There are many people who believe that human nature is evil, or that human nature is sin. As a father, I know that they are wrong. My daughter's first social interaction, at age 1, was coming up to another little girl and giving her a hug. I've seen children play peacefully across gender lines and across racial lines. And I've also seen people with no acquaintance to Christianity, Judaism or Islam people such as my grandmother, who was a Communist acting in responsible, compassionate, hard-working and generous ways. At age 16, as a student at a Christian school, I was talking to my mother about common human nature, and she said that I was wrong. She said that she had never wanted to hurt anyone. I realized that she was right. There are all sorts of people such as my mother and my daughter who are born good. Which completely refutes the claim that human nature is sin, or that human nature is of the Satan. However neither is the nature of all people good. And for those whose nature is not good, the solution is choice based on values. Any human being is capable of choice. Which means that even the people who are naturally sociopaths or bullies or scoundrels can act rightfully if they put their minds to it. In some cases goodness is natural; in other cases it has to be attained through an effort of will. In either case it is possible to be a good person. Having been a bad person at some times in my life and a good person at others, I know that goodness is attainable for everyone. It is a matter of choice; and everyone is capable of it.
This discussion needs two terms defined. What do you mean by 'human nature' and what do you mean by 'good'? If you intend to say that humans are social creatures and therefore tend to act in ways which favor the group rather than the self, you are demonstrably right. The whole idea of countries, of business beyond the individual craftsman or merchant and the whole idea of civilization itself are points in your favor. If you mean something else by those terms, we need a tighter definition.
Human nature is to gather resources unto it. this is common for all life on earth. Determinism takes away the freedom of choice - when you think you are choosing to do something, you are actually delaying fate.
Good and evil do not naturally exist and they are not defined until society (more than one person) gives them meaning.
Good post. First let me start off where I disagree with you. From what I understand sociopaths lack empathy for whatever reason and are for that reason different from the rest of us. Can they be taught empathy? Perhaps, but not that I have heard of. I assume that they could understand empathy on an intellectual level but still not personally experience the actual feeling of empathy. As for the rest of what you said I for the most part agree. We are born and what we become depends upon many different factors. I do think that we create our own monsters. Childeren are in general good, but at some point in their development some turn bad, again for many different reasons followed by the thought that we create our own monsters.
I do not agree that a consensus needs to exist for someone to decide if something is evil or good. Good and evil are subjective and individuals may see things quite differently. Let me prove my statement this way. 1--You and I are alone on an island. I start beating you with a stick. You do not need another's opinion to back yours up to know that to you, what I am doing is evil in your eyes. 2 --I and a masochist is on that same Island and I am beating him with a stick. He likes it and to him, it is good and he also does not need a second opinion to make his determination. Regards DL
I would agree that our default position is to cooperate with the world and that that would be our good side as no victim is created when people cooperate. It is when we compete that things go to the evil side as competitions create losers and they would see their lose as evil. It is our social conditions, which we cannot get away from, that create the biases we form in our minds. Let me give you two items to ponder on our forming biases. http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/born-good-babies-help-unlock-the-origins-of-morality/ http://www.upworthy.com/this-orches...w1&u=94acbbeb6bbd6d664157009a896e71b014efbf27 Regards DL
