In Response to Bryan's Question "What is Evil?"

I found this particular blog to be intriguing. You mention that there does not seem to be a universal standard for good and evil and that whether there is good or evil appears to be up to the individual. You mention the idea that "if God gave every human a universal idea of what is evil, he would be taking away human’s free will". I think that with the idea of good and evil and free will, it is really down to the particular person. You can't inherently see good or evil, though some would argue that, nor can you necessarily see free will as a tangible item. We see acts that we presume are good, evil or free will but like religion and the belief in a God, it varies from person to person. So as simplistic as my answer may seem, I believe that evil varies for each individual and well, if that isn't a decent answer then I presume that this is one of those questions that even the most seasoned of philosophers shrugs their shoulders at.

Question - To sort of follow along with free will and evil, if we can not measure evil on a universal scale then how does punishment come into play? How can we measure punishment if we can't measure evil?