Are We Born Into Depravity?

[Nakosis]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

I suppose this is more a Christian position but I imagine there could be other takes on this theme too.

If you believe this does this mean any person born without guidance will grow up to be evil?

 

[Quintessence]

Yes, on a technicality.

Humans are value-judging animals. That is, all humans make subjective assessments of something's value and worth. They generally refuse to (or are outright incapable of) simply accept and understand things as they are without judging them. Put another way, humans are incapable of true objectivity or impartiality in all assessments they make. Their perception of reality is fundamentally value-driven. As such, is more or less inevitable that as part of this valuation and assessment process, at least some humans will assess the behaviors of at least some other humans as "evil." The same can be said, however, of any other subjective assessment of value and worth, from "good" to "gods" to "beautiful."

 

[☆Dreamwind☆]

Nope. That's only dark ages nonsense. Everyone has the capacity to do good things, and really awful things. Trying to demand that people only be good and perfect and conformist to the point of policing every single bloody thing, has proven to be nothing but a recipe for disaster and atrocity.

To somewhat quote whats-his-face: "I'd rather be whole then good."

And also to quote a musician who certainly has no problems being awful, "I am the animal that will not be itself."

As a social animal we of course need rules to cooperate, thrive, and survive. But we are not incapable of changing for the better, and better is best served by taking the middle road, rather then the extremes.

 

[ChristineM]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

I suppose this is more a Christian position but I imagine there could be other takes on this theme too.

If you believe this does this mean any person born without guidance will grow up to be evil?

How a person turns out seems to be down both the person (genetics) and how they are raised (environment)

 

[Secret Chief]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

Nah. (A @SalixIncendium sort of answer).

Why would I believe that? On what grounds?

 

[Vinayaka]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

I suppose this is more a Christian position but I imagine there could be other takes on this theme too.

If you believe this does this mean any person born without guidance will grow up to be evil?

Nope, in my view. Firstly, I don't believe in intrinsic evil, and secondly, if you've been around a ton of young children, you'll see huge variance, on things like physicality, language, and sharing. Kids who are the only child tend to not share, but some will pick up on the idea almost immediately, while others seem to take forever.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I think we are born into neutrality, and based on experience and perhaps other factors, become capable of both great good and great evil...sometimes even at the same time.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

I suppose this is more a Christian position but I imagine there could be other takes on this theme too.

If you believe this does this mean any person born without guidance will grow up to be evil?

We are still animals at the end of the day and most certainly we have evolved traits that compel us to act in harmful and destructive ways. Some more than others , some less depending on how the brain is wired that would fit the concept of evil.

 

[osgart]

Evil ranges from commiting severe violations against other people for advantage, power, and/or pleasure to commiting atrocity against others to destroy others, for advantage, power, and/or pleasure. Genetics, and environment have nothing to do with it. Where people fall on the spectrum of good will, to neutrality, to downright evil nature is mostly a product of choices each individual makes. Once people fully realize their options as to their personal nature it comes down to a fall of heart as to what they decide.

Many people would rather die than violate their healthy consciences, others battle , deception, lack of good information, ignorance, confusion, and personal motives, and too many people are just plain wicked having a self serving only conscience. In the human race there are all kinds of different people. Some are non committal or ambivalent. Some are too light, or too heavy on judgments. It seems like each new generation is a new situation that emerges.

Some people have nonsensical morals as well.

Progress can be made from generation to generation though. If there were no progress then humanity would have destroyed itself long ago.

There are complex situations where good options are not available, or there is no clear cut good coming from available choices.

 

[amazing grace]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

I suppose this is more a Christian position but I imagine there could be other takes on this theme too.

If you believe this does this mean any person born without guidance will grow up to be evil?

I believe we are born with the innate tendency to sin.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all have sinned--- Rom. 5:12
That doesn't mean that every human being will be evil or commit evil. As humans we have the capability to do good and be moral but no one is made righteous until they believe in Jesus Christ.

 

[sun rise]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

It depends on how you define "evil". Humans in the kali yuga are born with a tendency toward lower motivations which some call "evil". In the coming golden age that will change.

 

[Eli G]

Humans as flesh entities tend to naturally respond to physical impulses of many kinds such as anger when their cholesterol is high, sexual desire when sexual hormones rise, sadness and other mood states depending on the hormones, etc.

The only way to control these reactions is under conscious and intelligent analysis. Other skills such as determination, courage, wisdom, etc. are clearly needed. However, the current human condition does not admit a total solution to all the situations that the current "sick" anatomy of humans really allows.

The Bible attributes this state to the error that our first parents made and assures that because of that error, death is naturally inherited in human nature, although it should not have been that way when we were created. Somehow we lost the total control of our bodies.

 

[Audie]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

I suppose this is more a Christian position but I imagine there could be other takes on this theme too.

If you believe this does this mean any person born without guidance will grow up to be evil?

Some are born into religions / cultures with very
unrealistic, unhelpful beliefs.

 

[Audie]

Humans as flesh entities tend to naturally respond to physical impulses of many kinds such as anger when their cholesterol is high, sexual desire when sexual hormones rise, sadness and other mood states depending on the hormones, etc.

The only way to control these reactions is under conscious and intelligent analysis. Other skills such as determination, courage, wisdom, etc. are clearly needed. However, the current human condition does not admit a total solution to all the situations that the current "sick" anatomy of humans really allows.

The Bible attributes this state to the error that our first parents made and assures that because of that error, death is naturally inherited in human nature, although it should not have been that way when we were created. Somehow we lost the total control of our bodies.

Are you quite certain that youve the skill of intelligrnt
analysis ?

 

[Nakosis]

How a person turns out seems to be down both the person (genetics) and how they are raised (environment)

I remember as a kid about 6 years old feeling regret for my actions sometimes. I would do somethings that would cause someone else to be hurt.
I was not aware how my actions could bring harm to others and I suppose was thinking only about entertaining myself. However I always felt bad after I realized the harm I caused.

I always felt motivated, as far back as I can remember to not feel regret or cause others harm. It took me a while to learn to avoid both. I was internally motivated to avoid causing harm. I don't think this was something that came about from my environment.

However, there were others I came across who would cause harm without regrets. I know children are born with genetic traits. I accept that environment can effect us too. There seems a wide variance of interaction between these two which allow humans to develop a spectrum of behaviors.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

I suppose this is more a Christian position but I imagine there could be other takes on this theme too.

If you believe this does this mean any person born without guidance will grow up to be evil?

Wait a second. Evil or depravity? I had to work my way up to depravity. It wasn't easy.

 

[Echogem222]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?

I suppose this is more a Christian position but I imagine there could be other takes on this theme too.

If you believe this does this mean any person born without guidance will grow up to be evil?

I believe it's impossible for any of us to commit an act of evil. But I do believe that we can make choices which are ideal good or non-ideal good. As for what I define good as, it's something which we all desire to do, if we're able to. Take for example someone saying that they live their lives "righteously" but look down on others who don't match up to their lifestyle, saying that it's shameful or something. People like that are negating the value of what they believe is good because they do good because they think it's the best choice for them to make, because good is good for good, it's something which is positive for those who do good... so why would anyone not want to do what is good? Because if there exists an opposite of good (evil), it would make sense that it would be the opposite of the way good is, which would mean it would be an action that none of us would actually want to do if we were understanding the situation correctly because it would always negatively affect us.

So, all of those Christians who say good is wonderful in every way, yet somehow think that there exist people who don't want to experience what is truly good, they are saying that good is not good for good, that there is an inconsistency in their belief of what is good. (Yes, Christians believe in free will [usually], but if everyone has the potential to do what is good, then that means that we are all good, because good is good for good, if we were not good at all, then it would be impossible for us to ever do good)

So, what are we left with? Why is there an ideal form of good and a non-ideal form of good? Because there must exist evil, but not where good exists, meaning we can't actually experience evil since we can't do what is evil without contradicting the nature of what is good. This means that evil must exist as a force of nature that exists in reality, just like what is good must exist as a force of nature that exists in reality, in other words, something which causes good to exist as it does, and something which causes evil to exist as it does.

In other words, it must be this force of evil which causes these two forms of good to exist, one which is ideal, and the other which is non-ideal, which is why chaos exists in the world... At least this is how I see things from my worldview/religion.

(An example of non-ideal good would be something which involves a great deal of suffering, vs. to ideal good which involves minimal or possibly zero suffering.)

Edit: If you make the argument that some people are born evil and some are born good from the Christian perspective, but only God knows who is who, then what is the point in Jesus dying on the cross for our sins? It wouldn't make any sense either way.

 

[Kathryn]

Having had four kids, I do believe that without a moral conscience, we generally act as animals would act. Some would say this is fine and others would say this is terrible. I personally believe that humans are naturally selfish in nature. This can become extremely evil. Not sure but it makes sense to me.

 

[1213]

Do you believe we born with a tendency to commit evil?
...
If you believe this does this mean any person born without guidance will grow up to be evil?

I think people are born with the ability to choose evil or good. And I think there is always some kind of guidance. But, interesting thing is, same guidance may lead to different outcomes, depending on the person. I think the choice depends essentially on what one likes.

 

[ChristineM]

I remember as a kid about 6 years old feeling regret for my actions sometimes. I would do somethings that would cause someone else to be hurt.
I was not aware how my actions could bring harm to others and I suppose was thinking only about entertaining myself. However I always felt bad after I realized the harm I caused.

I always felt motivated, as far back as I can remember to not feel regret or cause others harm. It took me a while to learn to avoid both. I was internally motivated to avoid causing harm. I don't think this was something that came about from my environment.

However, there were others I came across who would cause harm without regrets. I know children are born with genetic traits. I accept that environment can effect us too. There seems a wide variance of interaction between these two which allow humans to develop a spectrum of behaviors.

The research says genetics and environmental. My view is kids will be kids