But more so, you presume that evil is some ontologically real phenomenon rather than a loose amalgamation of social preferences.

Well, I do assume evil is a real phenomena. I am a Christian. Christians believe in good and evil as real things and not phantasms.

I desire to thank you fro you comment, by the way. It is a comment I find supportive in a way that will sound strange - but if someone is preaching Jesus to a general audience and no one is critical at all, then it is a fair question as to whether he is doing it right or not. So, thank you! No sarcasm, seriously, it actually makes me happy.

As for evil: When I was a teenager, I got angry at my father frequently. Maybe sometimes there was some good reason, but I doubt it. I got angry and furious with him and wanted to strike him when his back was turned, I would sometimes want, frankly, to even strike him with a baseball bat kept in the basement, because I would have such anger at him. Why am I telling you this? If you were reading about some incident like this on the news, about a son or daughter who had killed their mother or father, out of mere anger, would your first thought be that this appealed or failed to appeal to your loose amalgamation of social preferences?

Another example: If you found your son, or daughter, or nephew or niece, some young person related by blood you cared about, and you found them in the backyard cutting a frog's legs off for fun. Would you first thought be to shrug in bland indifference? or would it be to say "My preference is you stop, because I am bigger and stronger than you and might makes right and so there."

You know, as I know, that these things are wrong. You are totally right I am begging the question. I beg the question when I assume I typing a message to another human being and not some sophisticated text bot. I beg it when I assume that the sun will rise tomorrow; I beg it when I assume that other people are as real as me, and when I assume my world is real and not the creation of a malicious demon. And I am likewise begging the quesiton when I assume there are really actions that are wrong, that are always wrong, and actions that really are good, truly so, that this is a real thing and not an illusion of my mind.

I am not saying I have some perfect, complete understanding of good and evil, that is absurd; I am not saying I cannot be mistaken on what is good and evil, that is absurd. I am a man, I can make errors, same as you. But to say that there is nothing but mere preferences, as though men have killed and died in wars and given their lives in selfless acts and devoted their lives, for preferences...

You are lying to me and to yourself when you say such things. You know better.