Are Humans Stupid or Evil?

[Sneaky-Pie]

There's a reason that the term "human nature" is viewed as a negative term.

 

[mdk31]

Humans are rarely truly evil. Everything almost every person does, they believe they are doing what is right. Even Hitler probably thought what he was doing was right; he wasn't doing what he did for the sake of being evil, even though any rationally thinking person would clearly see the evil in his actions.

As for stupidity, not sure of that either. People make stupid choices often, sure, but it's often simply due to a lack of information, or an emotional conflict.

 

[darkless]

Both, but I think humans are more ignorant than stupid.

Hmm, maybe we are. But what ignorance are we guilty of? Are we denying something or is there something we do not know or understand?

There is a lot we dont know or understand and a lot which we actively avoid knowing or understanding. We spend millions launching things into space but when was the last time any significant effort was put into getting to the deepest parts of the ocean or exploring and understanding it's ecosystem of the amazon? ever see "medicine man" who knows that movie could be dead on and the cure for cancer is out in the amazon being eaten by ants.

 

[TheCameraman]

Call it selfish, and show me an animal that isn't.

 

[GamerPhate]

Stupid vs Evil

Well, stupid at least since all humans are ignorant of EVERYTHING there is to know in the world. They can try to understand some things, but there is no way to grasp everything. So we are all ignorant and stupid about something or another.

Now Evil is just a refrence point. One man's hot is another man's cold, so there is no way to know if the stupidity leading to evil is intentional, apathetic, or lythargic. The world may never know

 

[bodyklok]

I've never met all the people alive so I really couldn't say. If you pressed me though I'd say we are often misguided or mistaken. Not stupid or evil.

Yes.

Question: Are humans stupid or evil?

Answer: Yes.

Could you rephrase that so it made sense?

 

[Kellerb]

its a bit of both really.

 

[Slick Samurai]

Both, but I think humans are more ignorant than stupid.

Hmm, maybe we are. But what ignorance are we guilty of? Are we denying something or is there something we do not know or understand?

There is a lot we dont know or understand and a lot which we actively avoid knowing or understanding. We spend millions launching things into space but when was the last time any significant effort was put into getting to the deepest parts of the ocean or exploring the amazon?

But why is exploring the ocean or the Amazon more important that knowing what may or may not be outside of our home, and how does it make us ignorant? Perhaps knowing more about the forest around the cave that the cave itself can be considered stupid. But what may lay outside the cave? Maybe a cozy cabin, maybe nothing but the stillness of the woods, if you pardon my metaphor.

 

[Sonicron]

I'd like to quote from 'House, M.D.' on that topic:
"We are selfish, base animals crawling across the earth. And because we've got brains and if we try real hard we can sometimes aspire to something slightly better than total evil."

 

[FalloutJack]

Less stupid, more ignorant. And less evil, more selfish. That's how I see it, anyways.

This is a clever distinction, but I'm going to have to say that it's all semantics. Ignorance is a form of stupidity and selfishness can be seen as a form of evil or one of its near cousins when it's out of control.

The trouble is that, more than just being both stupid and evil, people can be several forms of these things because they're motivated by instincts that are against civilized behavior (like being a predator amongst prey where there is no real hunt in society) and prone to really bad decisions because of mixed messages in the brain insofar as instinct versus intelligence goes.

And while you're all staring at that run-on sentence, I'll just hang back and watch the world destroy itself.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I've never met all the people alive so I really couldn't say. If you pressed me though I'd say we are often misguided or mistaken. Not stupid or evil.

Yes.

Question: Are humans stupid or evil?

Answer: Yes.

Could you rephrase that so it made sense?

Yes, humans are stupid or evil.

 

[Egillswordguy]

I have a theory, it gose like this:

Every action you do is based on selfisnes. Like typing this, is my act of trying to be smart, that is based on selfisness. You may be trying to save someone from something, why? Ever wonder why we help others. Two basic resons: 1. we feel sorry for them, we help them so we don't feel sorry for them any more. 2. we wana be considered heroes for helping them. And you might be thinking "what if your being forced to do something" well your doing that act to not suffer what will happnen if you don't.

Plese comment and speak your mind.

 

[Erana]

Seven deadly sins.
They aren't necessarily as evil as people say; lust makes children, eating more than one needs to survive can be good nutrition, some pride is just good self-esteem...
They aren't necessarily sins, really, more of "Seven hazardous overindulgences."
Finding the happy medium is where humans have trouble.

 

[elricik]

A PERSON can be intelligent and reasonable, but people in groups are stupid, easily manipulated and barely above a herd of animals.

just look at those who watch fox news!

Oh snap!
Also Glen Beck.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

People are often stupid there are the rare few who I can honestly say are not. As for evil, well very often yes but if you really want to look at civilization as a whole and examine all life to determine exactly what "evil" is then I would say no humans aren't evil they just take care of themselves before others. It's animal instict to survive no matte what, and humans though they may think otherwise are just intelligent animals.

 

[Snotnarok]

I would say a little bit of both actually, even a nice fellow like myself is greedy as hell when it comes to collecting things.

 

[Daveman]

yes, the most intelligent life form in at the very least our solar system is stupid

and evil is like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder

I don't get why so many people have something against our species, perhaps they're coming to terms with deep self loathing.

or maybe its a narcissistic thing about thinking theyre better than the rest of the world

 

[Beardon65]

More ignorant than either of them

 

[Undeleted]

I have a theory, it gose like this:

Every action you do is based on selfisnes. Like typing this, is my act of trying to be smart, that is based on selfisness. You may be trying to save someone from something, why? Ever wonder why we help others. Two basic resons: 1. we feel sorry for them, we help them so we don't feel sorry for them any more. 2. we wana be considered heroes for helping them. And you might be thinking "what if your being forced to do something" well your doing that act to not suffer what will happnen if you don't.

Plese comment and speak your mind.

Your theory is called egoism and it's about 100 years old.