Man is inherently good or evil?

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Puritans.

A Cherokee Legend

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

^ I like that.

This is not a black and white world. Hell, it's not even a grey one. It's blue, orange and ultraviolet.

Someone e-mailed it to me a long time ago and I just now remembered.

I think (and this is only my humble opinion), that there are equal amounts of good an evil inside everyone of us. But being good is more difficult that being evil, and we always choose the easier path, so people usually prefers evil over good. We all feel impulses we know are wrong inside us, but controlling those impulses is our duty as members of a civilized society, and not surrender to our impulses requires lots of strength. So I think it is not that we are evil. I think we are lazy and selfish.

well humanity in its's self has potential for both good and evil though the modern climate swings towards evil

+1

+1 only if selfish is not read a Rational Maximizer as a math concept.

Make that self-interested. People are concerned with those things which impinge on their comfort and well-being. They have less interest in things further off. Surely there are exceptions, but for the most part it is the case.

ruveyn

I actually have the complete opposite in mind. My view of human nature is that we are inherently irrational and short-sighted. The only thing rational about us is that we take the straightest route from A to B when it comes to satisfying our impulses. We maximize instant gratification rather than overall pleasure. A lot of lofty ideals about our higher nature make me shake my head because to me the only thing civilized about us is how we can make our primitive nature manifest under a thin veil of sophistication. We follow the same primitive behavioural patterns except we go about it more discreetly than apes do.

Last edited by AceOfSpades on 07 Aug 2012, 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

aSKperger -- just think of many things you enjoy or would like to try once, probably at least 25% are somewhat evil.

Oldout - like what? I wanted you to define "evil"
Because for me, evil is what harms others. Except driving car (= it produces smoke, if we want to be extreme) I can't think about much else right now.
Anyway, I would like to hear your perspective.

Where is the third option? Neither good nor evil ... just conditioned to act in certain ways.

I think that people are made to be good or evil depending on what they experience as small children. I've tried to rationalize one way or the other, but when I see children being open and accepting towards everyone, and then I get a look from a selfish child as though she ACTUALLY wishes to murder me in my sleep, I can't say that humans as a whole are either inherently good or evil.

I wonder if some are predisposed to be good, and others predisposed to be evil?

I can't think of anything truly evil that is also pleasurable. What kind of evil things are you talking about?

You know kids who want to murder you in your sleep? What kind of kids are you hanging around?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer