Good or Evil? Joy or Suffering?

Question

Are people inherently good, or evil? (Or something else, like greedy, or self-interested?)

Is love/joy/(some other positive emotion) the "greatest common denominator" in humanity? Or is pain/suffering/despair the great unifier of our human existance? (*Yes, I've seen I Heart Huckabees & What the Bleep and I LOVE both of them!)

The Bible (and many other non-Christian spiritual guides) expresses the idea that both joy and suffering are divine. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? It sure doesn't feel like it!

Answer 1

I think people are inherently good...at least at birth. But I don't think love/joy is as great a common denominator in humanity as pain/suffering is. Some people, I think, are just not capable of true, unconditional love, maybe because they're so scarred by trauma that they've become hollow. But everyone on the planet experiences some sort of pain/suffering--people are more often bonded by similar traumas than they are by similar joys. There's even a term for it in psychology: "trauma-bonded."

I don't think both joy and suffering are divine. But they are both part of our existence, like two sides of a coin. Without suffering, how could we truly appreciate joy? Without joy, the concept of despair wouldn't really exist. Just like people die and people are born, joy and suffering alternate. Only people brave enough to face pain can truly experience joy.

Answer 2

Good cannot exist without evil. Without joy there can be no suffering. Humans are inherently good. But higher powers ensure that we know what evil is, so that we can recognize it when we are faced with it. If we do not know evil we will try to rationalize it. Like some did recently. Seung-Hui Cho was evil but some downplayed it to mental illness. Professor Liviu Librescu sacrificed himself to save his students on that fateful day. He was a holocaust survivor, he knew what evil was and saw it in Cho's eyes.

Answer 3

My take is the Yin-Yang theory. For order you need chaos. For joy you need pain. And so on. So yes Joy and Suffering can both be devine for they both need to exist to bring balance to our world. Which is why one will always hear bad news, even when everything around them is perfect. When one succeeds, another must fail.

Answer 4

Those things/feelings/emotions you described are ALL within and around us all. We are all good and bad at the same time, just how you tend to view your personal reality and what you desire and how far along the "path" you are. Just as Jesus said to his disciples when asked where this kingdom of heaven was....He said " he who has ears listen, he who has eyes let him see. Heaven is within and all around you"...This place you call earth can be either a heaven or hell, up to you. Incidentally, I believe God is also within each and every one of us. Your soul yearns for contact with Him, just too many earthly distractions along the way.

Answer 5

We can't know or appreciate joy and good unless we have known and experienced bad and saddness..
I can't agree that suffering is divine.....but it is comforted by divinity.
for instance...you can't know light until you know darkness.
You can't feel cold unless you have been hot. You can't beel full until you have been hungry.

It is just the way things are.

Answer 6

Much of suffering is self-inflicted. When you discover where you inflict your own suffering, you will be able to end that suffering.

If thinking about X makes you suffer, stop thinking about X. It's a very simple formula.

Answer 7

Balance is the key.
Gratitude for all the lessons learned will help you on the spiritual journey.

Answer 8

hello ! we desire good but evil gets in the way , we are both good and evil , may good prevail .