are people by nature good or evil?

Answer 1

People are generally good. That's why we've survived this long.

Answer 2

Evil

Answer 3

As a buddhist, I believe in neither....

People are like the Yin and the Yang... anything good comes with a speck of bad and vice versa...

Even people that you may view to be TOTALLY evil were at one time little children... and will one day be old and frail if they are lucky.

The belief in Evil Incarnate is what leads us into war and poverty and hurt feelings... we must abandon the idea that certain people are completely evil... it just isn't true...

We must also abandon the idea that certain people will always know what is right for us and do the best thing... this is not true either...

Answer 4

People pretty much start off as clean slates the day of their birth. Good or Evil are opposites forces that are engrained in us through upbringing, moral instilling, television, peers, schools, and the choices we make. When I see a newborn babe, I see a soul that could go either way, not one that is already predestined for good or evil-- although babies are born pure and undefiled-- only this world makes the monsters or angels they will become........

Answer 5

Neither.

Many people seem to regard evil is a 'thing'... something that has some corporeal form of existence in the physical universe. What a load of nonsense. Evil does NOT 'exist' as a 'thing'... it exists only as an abstract 'concept'... one that is 'dualistic' in nature. 'Evil' cannot 'exist' without 'good'. They are the two sides of the same coin, in the Yin/Yang sense. One cannot 'exist' without the other; neither can be defined or described except in terms of the other.

Good/evil is further abstracted in the sense that it represents a 'judgement'... not a 'thing'. As a judgement, good/evil is wholly subjective, since it relies entirely upon the 'criteria' that is employed in making the judgement.

So, the real issue is not good/evil per se... rather it is the criteria that people use in making their judgements of good/evil.

Nothing in the universe is inherently 'good' or 'evil'... it just IS.

Since we all pretty much share the same hardware, and are all wired pretty much the same, and share pretty much the same cultural values in a larger sense, we usually find ourselves on common ground when we judge questions such as "Was Hitler evil?", since we can agree on the criteria. (Murdering 6 million innocents can hardly be regarded as 'good' by a sane person.) However, we should realize that if Hitler had been asked the question "Are you evil?", he most certainly would have been thoroughly offended by the very idea. According to HIS criteria, he would have seen his actions as 'good'... for his people and for 'The Fatherland'. He is known to have said something to the effect that he saw himself as doing the work that Christianity had started, but never finished... i.e., he was doing "God's work". (He was nuts, of course... as are ALL people who see themselves as doing "God's work".)

When we get down to subtler questions, where someone's 'criteria' might depend upon interpretation of a particular verse in the Wholly Babble, or the Koran, for example, these kinds of judgements can get a little stickier.

It's not really about good/evil, it's really about criteria.

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." ~ Steven Weinberg, Freethought Today, April, 2000

Answer 6

Depends on your morals. Since we are predatory animals and we listen to our predatory instincts, which involves killing, then we would be evil. However, since we have self thought, which the church tried to suppress, we have realized we don't have to listen to our predatory side. Of course we still do listen to it when it's conveinant. We also do good like helping other people by choice. So inherently I would say we are evil but we have the choice of not being that way.

Answer 7

both some are good by the nature some are evil by the nature.

Answer 8

I would say generally people are good but some people are just plain evil.
I think these evil people were born with brain damage and therefore should be discarded.

Answer 9

Have you ever read the book Frankenstein?? I agree with this book. People start off good but the world/society corrupts them. Just like Frankenstein, he wasn't a monster until he was exposed to society.

Answer 10

By nature, we are both good and evil. Yin and yang, black and white.

Answer 11

people are by nature neutral, until some ****** stirs up the pot and sets people against each other for his own desperation to gain power over his fellow humans