Poll: Are human beings born good or evil?

[Cowabungaa]

Good and evil are abstract concepts that can change from person to person, the question is invalid.

This.

Good and evil are made-up constructs to make life a little more orderly. Hence, when you get down to it, humans are just born as humans and nothing else. We add "good" or "evil" ourselves.

That said, from a less arrogant position; I swear, there's no age group as violent, vile, hateful and yet so free and happy as toddlers.

 

[ilspooner]

Young children do everything they can to survive. It seems selfish to us, but they do not know the concept of selfishness. Whether they become jackasses or nice people depends on the parents.

 

[ethaninja]

Have you ever met a baby or small child?

They're monsters.

That they are.

 

[Nouw]

Blank State. They're curious and the events around them decide what they will become.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

there is no such thing as "good" or "evil".
These are humanly created labels

Really ?

So, there is no such thing as being rich or poor, since these are human created lables as well.

Wrong,your status in society (how much stuff you own or how much wealth you accumulate) is also determined partly by your genetics, by your culture,pure statical chance and so on.
Abstractly, the popular idealized designation changes and varies from culture to culture(era to era) and cannot be compared to a westernized metaphysical concept of univeral, absolute (these forces have and always will mean the same thing) opposing forces that "shape" the individual pulling them to varying degrees one way or the other based from their original status as a "clean slate"

I assume you think all humans are born clean slates?
Well, Science is starting to prove otherwise.

 

[Dana22]

Wrong,your status in society (how much stuff you own or how much wealth you accumulate) is also determined partly by your genetics, by your culture,pure statical chance and so on.

But its still a label describing something relative to something else.

I own a car, you not. Im rich, you are poor.
I dont know answer for that question, you do. Im stupid, you are smart.
I haven't murdered anyone, you did. Im good, you are evil.

All in certain situational or philosophical context of course.

 

[superbatranger]

We're born neither good nor evil. But, then as we grow older, the way our parents raise us, our environment, many factors determine which side of the fence we're on.

 

[Polaris19]

People are a canvas, Life is paint.

 

[KindOfnElf]

Have you ever worked with kids? Like little children, one year old. They are not blank or neutral. Character on some way is predetermined, I've seen this, and talked with employees in kinder gardens. Some are naturally sentimental, others are not and that is not gained, it's an inside process. And it stays that way until it learns how to suppress things, cause a youngster doesn't learn suppression until forced by parents to learn it when they welcome it in the world where every act has consequence. Then it modifies, hence all the psychological repercussions.

 

[HuntrRose]

Yep, you need to teach a person to act civil.
You don't need to teach them to kill each other. That comes natural.

Some people simply never learn to be good. You can tell based on people's reactions to things.
Especially now-a-days. It's all selfishness and unaccountability for today's youth.

"Me me me" unless something is wrong, then it's everyone else's fault but their own. They never learn to take responsibility for their own actions and instead get taught the opposite.


Also, we're all going to hell. No matter how nice of a person you are, your soul is stained with sin. Simply being human causes that.

So this guy getting himself nailed to some pieces of wood did it for the lulz?

 

[HuntrRose]

The nuke's dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima killed an approximate average of 100000 people each the instant they were dropped. With that number again dying in the next 4 months. But ultimately, this move ended the second world war, potentially saving millions upon millions of people. However without the use of the bombs, the war still might have ended within the year. Meaning hundreds of thousands of none combatants, civilians, men women and children who had nothing to do with the war, were killed directly by the bomb and over the next 60 years.

Apparently, there are documents coming to light stating that the Japanese were in the process of surrendering withing the month when the bombs were dropped. If that is the case, the dropping of the bombs was to "see the effects on actual people and cities" turning the whole thing into either a show of force towards the world or just making the victims labrats or something.. Anyway, this is a totally different discussion, and needs more research before it is taken.

 

[FamoFunk]

We're born innocent... people who turn evil have useualy had something happen to them in the past (child adbuse, neglect) or they're repeating what their parents did to them or other people.

 

[YouShouldDeleteThisAccount]

I think of kind of like, you are born a mediocre person, you must prove and improve yourself.

 

[Snowden's Secret]

I believe in Tabula Rasa. The notion of being "born evil" sounds far too much like a lazy excuse for the transgressions of others. And while we're on the subject of human personality alignments, I wonder whether humans can be born Chaotic or Lawful?

 

[Chaos-Spider]

I think I heard of something similar to this when william Wordsworth (a truly retarded poet in the early-ish 19th century)and some friend of his tried to test the idea of the 'noble savage' theroy of human morals.

This archetype is basically that if a human is left to grow exposed to the natural world without any human contact, not only will they prove to be a functional human being, but will be morally superior to those that have been raised among other humans who presumably have been taught right from wrong. They're probably also seen as being wiser and better in other ways to.

They used the friend's infant son. (he might have been about 5 I can't remember)

As you can imagine, 10-13 years of the not only failed to produce the desired result, but permanently screwed the child's ability to function within the society of the time. Making this another reason to hate Wordsworth if his poetry wasn't already enough.

Within the topic of the thread, this can be seen as an example that humans need to be taught what ideas, emotions, and moral laws are, adding weight to the concept of tabula rasa.

 

[CouchCommando]

neutral, so I picked other, And I lean to the nurture not nature side of the debate just from what I witnessed throughout my life so far.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Evil... from a slightly scientific perspective.

Children don't develop empathy for quite a while, that's why you get toddlers that are like "WHY CAN'T I HAVE EVERYTHING" and kicking and screaming when they don't have it their way.

Without parenting they'd naturally grow up to be twats, as is evident with a lot of kids these days.

I disagree on this, with evidence.

If you take a child with learning difficulties, they are far more dependent on feedback and are far less empathic, but also less likely to throw tantrums based around something. Most of their tantrums come from internal difficulties.

I honestly don't believe I've met an "evil" child with severe learning difficulties, it's something that seems to be born of a sense of entitlement. In fact, the more the child believes they are entitled to something, the more evil they become.

Whether this is put there through nature/nurture, I couldn't say. But if an autistic child has a tantrum, it's because he's overwhelmed, never - in my experience - because he's faking it to get something.

Equally, we're all hard-wired to need social comfort, so our necessary "good" actions are simple resource gathering; so we're not "good" either.

We start off blank - the more "entitlement" we have, the "eviller" we become - as we want to exert our choice. The more "lack of control" we have, the "gooder" we become - because we require altruistic donations, so we copy them.

And you can have simultaneous "entitlement" and "lack of control", which creates your sociopaths.