Your opinion, are people inherently good?

jpstrap said:
If a person chooses Evil are you still prepared to say that person is inherently good?
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no one chooses evil, knowing it to be evil , but mistakingly supposing it to be good, no one, who is compelled to choose between two evils, will knowingly choose the greatest.

Not all choose evil while knowing it to be evil, but often time mistaking it to be good,
so YES, that person could still be inherently good imo.
 

This thread is your own opinions on the topic, that is
why it's posted, no right or wrong here..
 
Paco Dennis said:
Why do you care? Let me explain. I do not have a bone in my whole body that is interested in pointless discussions. I think that is an important option , and the the most realistic. My option, not everyone's obviously. I don't care. :)
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Well, 'whatever' if you feel this thread is a pointless discussion then
perhaps don't post on it further imo.
 
What we are really talking about here as regards to evil, is an-anti-social personality disorder which includes sociopathy and psychopathy. The first is considered more able to be helped and the second is mainly criminal behavior such as by Ted Bundy. There really is not much choice for these people as to how they choose to behave.
 
I think people try to be good, but selfishness usually wins. I am getting tired of dealing with the two-faced nature of people. I've found good people keep score in their interactions with others. At least evil people are what they are, it's the pious that drive me nuts. Hey we're all struggling though, right? Maybe not.
 
most are and many try to be but one of your USA authors now deceased and once a practicing psychiatrist wrote several books -= one called People of the Lie - about narcissistic personalities - he described some of them as very evil. There is a broad spectrum of human personalities/behaviors and this was at the other very negative end. In his book he describes meeting such persons and attempting to treat them with little success?

 
Having lived in 11 locations (3 states), and worked at 9 company installations over 43 years, I've been exposed to a lot of folks, from all stations of life.

As I look back, I find that most folks I got to know were basically "good". They tended to adhere to the "Golden Rule", and treated others as they would like to be treated.

There were some that were "anti-social" and stand offish, but I couldn't call them bad or mean.

Sadly, I've been exposed to a very small percentage of folks who were mean, devious, selfish, and hurtful of others. Thankfully these folks were few in number, but I remember them clearly.

As my loved one says, "it's all about DNA", and I think that is a huge part of why we are what we are.
 
I think most children are inherently good-hearted. We all start out as children.

Then, over time and accumulated hurts, and through training of what matters and doesn't matter in this world, they lose their inherent goodness and branch off into all kinds of moral pathologies.

If a child doesn't have enough to eat, they will steal. They didn't start out believing in theft. But the CRUELTIES of life taught them the only way to survive is by theft and even by killing whoever competes for their food.

Luke 18:15-17. In my opinion, this is one ONE reason, one of many, that Jesus said this about children:

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

I'm not going to get into Bible Arguments about that meaning - God knows many preachers will do that today so they can have their blah-blah-blah arguments. Blah-blah-blah, go to church today if you want to hear their blah-blah-blah arguments. But, that's what the verse says. Plain as day.

Anyway, I think we start out pretty darn good. We just want food, warmth, love, some fun, and to be kept SAFE. Then enter life and work and the cruelty of the adults and children learn that life is about competition even for basic needs, like food and housing. Then they change.
 
Conformity is the cause of much of the evil I have seen. A person who desires to conform and force others to conform cannot even recognize their own evilness. They do not learn and they do not grow. They start wars, small or large, to force others to follow their own brand of "normal" and woe be unto he who does not conform.
 
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