Are humans inherently evil?

[historybuff]

Evil is a social construction.

Humans are neither inherently good nor inherently evil. Humans are inherently programmed to look out for themselves.

Just like pit bulls are not "mean dogs", with bad training, they can become vicious. A human is the same way. It looks out for itself but it can also shift depending on how it is raised/trained.

 

[DSEZ]

all i have to say is
god created good
mankind created evil (we can all thank cain for that)

 

[traceur_]

No such thing as Evil, now fuck off back to your room and start self-harming you goddam' pessimistic emo!

I like you.

Indeed, stop being so negative, 99% of humans are actually nice people, you know?

 

[number4096]

A 99% i(And most of you all.)have yet to meet.

People who go on the internet and refuse to go outside do so for a reason.

This is called The Escapist.Hint.

 

[number4096]

From what i can gather from many threads on The Escapist,and the sheer over-the-top cruelty and barbarism of human history(Up to making cannibalism commonplace in too many places and eras to count.),i can conclude that everyone agrees that humans are evil unless it is said bluntly as such(Correct if wrong,but the clues about human evil are all over the place.).

Now if instead of basing this question on you,you based on your experiences at school,What would you say?

 

[Ataxia]

We'd do exactly nothing because as you said we have no survival instincts. Meaning we won't want to eat sleep or do anything.

Now assumsing you ment we have no morals ethics or fear of retribution then your saying there's no consequences. Most people would do evil things I believe yes. People aren't born evil, it's just that you have it put into your head and people have different opinions on the matter aswell. Everybody has already stated this so why reiterate it. Whoever said games are escapism to a consequence free world has a point and that once we are in a consequence free enviroment then it ruins the point of playing a game but...Yahtzee is probably right if someone is put into the position of a god or God then the last thing they're going to do is be nice to their creations.

Reduced to survival instincts then morals or sentience doesn't exactly matter now does it? We'd just do things to survive without a second thought.

 

[Ataxia]

No, I don't think humans are inherently evil or inherently good. The fact that the OP went for the evil when, just as often, people do good things is unusual. They just happen on a much smaller scale. It's the little things that keep me from losing faith in humanity completely.
To be honest, I blame this sort of world view on the media. They foreground all the bad stuff, so it can seem like the whole world is full of dicks. Ever noticed how good things never make the news, but the terrible things do?
I don't believe the is full of dicks. I think they're more vocal and easier to spot.
With the exception of a small few, most people I have met have at least one saving quality.
[sub][/rant][/sub]

Makes sense if you think about it this way if someone sees someone being a douche and getting on the front page of the paper in huge headlines but they see someone being a saint and they get a little spot on the paper that you need a microscope just to read the damn title then more people would want to act like douches for the attention. If all you hear is about evil people then you might think its accepted that more people are evil and so you can be like them without fear of being attacked. And if no one ever hears about the good things you do whats the point? (selfishness ftw)

If people behaved out of selfishness,they would never bully,seek power,had arenas with lions and an audience were a knife in the back would have been sufficient,they would never abuse their authority on you unless it would be materially beneficient to them,sadomasochism would be inexistant and the bullies would never get popular by bullying you and would pass off as repugnant instead.

Amongst many other things.

Also,violent video games would have never existed because people would never buy them.

Another good point, out of complete selfishness then they would be exactly like hermit, smiley face and an A+ for the both of you

If people were merely selfish they would merely assure their survival and live like hermits and they would abuse authority,bully you or make fun of you only if they had something material to obtain out of it that would be necessary for their survival at the moment.

 

[Spiner909]

I once heard that being selfish is the most basic of human qualities. Is that really evil? I doubt it.

 

[Jark212]

Negative, we are born neutral, but are sometimes more inclined (due to upbringing and mental disorders) to be more one over the other...

 

[Ataxia]

I read an article in BBC Focus recently about how it is in our nature to commit the seven sins, I can't remember the specifics but it seemed to make sense.

Well forbidden fruit tastes all the better right? So if we condoned evil and restrained good then people would...

Humans are inherently NOT pure

We do both good and evil when not restrained, but since the norm is to restrain evil and let good roam free, so people notice a greater change in evil when anarchy exists

Do this. If it were reversed I mean.

 

[Mr.Lucifer]

IF you actually believe this, you are a fucking idiot. Humans are born not knowing of good and evil. We're too complex to be considered a black and white race. Mostly humans are ok guys with the occasinal dick. We're a flawed species that leanrs from its mistakes slowly.

 

[Ataxia]

See the problem is that regardless of whether humans are inherently good or evil, what I know they are is naturally selfish. So is there was no sense of morality and no consequence for evil actions, we probably would all act evil. This is because, at that point, the only thing we would know is that we need this, we want that. With no reason to restrain ourselves, if someone has something we want, we could take it.

It is, essentially, a society governed solely by logic, with no emotion or morality involved. And, in this case, the only logic is personal survival.

It would be chaos.

The reason we'd do evil things when released is because we're so restrained to it, if good people roam free in soceity and evil is restrained as someone I've already quoted here as said then if we were let free people would do evil. Kinda the whole forbidden fruit tastes better.

 

[dagens24]

If you don't rape people because you fear retribution then you should probably seek help; that is not the way a normal human brain works.

 

[Ataxia]

So humans are not evil,just animals?

http://www.cracked.com/article_16762_6-biggest-assholes-in-animal-kingdom.html

Animals are also evil,just like humans.

Evil is a perspective but when you get to killing for fun it can be called evil to a degree. Now there's something against the whole hippie argument that some animals are the race of messiahs. Though I'm getting tired of this whole 'Monkeys share 90-95% of our DNA' yea and so do ants, the genetic code is extreamely similar with almost every animal which I find interesting so we share about the same amount of DNA with monkeys and ants. So please for the love of god stop using monkeys as a we're exactly 100% like them.

 

[Ataxia]

all i have to say is
god created good
mankind created evil (we can all thank cain for that)

I disagree I think I'll agree with everyone who says Good and Evil are just words we made both they are prospective and depends on your point of view. No one is born good or born evil, you are born on the other hand with survival instincts to look out for yourself.
Hitler example has been overused but it works the whole world saw the Nazis as the evilest fuckers in the world but in Germany Hitler was their hero. Ties into the Milgrim experiment too that people will follow orders.

 

[Ataxia]

From what i can gather from many threads on The Escapist,and the sheer over-the-top cruelty and barbarism of human history(Up to making cannibalism commonplace in too many places and eras to count.),i can conclude that everyone agrees that humans are evil unless it is said bluntly as such(Correct if wrong,but the clues about human evil are all over the place.).

Now if instead of basing this question on you,you based on your experiences at school,What would you say?

There are also clues to show that human good is all over the place. I think the argument we're in a gray area and restricting evil and letting good roam free results in an explosion of evil when we get to anarchy, but there are different meanings of good and evil from society to society. All decision making comes down to multiple factors like
1. History what happens in the past decides how you make decisions. If you got your memory wiped everyday how would you know how to brush your teeth or what to do it with, how would you remember your mistakes?
2. Self-preservation for example hunting, doing things to protect yourself or maybe helping other people to get some kind of gain for yourself.
3. Emotional state, do I really need to explain this one? Fineeee...If your angry you might make a different decision then if your happy.

 

[Doug]

Inherently evil? No. Inherently good? No. Inherently humans? Yes.

 

[Queen Michael]

In my opinion the answer is yes; we do all that we do because it makes us feel good in some way, and if it's not evil to spend your entire life doing everything for egoistic reasons, what is?