Do people become evil or are they evil at birth?

Question

If so, does this mean that some people do not have the ability to be good. (which I think is a bit of a shame really, because I would like to think that their are more good people in the world than bad)

Answer 1

People are not born evil...... it is something they learn.....

We are born into the world innocent... knowing nothing.... We are born into a world that we can see..... and in seeing this world, the world begins to mould itself around us as we learn to sojourn in it.......

It teaches us what to like, what to hate, what to wear, who to be friends with.... etc......

These are things we learn.... Before we were born we did not know it.......

we just existed...... that is... until we learned that we would die.... then we learned to fear what would cause that to be......

evil is a learned attribute of being alive..... in fact, evil is live backwards......


Your sister,
Ginger

Answer 2

We are born with original sin. This means we all have the inclination towards sin.

In that, we have the natural law which can fall under "goodness" such as being nice to your neighbor, loving you children, keeping societal laws...but doing these things are all motivated by a selfish desire to feel good about ourselves or produce some gain for ourselves.

The evil that people do is when someone chooses to go against divine law and natural law.

Being good, even though it's nice and makes the world a better place, is not what gets you salvation.

Answer 3

Have you ever met an evil child?

In my experience it depends on their upbringing and weather or not they are taugh consiquences of their actions.

If they arnt taught you should be able to pick it up from the little things they say and if you dont like it, ditch them.

Also I dont think that most evil people know that they are evil over the years they are moulded and trained that way. What you might consider evil they would say is progress, survival of the fittest and then they will have a reason that they can justify to themselves such as an eye for an eye, or he started it.

Answer 4

Depends on what you mean by evil.

If you mean a propensity to perform acts harmful to other people, then I suppose all of us are born at least a little bit evil.

But we're all born with the capacity to empathize and care for one another too. In that respect, we're all potentially good too.

If you define evil as a "stain" or a mark of some sort of sin that we need to have cleansed, then no, we aren't evil at birth.

In the end, I don't think its our tendancies that matter. Its what we actually DO that matters. You aren't really evil until you do something wrong. In that sense, we're born completely innocent.

Answer 5

It is believed that personality is 80% nurture and 20% nature (approximately). As such the majority of personality traits are acquired from experience although there can be a disposition towards certain types of personality.
To really identify if this was the case it requires studies of monozygotic twins who are brought up in differing environments which isn't necessarily an easy thing to do.

Answer 6

The jury is still out on that. It would amount to does the Genome actually have something to do with behavior.

It is generally viewed that between age 12 month and 5 years the child's behavior methods are set in stone. They are either cool or throw tantrums and objects.

It's hard to say if it's psychological, sociological or biological or all three.

Answer 7

This is a very good one!
By the second half of the 19th century, a good number of phylosophers and medical doctors believed we are pre-determined to be good or bad. This was not entirely original, someone has always believed we are "cursed" to be one or the other.
The very extreme was represented by Luria, who even believed our face, how long our nose or dark our eyes are, determine whether we are going to be one sort or another of criminal. That guy even wrote a book, with pictures!, and his teachings have been part of forensic medicine for more than a century.
My belief is greatly influenced by my religion (I am Catholic). We believe we are born free. Free to choose to be good or bad. Now... What we choose, is OUR RESPONSIBILITY.

Answer 8

We are born with a sin nature. Ever notice that there are no books on trying to teach little kids on how to be selfish, or be little brats? It is because if they were left alone, these characteristics would manifest.

There is an age of accountability that is different for every person (God knows the age) that from that point on, you are resposible for your sins.
Either die IN your sin or give them to Jesus and let his death be the substitute for your sin. Only the latter way will bring you to HIS kingdom!


AMEN!

Answer 9

People are raised up under many conditions that can mold and shape them to an extent.

What a person becomes and the choices that they make because of those conditions are personal choices that they make.

Personal accoutablity is something that many love to ignore now days - but that doesn't make it any less true.

Answer 10

"evil" is such a strong term many people do bad things because the have made wrong decions as for being born with it, no it all has to do with the way life and the wolrd has molded the impresionable cly of a young mind that can twist them into evil ways

Answer 11

Hi, strictly speaking no-one is evil but we do evil things at times, evil is not a human state of being, but sin itself is truly an evil thing, and someone who deliberately sins constantly can be seen to be evil, we certainly can become addicted to sin and this leads us to do evil but only the Devil is evil personified.