Are morally defective people born that way?

Question

People who are evil (such as racists, child molesters, anti-Semites, homophobes, xenophobes, religious fundamentalists and similar scumbags) are a product of social circumstances or are they born that way? To me, it seems that it is impossible to be born evil. Do you agree?

Answer 1

for the most part i agree a 100%. i think most people are not just born bad... but become that way through abuse that they are not able to over come....
there are SOME people who do these things that are just born mentally handicapped... and therefore cant think rationally....

but yes for the most part i agree with you.

Answer 2

Actually, I know of people I grew up with who, some had bad childhoods, and some not.
What is interesting is that, of the children whose childhoods were bad, not all of the offspring followed the example. For some, they must have disliked it so much that they through cognizance of how bad it was, deliberately lived different lives when grown.
Conversely, there are plenty of examples of children who were given wonderful childhoods, yet deliberately followed a bad course.

I would have to say, circumstances, and genetics, do not play as important a role as does, each person's desire to do what they want. I agree, that people are not born to behave wickedly.
I also agree they are not merely victims of circumstance.