I would like your thoughts on this please.?

Question

I'm currently in a Juvenile Justice class and we're discussing whether or not some humans are born possessing the drive (for lack of a better word) to commit crime or if it's in the way children are raised. I thought it would be interesting to hear some thoughts of those who believe in God (I don't) and what role you think he might play in this. Below is the question asked by my instructor...

Do you believe that animals can be born mean or with a tendency to be mean? Why do certain ordinances target Pitbulls or Rottweilers? Is there a chance that we just don't want to believe that humans could be born to be bad as well?

I didn't mean to leave out those who don't believe in God, I would love everyone's thoughts on this!

Answer 1

I believe everyone inherits certain characteristics and personality traits from their forebears. I believe further that every human being is born with what the Bible refers to as original sin - a natural bent towards rebellion and self will.
If you are born to parents who are heavy drinkers, you are more likely to follow in their path. If you are born to parents who are smokers, you are more likely to smoke. I believe statistics will bear that out. However that never needs to be the deciding factor in anyone's life. Ultimately we will be held responsible for our own choices, and it is your will that will determine what you become more than any innate trait.

Answer 2

Yes I do believe that some things are just meaner than others. I don't believe that the old man in my neighborhood who yells at everyone and loves to harrass people until they call the cops, I dont think he does this b/c he was raised wrong. You don't know anything about his parents.

Plus I know several children that were raised in the same household and raised the same way that turn out completely different.

Now I think the way you were raised has something to do wtih it, definitely. But ultimately I think some people just have that mutant gene or whatever it is that gives them no ability to know right from wrong.

When you interview serial killers in prison, most of them think they behavior was perfectly justified. There is some reason they should have killed that person. It's as if they have no idea that their behavior is "wrong".

Humans definitely can be born bad.

Answer 3

People have been born mean yes. Without a consciences. Without any idea of right and wrong. But these are a minority in the world. I believe strongly that our environment plays a role in our social development. true there will be some who do not follow the norm. Say two children grow up in abusive homes, One child grows up to be an alcoholic abuser himself while the other grows up to be a human rights activist. Now take one hundred children and put them in the same scenario. I am thinking the results would be 90 percent bad adults 10 percent good. Who we become is not totally up to our environment but a majority of it is. We are who we are taught to be. Like they say children are sponges whatever we teach them to be they will usually become.

Answer 4

I do not believe animals can be born mean. Look at baby cats or dogs for that matter. When they are yelled at - or disciplined they come back to you out of love. They do not forget but they have this ability to continually come back to you to try it again.

To make animals cruel - one must continually beat them, starve them and be cruel to them. You must break them. Then they are mean. I have see no documentation that animals themselves are born this way. They may have certain instincts that drive them to kill for food, or protect their territory but this does not make them mean.

Humans are the same way. Child abusers, killers, rapists are not born. They are made.

And in the end you still have a choice. I was sexually abused as a child - yet I became a defender of victimized children. I chose which way I was going to go.

I also believe that God created us - and because God is perfection God wouldn't create an evil creation. We are made in God's image - to say we are born evil means that God is evil. Instead I believe that we all are born inherently good. And that we have a choice to stay that way or to turn to the darker part of life.

Answer 5

I believe we come in this world self centered. Altruism is learned. Compassion probably is in us but has to be nutured.
I don't think certain breeds of dogs are necessarily meaner than other. But all animals will defend themselves and their babies. They sometimes will misinterpret a person's actions and be agressive. The danger with a pitbull is that if he bites, he doesn't let go. His jaws are powerful and his bite can be deadly.
People should watch their children when they are with little puppies or kittens. I heard a vet say that more cats and dogs for observation after biting a child because children think kittens and puppies are toys and they are not. There is something instinctive in motherhood for all animals. You might not necessarily be doing something hurtful but if that mother misunderstands (we have to understand she can't process things like we do), she could attack. I have had cats that had kittens in my house and they can make AlQuaida look like sweet little choirboys.

Answer 6

No one is born bad. They become "bad" through abuse, neglect, and their environment. Babies (and puppies, and anything else) are vessels, which react to and learn from who and what they experience around them. If a child is raised into a family where morals are lax, and the surrounding community is the same, chances are good that the child will have the same set of morals he sees all around him. In other words, if everyone around a child is a drug user, and he sees no repercussions for it, he's going to think it's perfectly okay. That it's normal. May not be normal for others, but in his world-view and community, it is. With animals, many things cause them to be mean. Usually they are trained to be by withholding of food and affection. Environment is a huge factor, and I think you have to take that into account when you're talking about things like this.

Answer 7

I think some species of animals are wild animals and i guess you could call them mean, I would call it survival... as far as pitbulls and rotties... I blame the owners, I've been around pits that were sweet as they could be, just big babies, rotties too... how you are raised has ALOT to do with it. As far as people... I think it gets more complicated... there are so many mental disorders that go untreated... I think that is partly to blame, also being raised by bad people is partly to blame. U r making me think too much... some people commit crime in order to survive, others do it and know they are hurting people or breaking rules and just don't care, others think they are doing nothing wrong. I'm not sure what Christianity has to do with it... I think that people can get saved and quit living a life of crime. I dunno exactly what you are asking about that...

Answer 8

I think it is how they are raised. I think God has a major role in it. Because most people that believe in God are most likely not going to commit a crime. But there are also people that don't believe in God but are still nice people which brings me back to the part about how you are raised.
(I hope this made since I think it sounded better in my head)

Answer 9

Temperament is probably at least partly genetically determined in humans, as much as in dogs.

However character is not the same as temperament: temperament refers to things like introversion, excitability, emotionality and some styles of thinking, which are neither good nor bad in themselves.

Character is the result of how each of these factors develops within the personality as a whole.

A sane society provides opportunities for people of different temperaments to all develop the best character they can.

Answer 10

I think nature is handed down in animals but humans have the ability to become what their atmosphere around them is.

think if your parents were from Boston spoke with that accent move to Texas or Alabama then had a child they most likely would speak with that accent