Quote Originally Posted by Scow2 View Post
This is a Deontological approach to morality that doesn't quite hold up to scrutiny. It's also not true. Someone who kills thousands and does save millions doing so, with the motivation of the killing being the salvation of the others, is a Hero. An act of evil is an act of evil - but a person is judged by the net result of all their actions, not a single one. But it's easy to focus on the 'evil' ones and discard the 'good' ones out-of-hand without actually appraising the result.

And it's not so much Destined Alignment vs. Alignment by Actions - they're both Alignment by Actions, but recognize that Alignment is determined by Cosmic Forces From Above, not irrelevant personal feelings.

Someone who's deliberate behavior results in a net growth of the influence of Good in the world (As a result of their actions, not as a reaction to their actions - A genocidal maniac isn't Good because the rest of the world is so collectively horrified by his actions that they straighten up... unless, possibly, if his actions were taken deliberately to create that reaction)
that still seems like putting intent over effect. further it doesn't hold up any better than what I said, you're still killing people who are on the "good" side simply because you believe it will hinder the "bad" side, perception has quite a bit to do with alignment as it's how the alignment system was set up in the first place. to a monster killing sentient things could be justified as good because we're infringing on their territory or upset their gods, to us that just makes them an aggressive evil monster. to us we're doing something good by going out and slaughtering every one of those monsters we see, to them they're being killed by some horrible abominations because WE'RE the aggressive ones.

without those personal moral views the alignment system wouldn't exist and it wouldn't be nearly as debated as it is, going back to my earlier "a crime is a crime" stance, you kill someone because if you don't two other people might be killed, does that make you less guilty of murder? no, you're still guilty, their family will still hate you, the law will still be against you, you still killed them and saying it was for a good reason (even if it was and that reason succeeded) does not undo or reverse the fact that it was a terrible thing to do.