Are people intrinsically good or evil?

[Athanasius]

People are created in the image of God. "God" = "The Good."

People are universally infected with the malignancy of self-centeredness. "Self-centeredness" = "Evil/Delusion"

We cannot restore ourselves, unaided by Divine Grace, to our original condition. Both nature and nurture are infected with the malignancy.

We were designed to orbit around The Good.

We typically orbit around Ourself.

We are a cursed race.

The infusion of the chemotherapy of the Word of the Good into the body of malignant humanity is our hope.

That infusion has already occurred.

His name is Jesus of Nazareth.




<< For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law at work in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then, with the mind I serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus . . . . >>

The Apostle Paul, circa 60 A.D., as recorded in Romans 7:22-8:1a, King James Version.

 

[LIBERTYorDEATH]

People are born with an instinct to defy rules. All eve had to do was stay away from that one damn fruit..but that was the most alluring one. This proves people are born yearning for freedom, and are inherently good. Then government gets involved, enslaves them, and instills evil into our hearts. I for one never wanted to hurt anyone until I met my first IRS agent. It was then that I understood how the Tim Mcveighs of the world get their ideas.

 

[Whitedog]

We make ourselves what we are... The way we are raised has the biggest impact on this too.

We are All born into Sin, but have the power to overcome it through Our Lord.

 

[Gunbuster]

5%Good, 5%Evil 90%Idiots

 

[Spoooon]

We are all born as festering, cess pools overflowing with evil.

 

[RGN]

I'm thinking Evil. You see babies getting stuff that they want all the time. It only gets worse.

 

[Mday]

yes

 

[pamchenko]

<< Evil is a pretty subjective term. Selfish may be more appropriate. Anywhoo, yes, I do unfornately believe that we are born with evil in us. It is up to us to decide how much of that evil is displayed. >>


I agree with vi_edit. My roomie and I had this discussion a while ago, and we came to the conclusion that not even Adolf Hitler may have been evil. Evil is malicious intent...in religious terms, it is to subscribe to the ideas of the devil? I am totally not religious, but that's what I have picked up from hollywood Hitler in his own mind thought he was doing what he deemed was right. He thought he was doing something for humanity when in fact he was infringing on the right to life of others. This makes him selfish because he was killing (a sin) for his own benefit.

moonbeam, I read your post twice and had a jimmy of a time trying to make sense out of it. I'm hoping your point was

<< Bottom line, we are born good only to be made to feel we are evil as quickly as possible. >>

.
In traditional sense of western views of evil, I think that people are evil when born and it is civilization that &quot;saves&quot; them from carnal behaviors like stealing, killing for mate selection and other behaviors that you would see in animals. However, I'm at a bind here because it is also civilization that tries to impose the wonders of itself onto foreign lands and leads to the evils of imperialism and dehumanization (any example about europeans in africa from 1800 works here). This does however bring me back to my first pt. Evil is subjective and it is hard to self-diagnose in oneself because one could so easily justify one's actions.

On a side note, if you've read this post, plz show me that you've read it by ending your reply with an &quot;x&quot; like I have done. This is important for a pt I am making in another thread. x

 

[matmax]

beneath all the crap, people are generally good.

 

[Ornery]

People are selfish and vane. Who can say whether that is evil or not?

• Ecc 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. x

 

[shiner]

Evil

 

[~zonker~]

I believe we are all born with the capacity for great good or great evil, many factors besides what a person is born with determine which pole the person will gravitate toward, including personal choice...

 

[CyberTiger]

dunno

 

[Dedpuhl]

I don't think people are evil. They are greedy, selfish, and irresponsible....not evil.

 

[JellyBaby]

This thread has proven people are not born either good or evil but some stick to that claim. I fear the day we try to genetically manipulate humanity to get rid of either trait.

 

[ForeverSilky]

I was born with the evil gene, so I can't be held responible for my actions.

 

[MrPALCO]

<< Are people intrinsically good or evil? >>



How are these words defined?

 

[Azraele]

I think good/evil can also be broken down into &quot;innocence&quot; and &quot;experience.&quot; When one is innocent (much like a child is innocent) they are incapable of being evil in the sense that evil is self-aware, ie, aware that it is wicked. A child can do something evil, but not understand that what was done is evil, and so the lack of understanding makes the child innocent. As we gain experience, however, we understand shades of grey instead of just black/white. Then, good/evil becomes a conscious decision.

 

[TheVrolok]

I think everyone is born 50/50... then it depends on their early life and personality as to which way they decide to go...

 

[RockEater]

Evil

 

[LordMaul]

I am a nice guy.

 

[LadyJessica]

People are born inherently neutral. There is no concept of good or evil when someone is born.

 

[silhoutte]

people are inherently good
imagine if everyone lived with that perspective.

 

[flood]

One recalls a passage from Resurrections, one of Tolstoy?s works:

One of the commonest and most widespread superstitions is that every man has certain, definite qualities of his own: that a man is good, evil, wise, stupid, energetic, apathetic, and so on. People are not like that. We can say of a man that he is more often good than evil, more often wise than stupid, more often energetic than apathetic, or the reverse; but it would not be true if we were to say of one man that he is good or wise, and of another that he is evil or stupid . . . Every person carries in him the seeds of every human quality, and sometimes he manifests some qualities and sometimes others, and it often happens that he appears unlike himself while still remaining one in the same person.

 

[Moonbeam]

LadyJessica, We are born hard wired human, that is not the same as neutral. We go through defined stages of development. The important question, I think, is are we neurotic, can we heal, what can we become free of illness, what are the results of an unimpeded development?

silhoutte---->