"Is human nature innately good or evil?"?

Answer 1

Neither, or both.

Is there such a thing as human nature? Or just things that some humans will do and some humans won't?

What do you mean by good and evil? These are complex concepts.

For me, good and evil are actions that help and hurt respectively. It's difficult to define because some actions both help and hurt. I'd say that actions done with the intent of helping are good, and with the intent of hurting are bad, regardless of the outcome. But that's just me.

People do good things, and people do evil things. I don't think that anybody solely does one or the other.

Answer 2

Well I've never answered a philosophy question before, so here goes!

I live in the UK under a Government that has virtually capitulated on law and order. Parents have to be very careful on how they chastise their children. Teachers have no effective powers whatsoever to discipline unruly children.
The police (through no fault of their own) are more or less powerless to deal with crime other than at both ends of the criminal spectrum i.e. speeding, rape murder etc. On top of that, most judges, it seems, don't live in the real world and have no idea of the effect that some criminals have on people's lives and hand out wishy-washy sentences that will be halved with good behaviour.

Having said all that, it's reasonable to assume that the UK would then be in a state of anarchy, where murder, rape and pillage is the norm...where leaving your home would mean that a serious assault was little more than a formality. But, happily, we all know that this is not the case, leaving me in know doubt that 'human nature is innately good'.

Answer 3

Good & Evil are virtually defined by which way energy is flowing.

Since life is all about the flow of energy, good & evil are intrinsic to life. Your good is often someone elses evil & vise versa.

So human nature cannot be innately good OR evil, because it is innately good AND evil.

The question is like asking if electronics is powered by the positive or negative side of the battery.

Answer 4

Evil. Otherwise the Christ wouldn't have had to die for you and I as well as the rest of the world. The only thing good is God.
If humanity was so good then I would ask about the munitions factories? The war machines? The need for them? The need for the police forces, the courts, the laws, and the reason for our criminal institutions overflowing with a population explosion! Remember, they are all one sex in those compounds, there are no babies being created there so where is the population growth coming from?
It isn't because we are good by nature.

Answer 5

It is neither, as there is no good or evil, only action and the opinions of others about those actions. It is the third person (the observer) who assigns morality. Human nature is just the action or reaction of one person to a situation.

Answer 6

We could ask first of all that - unlike animals or things in general nature, do we have a right and an ability to choose things in life? If we have, then our nature cannot be the one fashioned to dictate us innately to act in either of the ways, good or bad. We do realize, however, that we do have proclivities for both good and bad, but the judgments that our conscience mind passes upon our actions thereafter are all in favor of us doing nothing but good. Our instinctive, on the other hand, are amoral, as most instinctively, we like to do things not with merits of good or bad in view, but for the sheer instinct for survival the best we can.

Now the question is – is our nature based upon our basic instincts, or is it manifest as our conscience mind? Then if the instinctive part of our mind is the root of human nature where mind takes its guidance, then we are no better than animals in our behavior, which is not true. And if it is the higher mind that determines our nature, and therefore the nature of all our deliberate actions then we have unquestionable innate propensities for good. We are thinking, feeling, conscientious beings that take delight in doing good and fighting against evil.

I have a personal view that the human mind is in fact as an interface between at least two dimensions parallel in existence, one higher in merits of excellence, and the other lower. The higher dimension we know in terms of divine, or spiritual, whereas the baser is the world that we physically inhibit. It seems as if due to some causes unknown the spark of divinity found itself materialized as human form in the middle of a very unlikely place, the physical world. If we for a moment believe this to be true then the causes that necessitated this ‘down fall’ are valid still. They are in place not as merely events in history but as conditions upon life as it is, that if we are alive we must have in us seeds to do evil, alongside our original spiritual propensities to restore our state to it original excellence.

It is not the history that we understand we read stories about paradise and the temptation of Adam, but we learn about the state of essential human condition, that we have to maintain internal state of bliss against all temptations of evil that we find overwhelmingly alluring and overpowering. And it is in this struggle that we find ourselves as who is it that makes efforts to be good?

If we are decisively good then we need not make efforts to be what we already are, and if we are utterly bad even then there should not be constant struggle in our mind and hearts. The fact is that we could never be absolutely good or entirely bad. WE do not have choice to be either; the only choice we have is either to do good, or bad.

Answer 7

Any parent who's raised a young child has to believe in original sin. They have not yet been taught to be bad, yet they deify, disobey, and hide actions that they know are forbidden. My little boy when he was about 6 1/2 months or so was playing with a cord on the floor that I had repeatedly told him "NO!" and even reinforced with a small spank on the hand. He look me in the eyes, waved his hand at me to get my attention, and with the other hand attempted to covertly touch it while he thought he was distracting me.

No one teaches or encourages little kids to lie, yet they do so to avoid getting into trouble, even if they have been taught that lying is bad.

I do not believe that humans are innately evil, but we are innately sinful.

Answer 8

neither or maybe both.All people are different. Some are more good than others and some are more bad than others. So if it was human nature to be one or the other. We'd have less crimes if human nature was just good and if it was evil. We'd see less good and more crimes in the world. I used to be friends with someone who turned out to fake being nice and good.She takes joy in others pain.Her behavior made me sick so I ended the "friendship".

Answer 9

This question cannot be answered by picking one.. There is always good in all evil and there is always evil in all good. Yin-yang. So my answer would have to be both. But keep in mind what Einstein once said "The most important decision that you have to make in your life, is do I live in a hostile universe or a friendly universe, because you will look prove whichever you choose." That goes for this question as well.

Answer 10

There is no universal constant defining that which is good against that which is evil. These are conditions that people create out of fear and ignorance.

The only time people see something as "good" or "evil" is when they -choose- to perceive it as such. You can choose to see everything as flawed, or you can choose to see everything as perfect.

Just make the choice.