Reading Jacob chapter 5 in the Book of Mormon on the parable of the Olive Tree, reminded me of Nietzsche saying:
The question is, how far an opinion is life-furthering, life-preserving, species-preserving, perhaps species-rearing ...
(Source)
In the part that talks about the Olive Tree in Jacob 5, it basically explains that that which is bad fruit, and is pruned, is evil fruit in that it doesn't become ripe and healthy (generative); and contaminates the healthy part of the tree, and does not bear fruit (seed) and graft onto the pure olive branch. Here is an illustration summarizing the parable:
Note how evil is defined as the bad: the unripe, untamed and life-decaying, what is not life-preserving, not feeding the roots of the lifeward growth of the species of tree. In other words, bad fruit is a metaphor for not being a healthy contribution to your tribe, your People, which is symbolized in the language of a vineyard that when it is good it is healthy. So the good is growing a vineyard of happy souls, a Peoplehood. So that which is evil is that which causes societal decay and unhappiness from a contagion of selfishness and not being connected to the roots and branches of the living Vine (or the Olive Tree): symbolizing the wise path of Chrostianity toward growing the consciousness of a civilized Society. So bearing fruit means healthy tribal growth and good seed (posterity), and is thus life affirming and species preserving, species-rearing (a divine species). For example, consider these verses (emphasis mine):
Jacob 5:32-39:
But behold, this time it has brought forth much fruit, and there is none of it which is good. And behold, there are all kinds of bad fruit; and it profits me nothing [compare D&C 132: 63], notwithstanding all our labor; and now it grieves me that I should lose this tree.
And the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: What shall we do unto the tree, that I may preserve again good fruit thereof unto mine own self? And the servant said unto his master: Behold, because you did graft in the branches of the wild olive-tree they have nourished the roots, that they are alive and they have not perished; wherefore you beholdest that they are yet good. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto his servant: The tree profits me nothing, and the roots thereof profit me nothing so long as it shall bring forth evil fruit. Nevertheless, I know that the roots ["cultural DNA"] are good, and for mine own purpose I have preserved them; and because of their much strength they have hitherto brought forth, from the wild branches, good fruit. ...
... Jacob 5:40-41:
And the wild fruit of the last had overcome that part of the tree which brought forth good fruit, even that the branch had withered away and died. And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard?
Jacob 5:72-74:
And it came to pass that the servants did go and labor with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them; and they did obey the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard in all things. Jacob And there began to be the natural fruit again in the vineyard; and the natural branches began to grow and thrive exceedingly; and the wild branches began to be plucked off and to be cast away; and they did keep the root and the top thereof equal, according to the strength thereof. And thus they labored, with all diligence, according to the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard, even until the bad had been cast away out of the vineyard, and the Lord had preserved unto himself that the trees had become again the natural fruit; and they became like unto one body; and the fruits were equal; and the Lord of the vineyard had preserved unto himself the natural fruit, which was most precious unto him from the beginning.
Jacob 6:7:
For behold, after you [people] have been nourished by the good word of God all the day long, will you bring forth evil fruit ... and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit ...
Ether 4: 11-12 and Moroni 7:16 explain that whatever invites and persuades one to do good is of Christ, and Christ is the word (seed) producing the branches of the True Vine who are born anew (children of Christ) on the True Vine (i.e. the ideal Healthy Culture). In other words, Christ himself is a seed (the word in flesh as the embodiment of God's Wisdom), the Monogene of Jehovah, that produces the People of God.
So just as Nietzsche says the good of an opinion is that which is "life-furthering, life-preserving, species-preserving, perhaps species-rearing," I see in the Book of Mormon a similar definition of the good as that which is good sustains the statutes and laws of a civil society and culture, as hedges around the Vine (Olive Tree), so that it grows healthy ripe fruit and generative seeds: growing a healthy and civil People. As Omni 1:2 puts it:
... But behold, I of myself am a wicked man, and I have not kept the statutes and the commandments of the Lord as I ought to have done.
As we can see wickedness is not keeping the statutes and the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard (see Jacob 5), as the statutes and directives are designed to grow a healthy tribal culture (Zion), symbolized as a tree, vine, and vineyard. This is why Alma 41:10-11 states:
Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness. And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state [prone to acting selfishly and impulsively, toward bearing bad fruit contaminating healthy societal growth toward Zion], are in the gall of bitterness [hate and resentment] and in the bonds of iniquity [non-equity habits, see Jacob 5:72-74 quoted above]; they are without God in the world, and they have gone contrary to the nature of God [and God's Monogene]; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness.
Since Christ is the truth as the good in form and behavior, then the only true and living "church" (i.e. group of Christians) is a vitally alive and thriving Christ-conscious culture; not a deadening or decaying church or culture bearing rotten/decaying fruit/cultures, but a ripe and alive, Lifeward Church of healthy souls bearing seed that bears the fruit of wise and caring behavior that glorifies your Father and Mother in Heaven and bears fruit as in sows seeds as lives that glorifies our Heavenly Parents (see D&C 132: 63). So ripe and healthy "good" fruit is basically what Stephan Covey called the integrated principle-centered person (or soul): those who produce the fruits of families with mothers and fathers raising their seed (children), and those sown seeds in good soil (Zion-ideals) grows a healthy culture. From this perpective, Mormonism is definitely "life-furthering, life-preserving, species-preserving, perhaps species-rearing."
