Why is man basically good?

Question

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Answer 1

Man is basically human. "Good" is basically a human judgment. Human nature doesn't change. Human judgment never stops changing.

Answer 2

I actually do not think that man is basically good. I think that our society has evolved in such a way that the ideas of 'good' and 'bad' are necessary to keep the society civilized. If we ddid not have ideas of 'good' and 'bad', then would we be anything but selfish?
That said, with the way that our society is, people are, generally, in between the two extremes of 'perfectly good' and 'perfectly bad'. Sometimes, they lean more to one direction on the continuum than the other, but there are few people who are only one trait or the other, if any. Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian. Franklin Delano Roosevelt drank like a fish.
Man cannot be basically good, because everything that drives man is basically selfish- the needs of sustenance, shelter, companionship. Man cannot be basically bad, because bad is involved with intent.

Answer 3

I curious how you came to the conclusion that man is basically good. Below is a passage from Romans 3:10-18 in the New Testament, which is a quote of several passages from the Old Testament . Even if you are not a believer in the bible, it is not hard to see that there is so much evil in the world. We are all so much in need of God's grace. I just read a statistic (from a secular newspaper quoting a secular source) that worldwide, 9 of ten women will have abortions by the time they are 45. Already, in Eastern Europe, there are more abortions than live births. Even if you don't believe abortion is wrong, you can probably think of situations you could have been born into that would show the evil we are capable of. Even here in this civilized nation, there is evil all around. Adultry, prostitution, alcholism and on and on, are rampant. Think of all the "good" people who have been caught in scandals. I've heard that in Toronto, they won't even name buildings after people, because they are afraid that sooner or later, something bad about them will come out. (Don't know if that's true though)

10As it is written:
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
11there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."[a]
13"Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."[b]
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."[c]
14"Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."[d]
15"Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16ruin and misery mark their ways,
17and the way of peace they do not know."[e]
18"There is no fear of God before their eyes.

There is hope in Jesus Christ, however. Honestly, that was not my point in answering your question. It is just simply the truth.

Answer 4

He isn't.

Man of himself is neither bad or good.

You have to have some kind of evaluation system to reach an answer and that means you have to deal with philosophy.

If I asked you, "Is a wolf basically good?" you would probably understand that a wolf is motivated by instinct and as such, he only acts in his own interest or the interest of the survival of his species.

If I ask you, "Is a man basically good?" you would probably think in terms of behavior and how it affects others as well as how it affects the individual.

Religions address this issue. Some take the perspective that man is good. The relationship with a god takes on a different approach if man is considered good than if you take the perspective that man is basically sinful or self-serving.

The ultimate question usually ends up with a consideration of eternal life and how goodness or sinfulness affects a person's eternal life.

In the Christian faith a person is considered sinful and separated from a relationship with god at birth. In addition, god is considered a just god, and if a person is a sinner, they cannot merit eternal life in heaven. This problem was addressed by god through a redemptive process that involved his son, Jesus, the Christ, who lived a perfect life, but was executed on a cross. This execution was followed by his physical resurrection to prove that he was God's son, and his innocent death is considered a payment for the sin of all people. People who accept the death of Jesus as the payment for their sins are called Christians. They do not try to earn their eternal life by doing good. They already know that they will go to heaven because of Jesus. But they now have a different motivation for doing good -- thankfulness to God for what has been done by his Son, Jesus.

So the question of "Why is man basically good? is best addressed with the question "Is man basically good?" You can take whatever approach you wish, but if the next question deals with death and eternity, I prefer the absolute comfort of knowing it doesn't rely on how good I am, but on the how good God is.

This issue is the very core of why we have Halloween on October 31.

In 1517 the monk Martin Luther posted 95 statements which questioned many of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church of his day. Out of that event evolved what we refer to as The Reformation and Martin Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, John Knox, and many others spent their lives helping people understand how people are made right with God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Halloween is the shortened form of "All Hallow's Evening" because it was the evening before November 1. On November 1 a church service (mass) was held by catholics to observe "All Saint's Day" or also, All Hallow's Day. Hence, Hallow's e'en or Halloween. And in many churches who celebrate the reformation, there is a Reformation Day church service on Oct 31.

Answer 5

Good has to be contrasted with evil. So a child's natural grabbiness, and other immature impulses are not evil, but are dealt with as part of growing up. On the other hand, racism among other evils, has to be learned; so, aside from any religious position, humans are born as innocent animals, and must be taught or conditioned to be evil.

On a religious note, would any GOD make a creature who was basically evil? Free will gives us the chance to choose the good. And so many do..........

Answer 6

I think you mean..basically man is ok but not great. Right. Well humans have good points and bad points, but we have minds so we can learn from out mistakes and change them thats why we are basically an ok species.

Answer 7

We can't definitively know he is, but we must assume so. Because we define ourselves as decent human beings, and decent human beings give other human beings a decent chance.
But I truly believe humans are good at heart, as humans, just as an animal, has basic instincts, and one of those instincts is simply to achieve the best overall situation possible.
Following this train of thought, we would reach a utopian status quo. But as we know the world isnt so, Obviously other factors (education, relationships etc.) change a humans behavior, to something scary, something worse.

Answer 8

Sorry, man is not basically good. Man is basically bad, with good sprinkled in, kind-of-like a dogie poo brownie.

A baby doesn't have to be taught to cry for something that is wrong in their life, they just are selfish and want their needs met and that means now.

You don't have to send Johnny to school to learn how to lie, it comes naturally, we are selfish.

Man doesn't have laws to tell him what not to do, but that by breaking them a punishment will follow. It is not in man's mind to do good at all.

The seven vices, all show man in the state he resides, and he will not even seek the one who can rescue him from himself.

Answer 9

Man is both good AND evil as this is the inherent duality of our universe. Yin/Yang, light/dark, action/reaction. Everything can be explained this way. What would good be without evil to compare it to? In order for one to exist it's opposite must exist as well.

Answer 10

Because he is part and parcel of the Supreme Good, also known as Krishna, Allah, Jehovah, Vishnu, etc. We can not have any quality that the creator doesn't have. Though here in the material world our qualities become perverted by the illusory coverings of material existence. But ultimately we all have all good within but due to contact with material nature it gets distorted to different degrees due to the modes of material nature.