Humans: Are we evil?

[Marter]

Also, who can't not hug a bunny rabbit when they see one?

The evil people, obviously.

 

[hiks89]

yes we are.

 

[crudus]

Also, who can't not hug a bunny rabbit when they see one?

The evil people, obviously.

And Little Albert I suppose.

yes we are.

Why do you say that?

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Maybe not "evil," but we are all asshats. Some of us have civility to counter it, others do not. I'd say most humans are the type without the civility to counter the assery.

 

[redisforever]

I just finished watching Discovery Channel's How Evil are You, with Eli Roth, and I was wondering, are humans inherently good, or evil?

What do you think?
Personally, I don't have an opinion, yet. We'll see.

Define good and define evil.
As I define them (Which is too complex and I don't feel like going into what verges on a diatribe), yes. Humans are by their own inherent nature partial to sin. Sin is evil. Ergo, humans are inherently evil.

Well, I tend to think humans are more inclined to think about thenselves first, before considering the needs of others, because we subconsciously rank survival over being nice. I would probably say humans are evil, now that I have thought about it, but they also have the ability to be kind. But that's really only because of societal pressure.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

According to Community, we are.

That's why Greendale finally beat City College in the debate tourney.

Here's the real proof that people are evil: That show might get cancelled due to poor ratings and it didn't even get nominated for any Emmys.

 

[Chevy235]

Considering we're not all fucking dead I would say the good to evil ration is decidedly pointed in the good direction.

Give this man a prize, I think he won.

 

[redisforever]

Not at all. People don't just wake up one day and say: "I'm going to be an evil person today!"

People want to be good. The want to do good things. Sometimes while trying to do these good things they become horribly misguided, or insane, and the good thing turns out to be evil.

You may be right. I don't think people are consciously evil, and I assume even Hitler thought he was the good guy in the end. I think society tells us what good and evil are, and it's our jobs to stick to that guideline.

 

[coolkirb]

Great minds have thought about this for years and their is still not an answere that we can agree upon. Your essentially asking how man is in the state of nature and nobody can realy know as we are constantly surrounded by society and the artificial things it imposes on us.

 

[Sandernista]

A person is evil.

People are good.

(There are people who subvert this, but most people when left entirely to their own devices will act in complete self interest.

 

[TheLoneBeet]

We aren't inherently good or evil. We are inherently flawed, but our flaws manifest themselves differently in every being.

This.

In my opinion, whether or not people are good or evil isn't a black'n'white issue. There's a huge grey area with individuals scattered across the spectrum. Some people are inherently more evil than others, I'll admit to that.

 

[Nuke_em_05]

You might want to put parameters on your definitions of "good" and "evil".

I think that we are inherently good. I would say inherently "neutral", but it seems that the majority of folks end up "good". Evil seems to be something that stems only from environment. When we see an "evil" person, we can pinpoint where things went "wrong". Even then, the same environment that produces evil in one person might not produce evil in another.

I know it is all the rage in the media and on the internet to point out how "evil" everyone is. It makes it easier for us to accept our own shortcomings; "see how evil everyone else is? I'm less evil than them, so I'm okay" or "if we are inherently evil, any evil in me isn't my fault". Both of those lines of thinking, however, demonstrate a feeling of guilt (albeit by attempting to shirk it). Guilt I think is something lacking in evil. Evil doesn't care to rationalize its actions, it doesn't have to, it will do as it will do.

Then, maybe some people are truly just born evil. I think that such people are the exception.

 

[Rainforce]

Not evil, just very, very stupid. *facepalm*
you would probably do more good by being evil, or at least you would stop punching yourself in the face and wondering "why does it hurt?". because that's what humanity looks like, in most cases.

 

[wraith428]

Whats good and evil are largely decided by sociatal norms. For example it was perfectly just and reasonable for a woman in ancient Rome to place an unwanted newborn on the trash heaps outside the city for the rats. While it was concidered sick and evil for two women to have sex. Whats "evil" or "good" like everything else is pretty subjective.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

how can anyone think human nature is inherently good after WW2 what with the holocaust and what not?

Wow, there are so many things I could say about this argument, but I'll just simplify it and say that one groups actions at one time don't represent the whole of humanity.

 

[Falcon123]

According to Community, we are.

That's why Greendale finally beat City College in the debate tourney.

This made my day .

OT: I think individuals are inherently good while society is inherently evil, causing an eternal struggle that has lasted throughout the ages. If you think about it, very few people want to be the bad guy; the best bad guys tend to think they are genuinely doing something good. But in society, there's a ton of suffering.

So yeah, we're both. Go figure

 

[peruvianskys]

Let's say you flip a coin and get ten heads in a row. Is the coin objectively more heads than tails? Not at all. One aspect of its essence simply "acted out" more than the others. In the same way, Hitler, the Pope, Jesus, Buddha, Charles Manson, etc. are neither "good" or "bad" in essence but instead simple had one or more negative/positive traits arise due to their circumstances.

Human beings are neither "good" or "evil" at their essence; they're just the sum of all their "good" or "evil" actions. There is no inherent moral essence to individual people. It may be simpler to say that Hitler was evil, but that's not really correct. Hitler's essence or soul whatever you'd call it did not possess an identifiable evil; like the coin, his essence was a neutral agent. It's just that through his choices and his environment, actions arose from that neutral essence that were evil.

So are humans basically good or bad? Neither. Humans are, at their core, completely free of any "good" or "evil." Only their actions can be described that way.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Oh look, another 'let's try to out-hate ourselves' thread.

Lovely.

 

[vento 231]

I think we aren't evil, but we would naturally do thingss against what is currently wrong by morals, like murder, but in the wild most animals do murder their own kind, like for territory and whatnot, but I don't think thats evil, just not socially acceptable.