Humans are Good or Bad by nature?
@LightninStrike (5915)
Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
June 11, 2007 12:39pm CST
I was just thinking about Hobbes and Rousseau. Both are eminent philosophers, and contributed to the building up of modern thinking. But they had an oppsosite concept of human nature. Hobbes said that "man is like a wolf to man" because he said humans are evil by nature, and need to be controlled by authority, or chaos would reign. Rousseau says that human nature is good by nature, but sometimes circumstances lead us to bad ends.
Which are your thoughts about it? do you think that humans are good or bad by nature?
5 people like this
6 responses
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
12 Jun 07
This is a great discussion. I believe that humans are good by nature because each one of us comes from God and that in itself makes us divine by nature and is a part of God. How can God live in each one of us if we are not Good? Those people who became bad, i believe became alienated with their true self, that is why, they get lost. Lost in the world of sin. But if we just get in touch with our divine self and listen to the voice of God in us, we will never get lost and do bad things.
@LightninStrike (5915)
• Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
12 Jun 07
Well, for me as an agnostic it's difficult to give an alternative to your argument, because yours is based in faith and not in facts. Which by the way i respect, don't get me wrong. If you believe in a superior being that created all of us in Love, then obviously yeah, i suppose we're all good by nature...the problem for me is that i am not so sure about that.
1 person likes this
@LightninStrike (5915)
• Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
13 Jun 07
I would never call a believer a fool. That would be stupid. Throughout History, and apart from the personal beliefs, faith has been used as a response for what we feared and didn't understand: thunder, plagues, illnesses...it was all explained by God/s. As science developed, many of these answers have been given by science, based on facts. But this is a never ending quest, there will always be new questions. Living in faith as you do is not worse nor better, just different. It's not my choice because i cannot detach myself from my rational side, and not asking myself questions is incompatible with me. But at the same time, faith has an advantage: as you rely those things in God (because He Knows better), it's easier to be happy, to have less conflicts inside, etc. But that's based in faith, which is not rational but irrational, but equally respectable.
@cdparazo (5765)
• Philippines
13 Jun 07
Funny, like you, I also find it hard to believe how could anyone not see that there is a higher being just like your being unsure that there is actually a higher being. Scientifically speaking, science does fail human kind sometimes in a sense that it fails to explain things and I am sure it doesn't know everything or prove everything. It is really hard to prove or disprove and argue especially about God. There are certainly people like me who lives on faith and doesn't need proof. Many may call as fools but we call ourselves believers.
@nixtickleme (349)
• United States
11 Jun 07
I think all humans are born with the capability to be either good or bad. I think we determine what we will be by our experiences and then decisions.
@LightninStrike (5915)
• Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
11 Jun 07
that's an incredibly direct and precise description. You've been able to express my thoughts in only two lines. Thank you very much.
@sreevasu (2717)
• India
13 Jun 07
I would say they are both good and bad as well by nature. Everyone have good elements and bad ones. Depending on the circumstances and social environment one is living and growing up determines what character is exposed out more prominently. Even then, I believe, many good people possess some bad traits and vice versa.
@LightninStrike (5915)
• Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
13 Jun 07
I think that Good and Bad are conventions invented by men based on cultural backgrounds. What's good here can be bad there. So making universal concepts of good and bad is dangerous, and useless.
I think humans ARE, and according to where that actions are regarded, they can be taken as good or as bad.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
12 Jun 07
The first two humans were created by God as good. However when they sinned, and took of the tree of good and evil, evil entered their nature and since then all humans, except for Jesus Christ who was holy God and wholly man, were born evil. It is like having a condition that is inherited from conception from both mother and father and continues down through all the generations. Blaming everything on circumstances would mean that all children born in poor environments would turn out to be vicious criminals, but that is not true. It would also mean that if your father beat the crap out of you, you would do the same to yours even if you were taught not to because that is what you learned as a kid. That is not true. There are probably men and women who were treated abominably by their parents and they have turned out all right.
@LightninStrike (5915)
• Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
12 Jun 07
Yes, many people who suffered mistreat haven't turned out to be the same kind of persons, but the probability is way higher. Anyway, i believe in science so i don't think we were created the way we are today, i don't think adam and eve were the first humans...we came from other creatures and slowly turned into what we are today. All the evidences available tells us so. The Genesis is a symbol, shouldn't be taken literally in my opinion suspenseful....thinking that what the genesis says happened for real is a bit naive, with all respect.
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
30 Oct 07
Ah lightning.. the balance LOL See? We always come back to that hehehehe
I too believe that humans are born with the capacity to be good or bad - not even getting in the argument about what is good or bad varies with different perspectives -. I don't think we are born essentially one way or the other, although there might be a primary pull one or or the other.
I also believe that outside factors can help determine what we are in the end.There is no doubt about that in my mind, actually.
Throughout life I think humans dance a bit between one thing and the other and the people we consider good are not perfectly so, just the ones that are more balanced without going into extremes either way.
