Are You Religious?

[Phazite]

I would open that by asking whether evil can exist as a standalone concept. I believe evil is the absence of good; would good be the absence of evil if there existed an evil god? I heard this hypothesis promoted in debate and found it odd, but nevertheless worth considering, unlike some who consider it absolutely ridiculous.

If evil was the absence of good, would that mean we had to classify all actions as good or evil? If so, would sitting idly be evil? If not, what exactly do you mean by evil being the absence of good, if not in the context of behavior?

I purposely left it ambiguous, because I think that the very concept of "truth" lacks a rigid definition. A discussion on the concept of "truth" could go in a lot of interesting directions, and I didn't want to box it in by virtue of a question that made certain presuppositions that others might feel is unfair.

Anyway, how can statements be shown to be true?

Yeah, I agree with you here.

Anyway, I think statements can be shown to be consistent with observation and evidence, in which we may call them 'true', and statements can be shown to be consistent with a given some set of axioms, in which we could say they're true, given the axioms are true somehow.