*Please Note*
As of July 2015 many photos have been intentionally removed.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Question

In your opinion, are people inherently good or evil?
Is it more natural for people to do what is right, or what is wrong?

Please leave your responses and/or thoughts via a comment.

13 comments:

Ryan K said...

My first thoughts are 'good' and 'wrong'. I'm going to have to do a bit more thinking to figure out why. Excellent questions to consider though.

Shamus said...

As we know, tests show Ryan is usually right.
Don't you think that those choices contradict each other?

In My Head said...

All people are born pure & good. it depends on how they were raised to see how they turn out in the future. As they grow up and have to become more responsible things can get harder and their lil horns can appear. People in general are good, but its so easy to be bad.

Jack said...

I don't like words like good and evil, because they carry to much freight--religious freight--I prefer terms like selfish and selfless. You merely have to suffer through a young infant screaming its head off, all night, every night, for months, and you quickly realize we are all very selfish at the the start.

So in answer to your question, it's more natural for people to do what is best for themselves. Whether this is "right or wrong" I can't really say.

Shamus said...

Hey Jack,
Your point about religious freight is well taken. I, myself, despise the word religion.
I wonder if you feel that even separate of religion,(yuck) faith, karma, whatever you want to call it, that right and wrong do exist?
Thanks for offering your opinion.
It is much appreciated.

Fatuous Anility said...

Let me premise my comment by saying I didn't always feel this way BUT I do believe there are more inherently evil people than there are good. I believe this 100%...

Shamus said...

Hey there F.A.
Thanks for your thoughts.

said...

it's not what's natural about choosing good and evil, it's about what's natural about perceiving something that doesn't exist: good and evil.
I don't think that we can do what's natural about choice of an action.

Shamus said...

Hey Von,
I want to be sure I understand your point of view,
Are you of the opinion that neither good or evil exists?
Thanks

Jack said...

Ok, you kind of trapped me there. Yes, I believe in right and wrong. I don't believe what children do is wrong, until they understand it's wrong, so your question "do people naturally do what is right or wrong," only applies once they reach a certain level of maturity.

I am very much a cynic, so my gut feeling is, that once we know better, we go ahead and do mean things, say hateful words, just because it's fun or because we're angry. This is something we all should fight against, but there it is.

J9 said...

I'd have to go with evil and wrong. Granted, I am a natural pessimist, but having kids pretty much confirmed my inital thoughts on the matter :-) It seems that doing the 'wrong' thing comes naturally, where as doing whats right needs to be taught and reinforced time and time again.

Shamus said...

Hello J9,
Thank you so much for weighing in on this.

Kris said...

Though I gave you my answer verbally when I first read your post, I felt the need to publicly state that I have changed my mind.
My initial (and immediate)answer was that people are inherently good. I read your post today, "_____ (This is me being Speechless", and now realize that people are actually inherently evil. If someone performs a good deed (as the homeless man in your story did), it is certainly more of an unnatural and rare occurrence. I am only comforted by the hope that this young, homeless man may now be in the presence of God- not because of his good deed but because only someone who knows God could apparently act so selflessly. "Greater love hath no man than one who lay down his life for a friend", except perhaps one who lays down his life for a stranger.