What is "Good?"

What are the characteristics of good people? What are the characteristics of good behavior? Those questions will get wildly different answers, depending on who you ask. And there is the root of many of the world's problems today.

'The Church' (Christian, Muslim, Jew, etc., etc., etc.) tries to answer the questions, but rather than getting right to the characteristics of "goodness," it sidesteps the issues by explaining the reasons for the answer. Religion seems, in some regards, to have a very low opinion of itself...instead of just offering answers, it feels a need to accompany the responses with ample amount of justification. I don't need to hear the reasons, I just want to hear the answers.

'Government' (democracy, theocracy, dictatorship, etc., etc., etc.) gives if a shot, but the answers are so wrapped up in political posturing and nationalism that the answer (if indeed one is ever given) is hidden deep within mountains of meaningless drivel.

Who else can we ask? Ourselves? I'm all for individuality, but the credibility of the answer to my question demands a collective response...a collective response from some 'body' that representss humankind. Oh, there really isn't such a body, is there? That, that, is the root of many of the world's problems today.

Great, just what we need...a new 'church' or 'government' to set our moral standards. Well, we don't seem to be able to set them for ourselves...or maybe the problem is that we have abdicated that responsibily, handing the hard questions over to the church and the state for answers.