Your opinion, are people inherently good?

Pepper said:
Neither sees us as being born innocent. Of course, it depends which 'god' you are speaking of.
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True. You are right but we CAN believe we are innocent and thereby cleanse our thoughts and soul; expecting to do better. Mind over matter type attitude. šŸ˜
 

hearlady said:
One can choose to be good or choose to be bad. We are inherently free willed.
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Not if you believe there is no contradiction in the bible.

Gods Plan
Proverbs 19:21
New International Version
21 Many are the plans in a personā€™s heart,
but it is the Lordā€™s purpose that prevails.


Free will
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.1 Corinthians 10:13

If that is to believed then good is inherent, not really a choice. That leaves evil judged by society.
 
LadyEmeraude said:
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.
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You seem to be presenting that first line as evidentiary. Actually it is just a statement of opinion, or wishful thinking. People CERTAINLY are capable of intentionally choosing evil.
 

Olivia said:
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.
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AH! Then we were wrong to put on trial the likes of Eichmann! If they had no agency in their choosing evil, then we cannot rightfully try and convict them. Right?
 
VintageBetter said:
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:

ā€œLet 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.ā€

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.
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This has nothing to do with being inherently good.
 
I think life is way more complicated than humans being inherently good. We are social animals. And we're all hyper emotional. We are also quite ready to seize any opportunity, even at the expense of others. Given those factors, it's no wonder there are wars, murders, robberies, etc. What constitutes "good" may be just a lack of need, and "bad' being a lack of a "moral" method of obtaining what we want.
 
LadyEmeraude said:
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.
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I'm not sure whose quote this is... but I have to disagree. Premeditated murders, rapes, stabbings, shootings... and all those other horrid crimes are chosen knowing it's evil and not "mistakingly supposing it to be good." I can't think of any crime at all that was premeditated that would be committed with the criminal thinking it was good. And the other part about "two evils" and no one choosing the greatest evil knowingly... yeah, if some evil monster is deciding between murdering someone they hate or slapping their face, I'm thinking there's not going to be a slap.
 
Good and bad are totally subjective terms. If you favor religion your definition of either might be totally different than someone who does not. Take a simple example of a person sneaking across our border to work and send money back to their families in a different country. Are they bad? Or are they good? Your opinion is exactly that. An opinion.
 
There is that phrase again....."we are social animals'......a gratuitous, totally arbitrary, subjectively arrived at, confusing, and blurry train of words that should have never made it's way into the language of the social sciences.
 
jpstrap said:
There is that phrase again....."we are social animals'......a gratuitous, totally arbitrary, subjectively arrived at, confusing, and blurry train of words that should have never made it's way into the language of the social sciences.
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I think "social animals" describes humans accurately. We live in packs and then pair up to start our own pack, then fight, scratch and attack each other and other packs.

We may be evolved but we're still animals.
 
C50 said:
I think "social animals" describes humans accurately. We live in packs and then pair up to start our own pack, then fight, scratch and attack each other and other packs.

We may be evolved but we're still animals.
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OK, my bad.
 
hearlady said:
One can choose to be good or choose to be bad. We are inherently free willed.
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People born with a brain or genetic defect that causes psychotic or violent behavior don't have a choice. That's one cause of "evil". Prenatal drug exposure can cause that kind of brain damage, too.

Another cause is childhood trauma; neglect, abuse, exposure to extreme or frequent violence, and deprivation. Evil behavior caused by those things is treatable, though. Even curable.

Otherwise, imo, people posses enough goodness to prohibit them from doing evil things because they have a conscience. But I don't think people are born with a conscience, I think it's learned...formed during their childhood through example and experience, i.e., their parents and other adults around them set a good example, and experience with pets is good but trips to a zoo or seeing animals in nature is, too.
 
I believe people are basically good. Also, imperfect and thus will do things that are not good at times. And there are some rotten apples who are basically nasty, perhaps also sociopaths.

Never let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
 
Yes, there are some good people. Those we need not be concerned with. I have noticed that the evilness in people have become more evil. Let's face it, when our fellow homo sapiens start cutting our heads off and boils them for soup, there is definitely evil in this world.

I knew 2 brothers that were direct opposites. One was as nice as apple pie and the other was the rotten apple. How does 2 people from the same gene pool turn out as opposites. I think it's by choice.

There was an episode of "Fear Thy Neighbor" on Discovery ID. The neighbor screwed with this former GI and Vietnam veteran so much that the neighbor finally killed him, baked him and served him to his sister. Needless to say, no one wanted firsts, let alone seconds. He also had a really bad case of PTSD. How is that for being evil?
 
Born_To_Lose said:
Yes, there are some good people. Those we need not be concerned with. I have noticed that the evilness in people have become more evil. Let's face it, when our fellow homo sapiens start cutting our heads off and boils them for soup, there is definitely evil in this world.
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Sounds like something straight out of Herodotus!
 
jpstrap said:
I replied NO because "good" was not defined. Good in the everyday sense obviously is not a trait in everyone. Just witness the grotesque anti-human behaviors being displayed worldwide on a daily basis.
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Many people are good at being evil, lying, and criminal activity. Of course, we understand what the OP was trying to ask though her language was too vague. So indeed "good' without further explanation leaves a lot of "good at what" open to nonsense. The same subject with more focus was more recently discussed in the "Are Humans Innately Aggressive?" thread. I answered that with links in that thread.

Are Humans Innately Aggressive?

What that reflects is that humans given circumstance were not innately aggressive until in competition for land, materials, mates, etc. Thus if we all had plenty to live our lives productively, with an abundance of food, enjoyably, we would not have much reason to fight and worse. Why I think Earth could be a paradise given science and technology if we had maybe a tenth of its now near 8 billion population. And as I noted,the majority of humans though somewhat innately flawed, try to do the right things, are law abiding, help others, and work to make a functioning pleasant world. But the world economic systems, its wealth seekers, and warmongers, dominate.
 
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