Poll: Are human beings born good or evil?
- Thread starter UnwishedGunz
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They are born instinctive. This means that they will generally be selfish, which one may consider evil. Then again, teaching has been around for as long as people could communicate in the simplest fashions. Teaching ultimately influences one's behavior. It's like Tabula Rasa, but there are some things that are more or less certain.
I don't have time to sit through a 24 minute video, can you give me the gist of what you're trying to explain. Because I don't belive babies have the capacity to from opinions on thing straight out of the womb. Or from alliances outside of their parents.Kortney said:
Obviously there isn't a piece of genetic code that is specifically made to give babies "opinions" on issues. A baby cannot form opinions. It's not about that. What I'm saying is that it is flat out false to call babies a clean slate. As Pinker explains, anyone with more than 1 child or sibling knows it's not true. The fact is that humans are born with a strong tendency to act and behave in a certain way. Yes, their environment plays a huge role - arguably an even bigger one than their hereditary traits - but there are things that they are born with.Mcupobob said:
There is stacks and stacks of evidence to prove that they are given character traits from their parents. He obviously raises a lot of points throughout the video and has also written a book (which was a Pulitzer finalist). He talks about the classic separated identical twins cases, neuroscience, genealogy and many other things that prove there is no "blank
slate". (The brain scan stuff is particularly compelling).
I was a foster child and I am someone who has an identical twin. I can tell you first hand that a portion of any person's behaviour comes from their parents. Watch the video when you have time - but check out the book. The video is more of a reaction to the book and doesn't focus solely on evidence.
To me there is no such thing as "good" or "evil".
These are humanly created labels (usually religious/cultural in nature) that designate certain concepts,actions, things, people, objects, and places as being inherently dark,light, dangerous,benevolent,corrupting,inspiring; as powerful as they are opposing forces.
So in this logic I will assert that there are no good people or evil people. There are only people.
I could write a 2,000 page book about this topic, but I will add that our natural insticts, society, function/dysfunction, culture, genetics, and social development all play a role in how people behave or live their lives (making us all determined to a large extent with very little freedom for self determination).
A person who has committing unforgivable, cold blooded and frankly inhuman actions such as the serial killer Ted Bundy will be designated a pure evil (he killed dozens of women on very brutal and sadistic fashion and no one knows how many victims he truly murdered to this day); while a hurricane that destroys an entire city and kills over 2,000 people is never called "evil"?
A bit strange, but this is why psychology plays a big role in determining such things and has little to do any real existence of moral/spiritual dichotomies
These are humanly created labels (usually religious/cultural in nature) that designate certain concepts,actions, things, people, objects, and places as being inherently dark,light, dangerous,benevolent,corrupting,inspiring; as powerful as they are opposing forces.
So in this logic I will assert that there are no good people or evil people. There are only people.
I could write a 2,000 page book about this topic, but I will add that our natural insticts, society, function/dysfunction, culture, genetics, and social development all play a role in how people behave or live their lives (making us all determined to a large extent with very little freedom for self determination).
A person who has committing unforgivable, cold blooded and frankly inhuman actions such as the serial killer Ted Bundy will be designated a pure evil (he killed dozens of women on very brutal and sadistic fashion and no one knows how many victims he truly murdered to this day); while a hurricane that destroys an entire city and kills over 2,000 people is never called "evil"?
A bit strange, but this is why psychology plays a big role in determining such things and has little to do any real existence of moral/spiritual dichotomies
I see what you're saying now. Not 100% blank slate, but I still belive they're still "blank" enough to not be born either good or evil form the start. With no real morals or anyway to show their persnolity traits. The only person I can think of that was born evil was Damian...Kortney said:
Oh, and i'll check out that book. I'm sorry for my scientific ignorance.
Good and evil don't exist. Good and evil change between person to person and culture to culture. So therefore babies cannot be born good or evil because it's their society that will determine whether they are or not. However, a baby can be born with strong tendencies to act reactionary towards violence or aggression and combined with a lackluster upbringing they may turn out to be what some may call "evil".Mcupobob said:
Babies show their personality traits pretty early on.Mcupobob said:
Oh, don't be silly. I'm sorry for making it seem like I thought you were ignorant. For the record, I don't.Mcupobob said:
This.Deshin said:
Good and evil are made-up constructs to make life a little more orderly. Hence, when you get down to it, humans are just born as humans and nothing else. We add "good" or "evil" ourselves.
That said, from a less arrogant position; I swear, there's no age group as violent, vile, hateful and yet so free and happy as toddlers.
Wrong,your status in society (how much stuff you own or how much wealth you accumulate) is also determined partly by your genetics, by your culture,pure statical chance and so on.Dana22 said:
Abstractly, the popular idealized designation changes and varies from culture to culture(era to era) and cannot be compared to a westernized metaphysical concept of univeral, absolute (these forces have and always will mean the same thing) opposing forces that "shape" the individual pulling them to varying degrees one way or the other based from their original status as a "clean slate"
I assume you think all humans are born clean slates?
Well, Science is starting to prove otherwise.
But its still a label describing something relative to something else.Johanthemonster666 said:
I own a car, you not. Im rich, you are poor.
I dont know answer for that question, you do. Im stupid, you are smart.
I haven't murdered anyone, you did. Im good, you are evil.
All in certain situational or philosophical context of course.
We're born neither good nor evil. But, then as we grow older, the way our parents raise us, our environment, many factors determine which side of the fence we're on.
Have you ever worked with kids? Like little children, one year old. They are not blank or neutral. Character on some way is predetermined, I've seen this, and talked with employees in kinder gardens. Some are naturally sentimental, others are not and that is not gained, it's an inside process. And it stays that way until it learns how to suppress things, cause a youngster doesn't learn suppression until forced by parents to learn it when they welcome it in the world where every act has consequence. Then it modifies, hence all the psychological repercussions.