how do you define innocence?

Question

and do you believe we all lose it at some point?

Answer 1

Wow. What a terrific question. Where to begin?

I have my own take on what innocence is.
I believe it is being able to have a purely clean
conscience about your actions because you
couldn't see any harm in them.

I think that different alienating forces have given
most of us the wrong idea of what innocence is.

The problem I have with the Adam and Eve theory
is that it seems to suggest that mankind lost its
innocence because of Eve's culpability. In my
view Eve did not lose innocence because she
did not believe there would be any devastating
repercussions that would result from eating a
forbidden piece of fruit. She did not understand
what it meant to die.

I mean ,how from her point of view could
eating a piece of fruit kill anyone . She was still
breathing afterward.
I think that the authors of such
stories (Adam and Eve, Pandora's box, etc) lost
their innocence when they wrote them
because they wrote these stories knowing
full well that it would result in a world that
treated women like second class citizens.
This was not an innocent mistake. This was
intentional.
That represents the loss
of innocence on the part of the prophets that
wrote such things with the willfull intention of subjegating
a whole gender. I aplogize to any Christains offended
because I know I just broke a taboo. But that is what I
believe.

Similarly I believe that an adult that entices or
seduces a minor has loss their innocence.
The minor is still innocent in most cases.
I say this because the adult knows of the
repercussions and knows that it is manipulating
and taking advantage of the minor. How can the
minor harm the adult or be at fault?

Politicians often lose their innocence after two
many terms of service. Bill Clinton and G.W. Bush
both lost their innocence by willfully lying to the
people of the United States and betraying their
trusts. Those are just two of the instances
in which they lost their innocence politically.

I definitely do not believe that the loss of virginity
denotes the loss of innocence. If the person loses it
with a clear conciensce and no remorse there is
no innocence lost. That is an idea purely influenced
by religion. In the U.S. many people think of being
"deflowered" before marriage as the loss of innocence.
Ironically marriage vows are not found in the bible
and legal marriage is made legal by government
sanction. Therefore I do not see the logical correlation.
If however a person uses their physical experience for material,
or some other manipulative gain, harms another person's
marriage or relationship and knowingly does it, uses the
partner for the sole intention of gaining a notch under
their belt, or to gain fleeting pleasure and them throw them
away they've thrown away their own innocence; whether it
is their first lay or their twentieth.

Last example- meat eating. When I became
concious that my dietary habits were harmful to the
person of another. If I had persisted on eating another
beings flesh this would have produced feelings of guilt
that would rob me of innocence in my relationship to the natural world.
As a child I knew no better. As an adult it would be careless
disregard for the lives of others.

In summary I believe innocence has to do with a person's
intentions based on their level of understanding of the
possible outcome of their actions.

Answer 2

Innocence is the absense of knowledge about how life at large works.
Although we may lose our "society-based" innocence early in our life (love disappointment, Santa Claus, etc), we may not lose that easily innocence as defined above. After all, most humans die without even considering the basic reasons for existence. I would say that only the philosophers are close to lose their innocence, but whether they lose it depends on the level of knowledge that they acquire of their own existence.
I hope this helps...

Answer 3

In my opinion, innocence is the ability to trust open heartedly, with no hesitations. Innocence is still believeing that people won't betray you or hurt you. And yes, we all lose it. Some lose it earlier than others, others have it stolen away, but some lucky ones get to lose it in their own time.

Answer 4

Innocence is that of purity, which is to be untainted and completely ignorant. Innocence may not be the same as innocent, which is more associated with the legal term for determining guilty or not guitly patrons.

A person with innocence is possibly an infant/child, or a person with childlike intellience. This sort of person is unaware of corruption, moral dilemmas, good/evil, right/wrong, and desires other than basic survival.

Answer 5

Trusting, unless untrustworthiness has been proven - believing that a person is good, unless it has been proven otherwise - risking yourself being hurt so as to not take the chance of hurting someone innocent (many people to cover their own skins, hurt others only on some suspicion that is not properly founded - it is said that it is better to have an injustice done against oneself than to do an injustice against another - Plato and Aristotle) - always giving to others in need - always showing mercy with regard to normal human weaknesses and mistakes - always being just to others and never taking advantage of another, just because you can (so many people do the last, as their norm of ethics is "can I get away with it") - and so on ...




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Answer 6

Innocence, in my view,
-Is seeing the world as if it were perfect,
-Never seeing the bad in people,
-And trusting a single person with your life because you love them so much.

Answer 7

Innocence is not knowing that you don't know. Like Adam and Eve were before she ate the apple. Like children are.

Answer 8

innocence is a blessing ignorance. yes we lose it when we gain knowledge. But everybody is innocent about lots of things because no matter how much we know about the world we are still unaware of so many other things.

Answer 9

The time before revenge is innocence. Do we lose it? Or are we judged as not having it in the first place.


The Will is positive, the Judgment is negative.

Answer 10

we are never born innocent.. when we were babies and first brought into this world, we were brought in naturally sinful...most people mix innocence with naivety..naivety may be a characteristic of innocence meaning inexperienced and new..innocence is the lack of guiltiness.. we ALL have guilt