Poll: Are human beings born good or evil?

[Death God]

Defiantly pure state. I believe that everyone is born with zero on their slate and the instant they breath air, God starts counting every good or bad.

 

[Grand_Arcana]

Yep, you need to teach a person to act civil.
You don't need to teach them to kill each other. That comes natural.

-snip-

Oh, and who was the genius that invented civility hmm? Because if civility exists today, it must have come from a fellow human.

Yes, it came from a person. It had to be taught to the rest.
It was adopted because it helped the species survive. We wouldn't have survived if we slaughtered each other all the time. However, as humans we're more prone to do so unless we have someone to lead us and tell us differently.
So yes, it was an idea that we weren't born with, that we got taught by people who decided it was a good idea to live by.

Why do you think people needed to have things like the 10 commandments?
It sure as hell wasn't because we're all nice people and know how to conduct ourselves without someone else to lead us. People needed those 10 rules or else they'd be doing all those things they're told not to. They see a person whose spouse they want, so they kill the person to get the spouse. They see a person whose house they want, so they kill the person and take their house. You are in my way and disagree with my point of view, so I kill you to remove you. Now nobody opposes me, nobody is there to disagree.
We, as humans, are more likely to take the easy/evil route than the "moral" one. It's far easier to take revenge on those who harmed us than it is to keep our head held high and let them go.

For those commandments to have worked, people must have voluntarily given up their individual power. Long story short: laws only work if there are people that are willing to follow and enforce them. If people disagreed with the law, and would rather do as they please, the commandments would not have been preserved as they have.

There's really no such thing as good and evil. Just organization and chaos. Humans, like many other social animals, are likely to establish hierarchy in a group. We see similar group dynamics among wolves. Most felines, on the other hand, are solitary creatures that only answer to themselves and their mothers without fighting. "Laws" are just what we call our system of hierarchy. Cooperation and civilization are in our genes. If we disagree with our current society, we revolt and create a new one.

 

[lacktheknack]

If you left them be, they'd do selfish things, which inevitably turns out as evil in the long run.

Not what you would expect from Tabula Rasa.

 

[Estocavio]

Evil - In the definition at least. Order and Society are things you are taught after you are born. In the period where the newborn were not shown how they should behave (Early-Mid Medieval) so happened to be one of the most disorderly, sadistic, militaristic periods in all mankinds history.

 

[Altorin]

Tabula Rasa

 

[Dango]

Good.

It's human nature to sympathize and want to befriend others. Although that can be screwed up very easily.

 

[Worgen]

before you can ask the question you have to define good and evil
personaly I think there is no good and evil... well more of no evil since for something to be evil it has to be incapable of doing something good, in other words it can only feed a puppy if its going to use that puppy to dog fight or to eat

 

[ayuri]

people can be extremely bad but still believe they are good overall there are unspoken rules that come naturally and the rest are instincts.

 

[ManiacEskimo]

Good and evil are human created concepts, so people are born neutral.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

I believe that some people are just born with bad souls. They're going to make life difficult or hellish for others because that is just them. The rest of us, however, are the ones that help as much as possible, and love above all else.

Why yes, I have been drinking.

 

[spartan1077]

There is no evil, only different mindesets of normal. I can go kill someone and believe it was sane and for the greater good while others will prosecute me saying I'm evil. Let's use Hitler as an example. He saved Germany from opression and depression. He gave everyone jobs and could've been a great ruler. Except his mindset of good was to wipe out an entire species so he tried to do just that. Was it evil? No. Was it good? No. We are all just neutral.

 

[Bocaj2000]

I think they're born as humans, and stuff happens that influences the rest. Born good or born evil is too simplistic, and just plain incorrect. If we're all born good, where does evil come from, or vice versa.

Agree; good and evil are subjective topics. Personally, I believe that behaviors are taught; misbehavior can be learned and unlearned, but order is instilled.

There is no evil, only different mindesets of normal. I can go kill someone and believe it was sane and for the greater good while others will prosecute me saying I'm evil. Let's use Hitler as an example. He saved Germany from opression and depression. He gave everyone jobs and could've been a great ruler. Except his mindset of good was to wipe out an entire species so he tried to do just that. Was it evil? No. Was it good? No. We are all just neutral.

Shimoda, you are my hero.

 

[Talshere]

I think they're born as humans, and stuff happens that influences the rest. Born good or born evil is too simplistic, and just plain incorrect. If we're all born good, where does evil come from, or vice versa.

Agree; good and evil are subjective topics. Personally, I believe that behaviors are taught; misbehavior can be learned and unlearned, but order is instilled.

Yet there are parts of our personality that would be the same regardless. Our sense of adventure, how spontaneous we are, our inhibitions. While these have learnt factors they are innately controlled by brain activity/chemistry and so technically you are born with them. Since these factors cannot be ruled out as potential contributors to whether we can perform an "evil" deeds, you cannot say outright that the ability to be evil is completely learned.

 

[captainwillies]

I believe that humans are born with a scale with both good and evil balanced at 50%, everytime that person does something good the balance shifts to the good side. when they do something bad the balance shifts to the evil side

when the person dies depending on the balance of their soul determins if they go to heaven or hell.

and stuff...

put in neutral. and replace good and evil with Altruistic and Pathological then I might consider placing a vote.

 

[Keepitclean]

The problem with the OP's idea is that it requires an objective morality. Morality is not objective. Babies are born as a blank slate and very openminded.

 

[Shock and Awe]

It all depends on the raising of the child, so a blank slate is most accurate.

 

[Pariah87]

This is merely my opinion but I'm sure it has already been mentioned over the last 4 pages.

When we are born, we are no more than animals, right and wrong, good and evil do not exist. They come about later through rigorous conditioning. Interestingly, this can only be accomplished successfully during the early years of development, if a child is left for more than a few years, whether in the wilderness, or in confinement, complete adaptation to what we call "society" becomes increasingly difficult bordering on impossible.

Without being taught the common perceptions of right and wrong, we simply stay in an animalistic state, where survival comes first. At this point nothing the child does is either evil, or good, simply instinctual.

Then again, even when raised in a social structure, morality is subjective to the culture the society is based on. What we, as "civilised" westerners may see as abhorent, others may see as perfectly acceptible or even neccessary.

 

[smashmaniac64]

for the most part, born neutral but theres probably times that a child is born good or evil

 

[Kortney]

Neither, their not born with an idea or senese of right or wrong. Blank slates.

Whilst they definitely aren't born with in built morals - human beings are not blank slates. We know enough to come to the conclusion that a portion of a child's mental behavior and reaction will come through the parents.

You mean that the blank slates get their morals and ethics/ideals instilled into them by their parents. The same parents that take that blank slate and rise it?

Yup, inless of course you ment "We know enough to not come to the conclusion." Then I apoligize it was just a misunderstanding.

Other than that I don't think human beings don't start making their own morals intill around 15, but thats just a guesstamation.

Other than mental defects, I belive were all blank slates still just trying to learn to live and get the basics down.

Listen to this man. He's a real scientist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuQHSKLXu2c


Saying that children are 100% blank slates is ignoring scientific evidence.

 

[Evilbunny]

Certain people are definitely inclined towards good or evil and children definitely are affected by their surroundings. However, I think individual choice comes more into the matter than nature or nurture.