Good Vs. Evil

Here is another idea that I have struggled with throughout my life. The Idea of good vs evil.
When one thinks about good and evil the first thing that comes to mind is good guys and evil villains, dark forces being held at bay by the forces of justice and virtue. Of course the evil forces are gaining in strength and will soon be dispersed to run free over all that which was decent, and innocent until that is, the forces of nature regain its hold and defeat evil and return it to its restraints, once again up holding the morals and values of all good people, good triumphing over evil.
I think we all know that this is a bit of hyperbole but it is nonetheless true. We get told this all of our lives. Good wins over evil. We will catch the bad guys. In the bible Jesus comes back to reek serious havoc on this planet thus restoring nature and peace.
What is good and evil, really?
What are the rules that govern weather or not something we do is good or evil? Or better yet, What is it that which gets judged and adds up to be the end all be all objective truth that one is or is not good or evil.
One could say that one that does evil things is an evil person. this is a valid perspective but I think it is important to bear in mind the fact that evil people do good things and I think it is even more apparent that good people do evil things.
Lets take for example a man who has come to climax in his life, he's lost his fortune to the hands of greedy business men, when he turns to the government they are of no assistance to him, his wife just left him for another man and he's simply had more than he can handle. He melts down he goes to his house and gets a couple of guns and walks slowly downtown thinking about what has happened to him. When he reaches a busy downtown city block he pulls out the guns and and in a fit of rage he kills several adults, some carrying briefcases, some people just shopping. But even in his fit of rage he has the consciousness of mind to not shoot any children. In fact lets say he even spares the life of one of the randomly targeted adults on account that a child ran past trying to get to safety. Now the question here is this. Is this man an evil man?
And is he eternally evil? Can you find your way back to innocence or good after that? I wonder if any amount of prayer or repentance could heal such a wound.
He may argue that he did the right thing. He may feel forever and to his grave that the rest of us owe him an apology for thinking that he had done us a misdeed. Or he may repent and find Christ in prison perhaps ,but what about his status inclined to good or evil?
If he feels guilty about what he has done is he good?I don't think any of the family members of the people killed would say he is good. But does that make him evil?
It seems to me that the only solution here is that evil and good are just words. There is no value to the words at all. It is the values and morals that we hang upon these words that are significant, however this certainly does not solve the problem of good versus evil it gives a little understanding to the problem and that understanding is that what one values as evil others may value good. Different cultures and different people place different values on the meaningless vehicles we call words and send them out into the world to be heard and seen by others and inescapably scrutinized and judged by others as a result. This makes a tough argument against world ethics, knowing that different people people and different places have different morals and values we have to be prepared at all times to reexamine our beliefs. This does not mean we have to change our beliefs, although in a lot of occasions if we are truly honest with ourselves we would find at least some small way of making our lives better by altering our beliefs to a certain degree. But change of belief is not what is important here, it is the virtue of self reflection which gives you the freedom to examine your life and your deeds and decide for yourself what is good and evil and weather or not you are one or the other.
It is also true that there is a degree of truth to what others see. What millions of news watchers would see thanks to television and internet is a mad man walking the streets and killing innocent people, and rightly so, that is exactly what he is, at least for that moment and I guess at any moment from then on when someone sees news footage and declares him evil as a result. For each person who believes him evil, he is. Kierkagaard's subjective truth is totally at work here.
So in the end it comes down to essentially this. We are good and evil as we do good and evil and when we do good or evil it is up to us to judge ourselves although others will judge as well and that, in a sense, is part of the truth about a person. Authenticity is great. but it comes at a price. It means a person has to be the things that a person doesn't like about being a person in order to truly be what it is that a person loves about being a person. but that is what makes one real.That is what authenticates an individual. The beauty of this is that when a person takes control by examining his ideas and beliefs he realizes the ultimate ability to sculpt in his mind and in the minds of others weather or not he is good or evil. Examine yourself and what you do and how you do it. You find then that you worry very little about weather or not someone else is good or evil but rather was there anything good or evil about your own actions.
Thanks for reading.
Not done yet....thee are a lot of books out there.