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January 24, 2006 at 6:15 pm #21417TigerbladeParticipant
I had some time to ponder this the other day, after sitting through one of my psychology classes. Are humans basically good, or basically evil? Instead of reposting my entire writeup here, I’ll give you a link to the one I already wrote, if you choose to read it: Good vs Evil?
I thought it was an interesting idea; of course it’s been brought up thousands of times before by thousands of people, but it’s never an old idea. There’s always something to say about it.
What do you think? Is humanity basically good, basically evil, or none of the above? (But, fence sitting is discouraged.)
January 26, 2006 at 4:09 am #137154neo_ny_23MemberTiger if you wanna know a little more about humanity and the fight between good and evil, I would suggest you to read a book titled, “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin, written in around 1920s. The book inspired George Orwell to write “1984”. The book is quite philosophical where you can experience the struggle between “Good” and “Evil”. This book can also be interpreted about Eve’s seductive charm inducing Adam to bite the tempting fruit in the Garden of Eden and get a whole new experience….Meh.. I can’t explain it well.. You gotta read this book to really appreciate it. Its a good book and I think you might find some of the answers to your question there.
January 29, 2006 at 2:44 pm #137153HasanMemberThis raises a point in my mind.
Do humans live more peacefully than any other creature on Earth?January 29, 2006 at 3:12 pm #137151Jeff HesterKeymasterHumanity seems good basically when they don’t have a understanding of the world…by which I mean, when you’re just a baby without a worry, once you become aware of what the world is, influences from those arround you, television, and other things begin to corrupt the mind. Many might argue about the television part, but it seems with every passing years we become numb to what many, say…in 1960’s would have considered atrocious. We are gradually becoming a desensitized people. With this in mind, I believe we become more evil, of course there remain the few good, but evil is taking over in my opinion.
Perhaps this isn’t the most well thought out argument or thought out there, but it is the way I see things. *shrugs*
January 31, 2006 at 12:02 pm #137152QwertyMemberI tend to feel it’s not really in terms of ‘good’ or ‘evil’. Just the fact that humans will always set out to achieve, generally, their own goals so as to please themselves as much as possible over others around them. Whilst it’s not quite good or evil, I guess in the long run it is always going to tend to be more ‘evil’ than good.
As well as this, humans will always be more accepting of their own kind. Those who are different will be, generally, frowned upon. Once again, whilst not technicaly ‘evil’ I guess it is leaning more away from the teachings of young Jesus and so could be deemed more evil than good.
February 25, 2006 at 10:41 pm #137155imported_TakODaMemberI think in forming an opinion one way or the other concerning the basic nature of man, one would have to specifically define the terms “good” and “evil” and also determine if they believe in moral absolutes, and then decide whether you believe moral absolutes change with the times or not.
Merriam-Webster defines good as something conforming to the moral order of the universe and evil as something that is morally reprehensible, sinful or wicked, morally very bad, and/or marked by mischief.
Some Calvinists believe that man is totally depraved and completely incapable of doing good except by the help of God. Some go as far as to say that there is no such thing as free will and that man has not the power or capacity to choose to do good or to act independently of divine restraints.
If this were completely true, then we could not hold anyone accountable for their actions because if it was already predetermined that they had no choice but to do wrong, then it would be unjust to blame them for something they had no choice but to do.
I believe we have certainly declined as a society morally speaking in the past century, but I also think that we are not beyond hope. We have the free will and the ability to turn things around for the better if we so choose.
But I have to ask the question: If there are no moral absolutes, or if moral absolutes change with the times, how can we say that things like rape an murder are always wrong?
Hasan wrote:This raises a point in my mind.
Do humans live more peacefully than any other creature on Earth?I think if you observe the animal kingdom, you don’t normally see animals killing each other except for food or defense of territory. Some people kill other people just for fun.
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