Question for atheists: What is your view of human nature?

Question

Do you think we are evil by nature or generally good?

Answer 1

We are one fender-bender, one heated marital disagreement, one act of indiscriminate lust, away from being savages. We are one sacrifice, one gift, one compassionate act away from being saints.

The patina of civilization can be wiped off any one of us in seconds when subjected to the right stimuli. It's not about good and evil, it's about what happens when we stop acting, and start reacting.

Victor Emil Frankle wrote, "between stimulus and response, people have the power to choose."

THAT is who we truly are. Sometimes that can be beautiful, and sometimes quite disturbing.

Answer 2

I think human are generally good, but that environment as well as type of cultural education can make a person behave with evil intent.
People will work hard to justify their behavior and label it under the name of something, like "I sell drugs to help pay the bills"... or ..."I hate these people over there because they are going to hell...my religion says so."
I think how parents raise their children is the key to it all...

Answer 3

I think "good" and "evil" are relative terms. I think that we humans have the capacity to do each other a lot of harm, or a lot of good, relative to our respective situations. I think there are all sorts of motives at play, from the simple biological ones to the culturally sophisticated ones - I don't think we can reduce it all to "greed."

It's obvious that on a basic level we have to cooperate to live, even though we've become extraordinarily individualistic. That's why we punish "sociopaths" - not because of what it says in the Bible. It's a little frightening that some people think "God" had to tell us not to kill each other, as if it wasn't common sense in any society.

Answer 4

Human nature is a rather complex amalgam of qualities that can be called "good" or "evil." Patriotism, for example, is "good" unless it leads people to kill six million other people, then it's "evil."

A really thorough look at human nature can be found in Steven Pinker's "The Blank Slate." This is a book that looks at the neurobiological and evolutionary components that we refer to as "human nature."

Answer 5

"Good" and "evil" are subjective terms made up by society. If you want to be an inclusive, successful member of your culture, then you must largely behave as a "good" citizen. If you don't care about that, then anything "evil" that you do is just reverting to your animal nature.

Answer 6

I believe that at birth we are blank slates with the potential for both good and evil. Where we end up is determined by a number of factors including biology, environment, mental health, emotional stability, society and education.

Answer 7

Humans are evil by nature- they cannot relise and understand that someone maybe better than them, clever than them... if they do come round, they get jealous, then they purposely hurt that person, just because (by no fault of their own) they may be better than them, have something that someone has. People should respect and like someone who they are jealous of- aspire to be more like them. You can't just sit back be mean just because your unforunate enough not to have that traite.

Life doesn't come to you, you have to find it!

Olivia
(age 11)

Answer 8

We are stuck with our evolution which comes from the days we were in small tribes. People are boundary makers we draw lines in the sand that distinguish us from another tribe. Be it religion, color, traditions etc.
That thru the ages have been the root of our wars etc.
Good and evil are in all of us. However we have free will (choices) with the exception of mental illness.

Answer 9

Good and evil are human constructs, how can our nature be based off of something created by us?

Answer 10

evil by nature DEFF NOT ..

humans are not born evil. We are either taught growing up to be bad .. such as stealing.. lieing .. being unfaithful.. jealously .. etc. OR that person is born with a mental disorder