what was bad is futile I think.

Well, let's see-

It showed the world the terrible nature of these things. And they have never been used again.

It may have signaled other (non Earthly) civilizations that we were advanced enough to pay attention to. Which may be a positive step.

It may have SAVED hundreds of thousands of lives. look at the bloody battles in the Pacific especially Iwo Jima and you can see how extensive the cost would have been to invade Japan.

And then there's the fact that my dad was in the task force getting prepared to invade Japan. It very possibly saved his life, and consequently is the only reason I am here now. Is THAT a good thing? I don't know,,, maybe from my mother's perspective it was. 

Again- I don't think we can look at these things as good or bad. They are what they are. 

I'd say we should obviously strive to avoid the killing of hundreds or thousands or millions of people,,, but to look back in history and decide what was good and what was bad is futile I think.

Exactly.

And the next mass extinction event? Bad?

Yes, why not ?

Well, let's see-

It showed the world the terrible nature of these things. And they have never been used again.

It may have signaled other (non Earthly) civilizations that we were advanced enough to pay attention to. Which may be a positive step.

It may have SAVED hundreds of thousands of lives. look at the bloody battles in the Pacific especially Iwo Jima and you can see how extensive the cost would have been to invade Japan.

And then there's the fact that my dad was in the task force getting prepared to invade Japan. It very possibly saved his life, and consequently is the only reason I am here now. Is THAT a good thing? I don't know,,, maybe from my mother's perspective it was. 

Again- I don't think we can look at these things as good or bad. They are what they are. 

I'd say we should obviously strive to avoid the killing of hundreds or thousands or millions of people,,, but to look back in history and decide what was good and what was bad is futile I think.

"It may have SAVED hundreds of thousands of lives. look at the bloody battles in the Pacific especially Iwo Jima and you can see how extensive the cost would have been to invade Japan.

And then there's the fact that my dad was in the task force getting prepared to invade Japan. It very possibly saved his life, and consequently is the only reason I am here now. Is THAT a good thing? I don't know,,, maybe from my mother's perspective it was."

Good points there, of course. I knew someone that was captured by the Japanese and forced to work on the railways etc I won't go into detail. He firmly wanted the bomb dropping and so did most of the prisoners (he said)  their lives were hell on earth literally. They were quite happy to have the bomb dropped on themselves too.

These are surely unresolvable dilemmas.

Yes, why not ?

I wrote another post about why, but essentially it's because own descendants, hundreds of generations from now, may be living in a much more perfect world, and it may be partially because of a reset such as this. How are we to know the good and the bad of it?

We can only know from our personal perspective. What we gain or loose as an individual or as group sitting here today. We are unable to know the big picture.