Poll: Human Nature?

[Couch_Ridden_Gamer]

What is your opinion on human nature? I know, I know. Serious thread. But, here are the choices:

1. Humans are born corrupt and society is the only thing that keeps us in line.

2. Humans are born innocent and society corrupts us.

3. Humans are born corrupted and society corrupts us even more.

EDIT! Sorry, internet disconnected unexpectantly. I think answer 1 is correct. Humans are born with savage instincts, but the fear of being shunned keeps us from indulging those natures.

 

[APPCRASH]

I'm going with "other" here. People make up their own choices. Nothing is certain, when it comes to judging morality.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

Dammit! Thread ninja'd. Mine was going to have a bit more substance, though...

2, methinks.

 

[grimsprice]

I shall go with my own. That being that instinct rules our every action and we are basically animals, our society is simply a bigger version of an anthill.

Indeed. Humans are, and they never will be any different.

 

[A random person]

I'll make up my own option: humans are good and corrupt in some ways. Society both suppress some bad instincts and corrupts people, sometimes instilling positive values. It's not like either one purely is/does one or the other.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

'Other' people are born blank except for a need to consume food and reproduce (this is not the same as corrupt, or savage, or even primal)

The capacity for good towards humans is there, as is the capacity for evil. The society you're born into brings out these traits. Also, there is enough individual difference between people, even without conditioning and societie's influence, to have some people conform and some people rebel.

 

[Nickolai77]

Option 1 is about the closest one i agree with.

My opinion is that we are born with both good and bad traits. We are born with the capacity for love and alturism, and we are also born with the capacity for violence and hate. Society then brings out, amplifying and projecting either (or both) the good and evil that is in us. Depending on the nature of that society.



(btw, when i mean good and evil, i mean our relative conceptions of what good and evil are)

 

[ottenni]

I'm going with the second because all children are innocent, until you put them in school.

 

[Gruchul]

I'd don't think either thing is corrupt. I personally don't know any corrupted people

 

[Eldarion]

Option 2.

People aren't born evil.

 

[Naheal]

Somewhere between option 2 and option 1. People aren't born evil and society does corrupt us, but society is also the only thing that keeps us in line.

 

[aussiesniper]

People are born neutral and made capitalist, not born good or evil and corrupted.

 

[Vrex360]

I like to think that the primal aspect of the human nature, the territoral and aggressive as well as extremely fearful side of the animal instinct that heralds back to the day when they lived in fear daily of predators and only survived by being aggressive. That aspect is stil there in our society, but I do strongly believe that when they are born their instincts have yet to awaken properly and as they grow into their surroundings they become more internally corrupt. After all no one is born a killer, some people are just made into them by abuse and neglect.
So I'm going to say option 2 with a dash of option one.

 

[Nincompoop]

There isn't any 'nature' anymore. We have moved past that. Or, we have different 'natures' or wuddevah'. We have suited us for the global society, and no longer treasure the same 'tribal' attributes.

Addendum; What ever evils we have, the society only amplifies that which is bad in us. Everything that I am either not proud of, or deem as 'bad', have I learned from society.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Humans are born with both good or evil in their hearts, and alongside only the desire to survive and become accepted into the society of people around them. Sometimes, they choose crime and hate to fulfill those basic needs, and most of the time they choose a life of prosperity and love to fulfill them. *Shrug*

It is how you deal with what life brings at you, that ultimately shifts the balance of the two in your being.

My 2 cents.

 

[GodofDisaster]

Humans are born neither good, nor evil, it is the path they themselves chose to take in life that will determine their fate.

Just a quick question and something that I've been pondering, but say a child was born into an evil family, I mean the whole family from parents to second cousins were pure evil. Does that mean the new born baby will also follow the same role as his/her family and become evil also?

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Humans are born neither good, nor evil, it is the path they themselves chose to take in life that will determine their fate.

Just a quick question and something that I've been pondering, but say a child was born into an evil family, I mean the whole family from parents to second cousins were pure evil. Does that mean the new born baby will also follow the same role as his/her family and become evil also?

Quite strongly possible, yes. As a baby learns most of its nature/knowledge from its immediate family, and people they are taught to trust. If they are pure evil (I dont believe there is ever "pure" evil, but thats for another time) influences, then that is really all the baby will know growing up in that family.

 

[gregitaly]

What do you mean by corrupt? There are different views of what is acceptable and unacceptable, to different people.
Now sure as a Christian I believe there are actions that no "good" person should ever perform, and therefore are corrupt. However since not everyone shares those views with me, they are just that, my views. Life isn't a Role playing game, there is no universal, definable idea of "good vs. evil" held by everyone.