For now, Light will be the stand in for good, hot, life, and light, and Dark will symbolize evil, cold, death, and dark. (note the capitalization) Now, Light represents something we have, a quality, or a physical phenomenon which is observable. But Dark represents the absence of Light or a state in which those qualities or physical phenomena are not present. Now let us examine the realities of each particular situation. Beginning with light and dark, we will work backwards from there.
Light is a form of energy. Depending on what wavelength it has it may appear to the human eye as different colors or not at all. Light, in some form, can penetrate all substances. So to find a location that is completely without light is not really possible. So what is dark? It cannot exist if it is the absence of light. Yet we describe places as dark on a regular basis, so how do we determine them to be such? Truthfully we only perceive them as lacking light, because they are without the light we need to see. Even when the lights are off, there is light.
Life, as defined scientifically, has certain aspects or tenets which must be present for life to exist. There are many types of life, from bacterial and fungal to plant and animal. When human life ends, we call it death, yet to say that death is the absence of life would be a terrible misstatement. When we cease to breathe, a plethora of other lifeforms spring up and take our place. We decay by the efforts of hundreds of other lives, and without us, those lifeforms would cease to exist. So when our life ends, there is no absence, only a change. So death is not an absence of life, just a change in the type of life present.
Hot is perhaps the least accurate term. It is very difficult to define, because each person has different tolerances of temperature. So let us analyze heat or temperature instead. Heat is a measurable quality, defined scientifically as the average kinetic energy of the particles of an object. Heat is present until the particles cease to move. The point where this occurs is called Absolute Zero. Absolute Zero does not occur in nature. So there is no absence of heat, and thus, everything is hot. Yet we feel cold sometimes. Even when we are cold, there is heat to be had.
That brings us to good and evil. Quite possibly the two most nebulous concepts in the entire world. Good, for the most part is something that we define individually. In most cases how we define good is dependent on our own personal ethical code. Suffice it to say that what we define as good is all those things that are opposed to what is forbidden by our morality. For example, to Christians adultery is forbidden, so Marriage must be good. So good is simply the opposite of evil, and vice versa. At this point, you may wonder why Good and Evil have been included in this discussion. Pause and think. Is my morality the same as yours? Do all of your neighbors follow the exact same ethical code as you? This is why good and evil belong in the category of oversimplifications.
Human beings oversimplify things. Even on the darkest night, there is light. Even in death, there is life. Even in the coldest depths of space there is heat. And even when something seems truly evil to you, it may be good to someone else. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; so are good and evil. Don't let any Lights go out, because we will lose much more than we might gain if they are extinguished.
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