I believe people are pure evil. It is attached to our nature like instinct. For instance, nobody teaches a child to steal or to make fun of his peers, they just innately know. It's like geese flying south for the winter, they don't go to bird school and learn, they just know. As well, according to Aristotle's law of non-contradiction something cannot both be and not be. Therefore, our essence must be one or the other, evil or good, it cannot be both. However, then what about our capacity for good, as surely as we have. I believe the only good inside us is learned from practicing the exact opposite of our nature. This is how we invent laws. So we are basically in rebellion against ourselves, which is why people don't respect laws, but they fear them. We fear ourselves.
This question is essentially the old nature vs. nurture debate and I am leaning towards nurture on this one. I do not think one is born evil or good this depends solely on the environment one is raised in, for instance if a boy is raised in a spousal abusive home he is more likely to be abusive to his future spouse not because he was born that way but because of what he observed at a young age. Aren't most serial killers raised in a less then comfortable home? This is however no excuse for what they choose to do and who they chose to hurt it just shows that it’s all about how you raise someone and that no one is simply born evil with no way to change this.
You make a very good point Ryan, but I don't think that you can say ALL people are pure evil. It is just like you said people learn to be good or behave the way they should is because their taught to do so. The same goes for evil, you are taught to behave this way. It is very common for a child to see one kid push a kid on the playground and then do the same because they saw someone else do it. It is your choice to wheather or not you want to be good or evil. Your experiences will determine which one.
I agree with you Omar, I do not believe that you are born one or the other. And you make an excellent point it does go back to the Nature VS Nurture debate. In this case, it Nurture wins. I believe that it all has to do with decisions, and the choices we make. Your example was perfect, while a person who is exposed to domestic violence as a child may turn out to be abusive in the future because they experienced as a child they could also turn out to be the exact opposite of abusive. It would be their choice to give in and be the person their parent once was or the opposite. Good and evil all comes down to the decisions an individual chooses to make.
For one to be innately good or evil, one would have to recognize the meanings of both.
As a child is unaware of either or when they are born, logical reasoning would teach that children learn as they grow. In order for one to distinguish between the two traits and, for argument’s sake, assimilate to one more than other, they must comprehend their meanings prior to.
As a child develops understanding of basic concepts and ideas while young, their environment and the living conditions of that environment have an impact on them. Regardless of if a person has been raised around morally ethical individuals, if they were not taught the benefits of positive and negative actions, they would remain ignorant of their importance. For one to attain understanding of these behaviours, they would have to educate themselves through personal experience, lessons from others, readings and so forth, thus developing awareness and consequently moral traits as they mature.
I agree with Abbas on his take that the environment and living conditions impact children immensely. Without the proper caring and loving environment that your mother and father provide a child easily gets influenced by what he sees. Not having consequences for negative actions and positive reinforcements for positive actions makes children not understand the difference between right and wrong. Right and wrong is in the context of what is morally right and morally wrong which can progress to evil and good if the person is not given guidance. As they mature whatever happened in childhood is instilled in them and is part of their memories. If the foundation has been built upon wrong actions evil would prevail. Other than the environment, the children's birth explains a lot of the person's development as they are genetically inclined to possesses certain traits. These genetically given traits however are sculpted around the parents and environments influence.
I think people are born good and develop these traits as they go on because our surroundings and environment helps pave our path in life and if you are born around evil you will think it’s right in your eyes, therefore you will become evil. It also depends on your family too, since they raise you to become who you are today. And for developing it, anyone can easily influence you whether you know yourself or not.
I think we are born neither good or bad. We are born with survival traits that are innate to us, good and evil are human made traits. So once a child first enters into this world he cannot judge good from bad. His upbringing teaches the child some lessons, which he carries out through life. Experience is what makes us all unique, if we had none we would all be approximately the same.
I think we're born with good and evil. These character traits makes us whom we are and as human beings. Everyone is born with good and evil, however it just depends on which one would be used more often in an individual's life. More over the environment that an individual has grown up to, highly affects them for whom they are as a whole.
Coming from a religious point of view, I believe every individual born of our time are naturally born with good and bad traits. The bad traits don't have to necessarily be physical or even visible. They can even be within the mind of a person. Humans have always had the choice of choosing which traits to follow, and they still do.
I believe the law of yin and yang is an absolute through out the universe. I also believe that the potential for good and evil lives in us all. It all comes down to free will and your perception of the world around you. Choice dictates whether a person does good or evil.
Well I believe that people are born neutral, the way that people become classified as good or evil is from their upbringing. If a person was brought up in a good home and such they should be good, and if a person was brought up in a bad home with drugs and violence then they will become an evil person. But I also think that a good person can become evil and vice versa, I think all this is really determined by a persons surrounding and the event and experiences that happen during their lives that really shapes them into being either a good person or an evil one.
All humans are born pure, in my opinion. It's the experiences they go through in life that make them choose good over evil or vice versa.
Let me use an analogy. When a tree is a sapling, it needs support to grow to be tall and straight and magnificent. However, without that support, it will grow to be crooked and mangled. Infants are the same. Without the proper support as they grow and experience the world around them, they will grow to be crooked.
I think we are born with both traits within us,. But depending how we are raised within the home and the environment we live in (the nurture aspect) really shapes which trait prevails, and how we become as people.
This is a good question, because it has always been a question that scientist and philosophers are sent out to discover. Every individual is born different from another, some may inherit more genes from there mother and some may inherit stronger genes coming form there father. No matter what the case may be i can not agree to the fact that humans are born evil. Just because people are on able to tell whether a baby is evil or not when they are young due to the fact that they have yet to gain logical knowledge to understand the concept of good, bad, evil, and good. People do how ever get influenced by bad people evil people that teach them how to do some wrong things. But this doesn't mean they are born evil it only means they've been influenced to do evil
I agree with Melissa, except for the fact of being born with both traits. I believe that you are born blank not good or bad but pure with no knowledge, but depending on your home and surroundings is what helps shape the person you are.
I believe that people are born like a portrait. You can either ruin it by Drawing stick figures. Although I believe that. The possibility that we are still born either good or evil still stands. Perhaps some of us are born good or evil. In addition you can't even say that we become good or evil because of experiences. This is because as we grow we hear our parents say, " oh he was a trouble maker from the start" or " She was always the sweet quiet type" . But depending on how we are brought up ( raised ) determines whether or not we end up being fully evil. For example, going back to Taoism's symbol of ying and yang, it represents balance, but one side can have more ying in it than yang , that doesn't mean you can't have both. So, if we are raised in a negative way with bad surroundings will be more prone to evil.
The argument of Nature vs Nurture has gone on for decades, but we have been unable to resolve it because of how little we actually about the brain, and how difficult it is to communicate with babies. I believe that the situation is more complicated than just "good" and "evil" though. We are all born with empathy, and with selfishness, the roots of both good and evil. More than anything else, it is our upbringing that determines which of these characteristics takes hold, making us neither innately good or evil.
I believe you are born with a trait of good and evil. But then again it can depend on what you have gone through. For example if you were in a family where the father was a drunk and hit and yelled at you in a young age, that may change how you turn out. you may become a guy who doesnt want any of that and just wants to be peaceful.
I believe people are pure evil. It is attached to our nature like instinct. For instance, nobody teaches a child to steal or to make fun of his peers, they just innately know. It's like geese flying south for the winter, they don't go to bird school and learn, they just know. As well, according to Aristotle's law of non-contradiction something cannot both be and not be. Therefore, our essence must be one or the other, evil or good, it cannot be both. However, then what about our capacity for good, as surely as we have. I believe the only good inside us is learned from practicing the exact opposite of our nature. This is how we invent laws. So we are basically in rebellion against ourselves, which is why people don't respect laws, but they fear them. We fear ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThis question is essentially the old nature vs. nurture debate and I am leaning towards nurture on this one. I do not think one is born evil or good this depends solely on the environment one is raised in, for instance if a boy is raised in a spousal abusive home he is more likely to be abusive to his future spouse not because he was born that way but because of what he observed at a young age. Aren't most serial killers raised in a less then comfortable home? This is however no excuse for what they choose to do and who they chose to hurt it just shows that it’s all about how you raise someone and that no one is simply born evil with no way to change this.
ReplyDeleteYou make a very good point Ryan, but I don't think that you can say ALL people are pure evil. It is just like you said people learn to be good or behave the way they should is because their taught to do so. The same goes for evil, you are taught to behave this way. It is very common for a child to see one kid push a kid on the playground and then do the same because they saw someone else do it. It is your choice to wheather or not you want to be good or evil. Your experiences will determine which one.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Omar, I do not believe that you are born one or the other. And you make an excellent point it does go back to the Nature VS Nurture debate. In this case, it Nurture wins. I believe that it all has to do with decisions, and the choices we make. Your example was perfect, while a person who is exposed to domestic violence as a child may turn out to be abusive in the future because they experienced as a child they could also turn out to be the exact opposite of abusive. It would be their choice to give in and be the person their parent once was or the opposite. Good and evil all comes down to the decisions an individual chooses to make.
ReplyDeleteFor one to be innately good or evil, one would have to recognize the meanings of both.
ReplyDeleteAs a child is unaware of either or when they are born, logical reasoning would teach that children learn as they grow. In order for one to distinguish between the two traits and, for argument’s sake, assimilate to one more than other, they must comprehend their meanings prior to.
As a child develops understanding of basic concepts and ideas while young, their environment and the living conditions of that environment have an impact on them.
Regardless of if a person has been raised around morally ethical individuals, if they were not taught the benefits of positive and negative actions, they would remain ignorant of their importance. For one to attain understanding of these behaviours, they would have to educate themselves through personal experience, lessons from others, readings and so forth, thus developing awareness and consequently moral traits as they mature.
I agree with Abbas on his take that the environment and living conditions impact children immensely. Without the proper caring and loving environment that your mother and father provide a child easily gets influenced by what he sees. Not having consequences for negative actions and positive reinforcements for positive actions makes children not understand the difference between right and wrong. Right and wrong is in the context of what is morally right and morally wrong which can progress to evil and good if the person is not given guidance. As they mature whatever happened in childhood is instilled in them and is part of their memories. If the foundation has been built upon wrong actions evil would prevail. Other than the environment, the children's birth explains a lot of the person's development as they are genetically inclined to possesses certain traits. These genetically given traits however are sculpted around the parents and environments influence.
ReplyDeleteI think people are born good and develop these traits as they go on because our surroundings and environment helps pave our path in life and if you are born around evil you will think it’s right in your eyes, therefore you will become evil. It also depends on your family too, since they raise you to become who you are today. And for developing it, anyone can easily influence you whether you know yourself or not.
ReplyDeleteI think we are born neither good or bad. We are born with survival traits that are innate to us, good and evil are human made traits. So once a child first enters into this world he cannot judge good from bad. His upbringing teaches the child some lessons, which he carries out through life. Experience is what makes us all unique, if we had none we would all be approximately the same.
ReplyDeleteI think we're born with good and evil. These character traits makes us whom we are and as human beings. Everyone is born with good and evil, however it just depends on which one would be used more often in an individual's life. More over the environment that an individual has grown up to, highly affects them for whom they are as a whole.
ReplyDeleteComing from a religious point of view, I believe every individual born of our time are naturally born with good and bad traits. The bad traits don't have to necessarily be physical or even visible. They can even be within the mind of a person. Humans have always had the choice of choosing which traits to follow, and they still do.
ReplyDeleteI believe the law of yin and yang is an absolute through out the universe. I also believe that the potential for good and evil lives in us all. It all comes down to free will and your perception of the world around you. Choice dictates whether a person does good or evil.
ReplyDeleteWell I believe that people are born neutral, the way that people become classified as good or evil is from their upbringing. If a person was brought up in a good home and such they should be good, and if a person was brought up in a bad home with drugs and violence then they will become an evil person. But I also think that a good person can become evil and vice versa, I think all this is really determined by a persons surrounding and the event and experiences that happen during their lives that really shapes them into being either a good person or an evil one.
ReplyDeleteAll humans are born pure, in my opinion. It's the experiences they go through in life that make them choose good over evil or vice versa.
ReplyDeleteLet me use an analogy. When a tree is a sapling, it needs support to grow to be tall and straight and magnificent. However, without that support, it will grow to be crooked and mangled. Infants are the same. Without the proper support as they grow and experience the world around them, they will grow to be crooked.
I think we are born with both traits within us,. But depending how we are raised within the home and the environment we live in (the nurture aspect) really shapes which trait prevails, and how we become as people.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good question, because it has always been a question that scientist and philosophers are sent out to discover. Every individual is born different from another, some may inherit more genes from there mother and some may inherit stronger genes coming form there father. No matter what the case may be i can not agree to the fact that humans are born evil. Just because people are on able to tell whether a baby is evil or not when they are young due to the fact that they have yet to gain logical knowledge to understand the concept of good, bad, evil, and good. People do how ever get influenced by bad people evil people that teach them how to do some wrong things. But this doesn't mean they are born evil it only means they've been influenced to do evil
ReplyDeleteI agree with Melissa, except for the fact of being born with both traits. I believe that you are born blank not good or bad but pure with no knowledge, but depending on your home and surroundings is what helps shape the person you are.
ReplyDeleteI believe that people are born like a portrait. You can either ruin it by Drawing stick figures. Although I believe that. The possibility that we are still born either good or evil still stands. Perhaps some of us are born good or evil. In addition you can't even say that we become good or evil because of experiences. This is because as we grow we hear our parents say, " oh he was a trouble maker from the start" or " She was always the sweet quiet type" . But depending on how we are brought up ( raised ) determines whether or not we end up being fully evil. For example, going back to Taoism's symbol of ying and yang, it represents balance, but one side can have more ying in it than yang , that doesn't mean you can't have both. So, if we are raised in a negative way with bad surroundings will be more prone to evil.
ReplyDeleteThe argument of Nature vs Nurture has gone on for decades, but we have been unable to resolve it because of how little we actually about the brain, and how difficult it is to communicate with babies. I believe that the situation is more complicated than just "good" and "evil" though. We are all born with empathy, and with selfishness, the roots of both good and evil. More than anything else, it is our upbringing that determines which of these characteristics takes hold, making us neither innately good or evil.
ReplyDeleteI believe you are born with a trait of good and evil. But then again it can depend on what you have gone through. For example if you were in a family where the father was a drunk and hit and yelled at you in a young age, that may change how you turn out. you may become a guy who doesnt want any of that and just wants to be peaceful.
ReplyDelete