Naturally good or evil? Classic question, just curious.?

Answer 1

I'm a firm believer that we are born neutral and learn good or evil behaviors from our environment. Anyone can be molded to be evil or good. I think people can be born with a certain threshold for both good and evil and the likelihood of someone being more evil or good is different for each person but that does not mean they can have a small threshold to be evil and not have a chance to end up good.

Answer 2

People are naturally good.This is proven by studying the expectations, and reactions of both Good and Evil.
For example- Lets you walk by a park where childern are playing. You look out towards the horizon and the suns reflection blurs your vision to fade in with the environment. Now your sense or hearing is heightend because of your blurred vision. You can hear the peacful harmony of childern playing. You hear the laughs, the yells, the joy.
And then, Bam! A loud gunshot rings out and causes your vision to sharpen. As you turn your head in the direction of the boom you see a man lying 5ft away from you in the street with his head blown off.
Now here`s the question. Which event will have a greater impact on your conciousness? Most people would not even consider childern playing in a park to be an event. But the guy that got his head blown off that event will stay with you for life. The trauma might even cause you to have nightmares for years to come.
I contend that the childern playing in the park is a far more powerful event then the guy that got his head blown off. Whenever I take my daughter to the park sometimes I get a little teary eyed just looking, hearing, and feeling the beautiful innocence of kids playing. Humans are naturally good which is why are senses are Dulled to good things. Open a door for a lady at the store and she might now even look at you to say Thank You. Punch that same lady in the face and 10 times out 10 she will press chargers against you.
We commend good, but we condem evil. Our condemnation of evil is to a higher degree than our commendments for good. Why? People are naturally good and that is what we come to expect.

Answer 3

Naturally good or evil? Well, we are all born fairly innocent... however that's not the same as good. We aren't really naturally anything really, except erm... natural ;)
Whether or not we are good or evil is really a matter of choice and comes later when we can understand the difference and make informed decisions. Having free will means that in each and every moment we can choose whether our actions come from a place of Love or whether our actions come from a place of fear. One choice equates to Goodness, the other erm... doesn't.

Answer 4

During the late 1800s people of Europe felt that people were basically good (or naturally good). Then soon after WWI broke out. People were stunned at the level of war atrocity and evil and one group can inflict on another.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, people felt that young children are basically good. So they believe these children when they started making up stories of sexual abuse. The police and the psychologist felt that they were to "innocent" to make up or even try to make up stories like these. Many lives were ruined.

But now looking back most researchers agree that children in general have the capacity to lie and cheat for personal gain.
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If you ever read the book "Lord of the Flies" you'll get an view of what I'm saying.

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Flies-Penguin-Great-Century/dp/0140283331/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6034955-6789454?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182191536&sr=8-1

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Whether or not we agree people are NATURALLY good or bad, I think that it is important that general population understand that people (you and ME) have the propensity for great evil and each of us have to fight it.

I don't always have the desire to pass on kindness done to me. But I when somebody pissed me off, I really feel like snapping at everybody the whole day. And so I can only be good knowing that I can be very evil.

Answer 5

Neither. Babies are the only way to look at a "natural" state and you can't really say that a baby is evil, but by the same token, you can't say it is a "good" baby either. It just is a baby. We have the ability to chose what we do, and it is our decisions and actions that make us "good" or "evil". So until a person can make a decision, they are neither good nor evil.

Answer 6

Neither. We are naturally selfish and naturally vengeful. These things can translate to actions considered evil, but also some considered good. (justice and self-preservation). I think we are naturally and socially aware of reciprocity (you be good, good things may come your way) and empathetic which leads to actions considered good. Therefore, it all depends on how you think you can get ahead or make yourself feel good in life either in a short or long-term sense. Is it by hurting others(evil) or helping others( good). Neither choice will truly make you good or evil since ultimately you behave either way because it is advantageous to yourself.

Answer 7

Good and evil are relative terms. Is good the absence of evil or the act of doing helpful and kind things every day? Does evil mean a daily killing spree or turning a blind eye to need?

Let's assume good is doing something helpful and evil doing something cruel. In a given situation, one person may do something good, and another person may do something bad.

Your question is impossible to answer.

(owner_of_a_lonely_CAR, did you just accuse children of lying about sexual abuse for personal gain? I'd like to change my answer. THAT is evil.)

Answer 8

The overwhelmingly 'normal' choice for the human race throughout history is GOOD. We are born tabula rasa; but soon learn which types of behaviour is appreciated and which types are not.

"The discovery of this capacity for cooperation was the great intellectual contribution of the classical liberal school that gave rise to the American Revolution. It grew out of a belief that whatever imperfections social self-organization had, there was nothing that centralized government could do to improve it. They took the daring step of tossing off the rule of the state in favor of complete self-government. They didn't fear chaos. They looked forward to liberty."

Answer 9

We're naturally selfish, which can be seen as evil, and at times, can also be a good thing. But each of those in your question have to be taught, they are not natural, only selfishness is natural.

Answer 10

Naturally good, prone to fits of evil!

No really, naturally good, I believe evil is the learned phenomena.