The difference between ethical atheism and nihlism is that ethical atheists have more faith

[Neo-Scholastic]

Genuine question here, not poking fun or anything, but are you of the opinion that "evil" and "sin" are forces, or energy, or something of that nature.

Not at all. I'm from the school that evil isn't really anything at all. It's the "absence of the good that ought to be there." For example, empathy is a good thing. A psychopath lacks that good. It's not that the psychopath has an evil force inside him, instead he lacks something. So when I talk about sin and evil destroying the soul from within, I'm thinking of the murderer who loses a little bit more of his conscience with every person he kills. Or the rake who slowly loses his capacity for true intimacy the longer he keeps whoring.

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We don't need to realize the highest standard to have higher standards then lower ones or realize something is lower or higher.

Not sure of your exact meaning. Sure you can compare one moral code to another to see which is better, but you need to define 'better' before making your determination.