Poll: Is man inherently good, or Evil?
- Thread starter Wackymon
- Start date
Not really in the mood for a long post, so I will just go with this. A baby takes years to survive on its own and is a complete drain on resources, and often maddeningly annoying for a great deal of time before you can expect any kind of return on investment. Yet the population keeps growing, and I don?t think that many people are that kind of long term investors.
I think people are inherently good. I think this world is, on the whole, filled with people trying to do the right thing, with varying degrees of success. Most evil people in the world are just misguided, and often trying to do good. Very few people are knowingly evil. Those are my thoughts, anyway, but I'm quite an optimist 
I don't even think this question makes much sense. Good and Evil: these are relative terms humans themselves have made. Without people (or rather just intelligent life) there would be no notion of morality to begin with. Non-intelligent life and inanimate objects have no defined "good" or "evil" and itself only their interactions with people that we have any notion of morality (ex: a rock falling and breaking another rock isn't "bad" but if that rock were to fall and "break" a human that would be "bad").
But if the question is do I trust people, then for the most part yes. I generally believe people's motives while often selfish are not necessarily malicious. Harm done to me by someone else I normally brush off as stupidity rather than deliberate.
But if the question is do I trust people, then for the most part yes. I generally believe people's motives while often selfish are not necessarily malicious. Harm done to me by someone else I normally brush off as stupidity rather than deliberate.
While I agree with the image, posting just a picture is counted as low content posts.
You should probably add something along the lines of "Anyone who enjoys good television will understand my answer.
I'm pretty sure everyone does things they think are right, but some people don't realize they are harming others, or think that their actions do enough good that it doesn't matter if people are stepped on.
You should probably add something along the lines of "Anyone who enjoys good television will understand my answer.
I'm pretty sure everyone does things they think are right, but some people don't realize they are harming others, or think that their actions do enough good that it doesn't matter if people are stepped on.
I like to think it's not that simple, that humans can't simply be labeled as "good" or "evil" as soon as they are born, it depends on their circumstances.
At least, that thought helps keep me sane...
At least, that thought helps keep me sane...
we are both we are yin and yang we are dark and we are light we are summer and we are winter we are capable of both given the right motivators people can do anything
I don't believe there's a hard and fast rule. Some people are good. So people are bad. Some can be both, some can be neither. If you want to get into specifics of how to define good or evil, then you can go there, but again, it works any which way. Generally speaking, I do lean towards good however - not necessarily a stereotypical definition of good, but if I had to identify a dominant trend, it'd be along those lines.
Good and evil are concepts we've come up with. To say humanity is inherently one or the other is, well, wrong.
"Evil" is an outdated concept from a much simpler age, when society had zero capacity for moral ambiguity, when people wholeheartedly believed Satan was behind certain actions and events, and when people could be tried for witchcraft.
Anyone who uses the label "evil" today in a serious tone is most likely a radical extremist of some sort themselves. Nobody is ever just evil, some people suffer from mental illness, some people are selfish, even the Nazi's were fighting for a cause that they somehow believed was right.
Anyone who uses the label "evil" today in a serious tone is most likely a radical extremist of some sort themselves. Nobody is ever just evil, some people suffer from mental illness, some people are selfish, even the Nazi's were fighting for a cause that they somehow believed was right.
Evil. We are all born with the capacity to hurt, to be spiteful and cause suffering towards others, but not all of us are born with the capacity to be forgiving, kind and selfless. We have all gone mad with power before at some point in our lives, even in ludicrously little and meaningless ways, and that feeling is likely to have been the catalyst to every truly monstrous person in history. If given the chance, the majority of people would gladly step over theirs neighbors in an attempt to climb higher in this short fleeting existence of ours. But at the same time I am not a stone-cold Nihilist that believes that every endeavor in life is pointless. I do concede that there are people out there genuinely trying to make a difference and that some people, regardless of upbringing and circumstance can rise above what is expected of them and become a success. But then I look at the news and see the way the world is and can't help but sigh. We've all had the "I don't want to live on this planet" thought before, and if you look at every major problem the world has, I can assure you it will be man made.
Also, I have never been one to believe that the world is morally ambiguous or "Grey." I find that most simply do not want to make the distinction between what is good and what is not when put on the spot. We should all have a moral compass to live by, even if it is a self constructed one. It gives us a way to look at the world that imbues a sense of purpose and worth that prevents us from giving in to our primal urges to hurt and destroy. Our morality is what separates us from the apes, and without it, we are immoral animals.
Also, I have never been one to believe that the world is morally ambiguous or "Grey." I find that most simply do not want to make the distinction between what is good and what is not when put on the spot. We should all have a moral compass to live by, even if it is a self constructed one. It gives us a way to look at the world that imbues a sense of purpose and worth that prevents us from giving in to our primal urges to hurt and destroy. Our morality is what separates us from the apes, and without it, we are immoral animals.
Like everyone else said: Man is man. You have these claims that humans are born evil and must adopt customs of good and virtue or they just remain evil but, like everyone said, man is neutral and external forces shape each person into being "good" or "evil".
There is no universally defined code of Good or Evil inherent to anything in the universe, and as such it is impossible for anything to be inherently one or the other. Man is neither inherently good, nor inherently evil. Man is man. It is up to an individual to decide whether an action is subjectively good or evil, however inherently nothing is either.
