| Sep 15 @ 3:07 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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joe_kerr
Posts: 642
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This is a question that came up several times in my first year of psych. One of the arguments was, if people aren't evil by nature, then why was/is cannibalism practiced in some areas of the world?
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| Sep 15 @ 3:23 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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rough
Posts: 703
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Some people are simply born evil, some people become evil in the name of their Deity, and as for cannibals, it's just their way of life and seems normal to them.
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| Sep 15 @ 5:50 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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bevrice
Posts: 11,145
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Way of life? That means that evil nature is innate with them. Just like with the tribe in which the fathers deflower their own daughters, or the thing I watched on Taboo this morning where they have gods that are half good and half evil and require the men to stab themselves to prove their allegiance, only the good side of the god can keep them from killing themselves, that is in Bali. Then there is the tribe that lets themselves be possessed by evil spirits.
If evil were not innate with man, they would never know any evil or practice it.
Good post, Joe.
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| Sep 15 @ 6:21 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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BandTMom
Posts: 28,234
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People are born inherently good.
One of the arguments was, if people aren't evil by nature, then why was/is cannibalism practiced in some areas of the world?
Because this is a part of their everyday world. It's their way o life and they don't see it as evil.
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| Sep 15 @ 6:45 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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bevrice
Posts: 11,145
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If people were inately good, they would never know of evil. They would call it misfortune or bad luck, not evil. Almost all cultures know of the presence of good and evil.
What about men like Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gayce. It is said they were born with that evil in them. Serial killers start when they are children by killing small animals and arson.
What about anger, jealousy, hate, all small children have that in them. What about hitting biting scratching other kids when they don't get their way? They don't learn that behavior, parents don't teach them that.
Like you said with cannibals, it is just their way, but it is STILL evil.
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| Sep 15 @ 8:02 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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hammertime
Posts: 14,071
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This is a question that came up several times in my first year of psych. One of the arguments was, if people aren't evil by nature, then why was/is cannibalism practiced in some areas of the world?
Well for one, what makes cannibalism evil? Was the person killed for food or died? You do remember the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crash in the Andes? Was that evil? Horrible maybe but not evil.
Ancient warriors would eat the liver of the enemy in battle to gain their strength. It was an act of respect actually.
And what about Jesus? He said you have to drink his blood and eat his body is a form of cannibalism practiced by every Christian in the world. The Catholic mass passes out wafers as symbolic "body" of Christ. That's cannibalism. Is that evil? Perhaps all of Christianity itself is evil.
[Edited on 9/15/2008 8:05 AM]
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| Sep 15 @ 8:02 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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hammertime
Posts: 14,071
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 Opps doubles.
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| Sep 15 @ 8:11 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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bevrice
Posts: 11,145
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Lol, wine and unleaven bread. That was what the disciples drank, too, hammer.
Still does not change the fact that man is born with evil. Did you teach your children to bite other children, or hit them, or pull their hair? What about throwing temper tantrums when they didn't get their way? Did you teach them to do that?
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| Sep 15 @ 8:15 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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pamdemonium
Posts: 14,507
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It's not nature at all...it's nuture. People are born into families that raise them.
Children learn their attitudes and coping mechanisms, first at home. Personalities and behaviors are difficult to change after a child reaches the age of three.
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| Sep 15 @ 8:19 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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hammertime
Posts: 14,071
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No psychologist believes people are born evil. There is no evidence, no proof and there is no predictive factor. All newborns are innocent until indoctrinated and that's when evil begins.
There are those who pretend to be psychologists through their lies all while traversing seedy adult sex sites online who believe people are evil and that give them the excuse to act out their own perversions. You know anyone like that Bev?
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| Sep 15 @ 8:21 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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16knots
Posts: 3,627
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People are NOT born with evil.
The true nature/condition of people is pure. Their essence is pure. The condition of this world, cosmos, realm is "desire". First thing is the desire to live, to be born, to survive.
Anyone but anyone who do "evil" acts is because of their ignorance that they have entrapped themselves within. Not even the most evil person likes evil. They still need the desire of being wanted, being need to the point of being loved. The worst kind of person can be returned to their purity of good.
Evil is just a concept as is good. One man may call good but another evil.
Cannibalism is an act of survival.
At its depth it is an act of ignorance. As is any form of evil.
Evil of any form is ignorance. The misguided belief in survival. Comes with evil is the most worst form of sufferance because any form of evil has the price to pay, any evil actions has its consequences of the same magnitude and the evil person doesnt wish that for themselves, do not wish the same harm, hurt, hate and anger upon themselves. Whereas the good persons price to pay is good, wholesome and welcomed.
Hence the true nature of anyone is pure.
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| Sep 15 @ 9:11 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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bevrice
Posts: 11,145
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So, the fact that a child knows how to bite, scratch, pull hair, have temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way says he was born pure?
That's why you don't have to watch them, keep an eye on them, they are BORN knowing what is right, they wouldn't do ANYTHING wrong. 
Let them sneak into the kitchen and eat all the cookies out of the cookie jar. Even better, let them be jealous like one of my grand daughters was of her brother's play tent he had in the house. She used to go into and pooh on the floor of it when he wasn't watching. Now, that was learned behavior? I don't think so. That was being born pure????
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| Sep 15 @ 9:15 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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hammertime
Posts: 14,071
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So, the fact that a child knows how to bite, scratch, pull hair, have temper tantrums when he doesn't get his way says he was born pure? That doesnt' happen in families with good parents. You ONLY know dysfunction coming from a family of alcoholics which led your daughter into her own dysfunctional marriage that made her want to kill herself. The truth is, you were a rotten mother.
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| Sep 15 @ 9:25 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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bevrice
Posts: 11,145
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That one is hilarious, hammer, obviously you have never been around when your kids were little. You must have been an absentee father.
They throw rocks at each other, too, and hit each other with sticks and toys if you don't watch them.
You know, when they learn to feed themselves, they have been known to dump their whole plate on the floor, if they don't like their food, and sometimes even if they do.
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| Sep 15 @ 9:33 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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sail_dancer
Posts: 8,495
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Bev,
You know, when they learn to feed themselves, they have been known to dump their whole plate on the floor, if they don't like their food, and sometimes even if they do. This shows what a degree as a christian counselor is worth. She considers a baby's frustration to communicate as evil.
Nothing like counseling a parent and telling them that their child dumps their food dish because they are evil inside and out. Is this what all christians believe? Do all christians believe that their children are evil to the core?
I guess all christians feel this way since I don't see any christians rebutting what Bev preaches.
Peace
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| Sep 15 @ 9:40 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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bevrice
Posts: 11,145
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Lol, sail, they often think it is funny, or they are simply full and through eating. Sometimes they don't like their food, but who gives their babies stuff that they don't like? They won't eat it anyway. Sometimes, they simply aren't hungry. Sometimes they are angry, but anger is not a pure emotion, hammer. Another absentee father, I guess.
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| Sep 15 @ 9:47 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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bevrice
Posts: 11,145
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Pam, children are born with their own inate temperament, you can't change that. There is no bad temperament. If you had more than one child, you know that each child is born with their own personality, their own temper, each child is different.
The only effect we can have on them is to teach them right and wrong. You do not form their personality.
As you become an adult, the people who have emotional problems are those who try to be something that they are not, who try to change that inate temperament. If you are a loner, and you go out and take a sales job, you are going to have big problems. If you are a sanguine, outgoing, and you take a job as a mortician, you are going to have problems.
You have to let children be what and who they were meant to be, born to be, made to be, and just teach them to be good, they already know how to be bad, you don't have to teach them that.
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| Sep 15 @ 9:48 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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rough
Posts: 703
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They throw rocks at each other, too, and hit each other with sticks and toys if you don't watch them. Mine didn't.
You know, when they learn to feed themselves, they have been known to dump their whole plate on the floor, if they don't like their food, and sometimes even if they do. Mine didn't.
That one is hilarious, hammer, obviously you have never been around when your kids were little. You must have been an absentee father. I wasn't absent, and mine didn't. Mine was brought up properly and, to this day, listens when I talk.
Obviously yours did Bev... but... does that mean you were an evil mother teaching your kids to be evil - like mother like child. Or does it just mean that you had no time for them because you were too busy preaching and praying to your evil deity.
[Edited on 9/15/2008 9:49 AM]
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| Sep 15 @ 9:48 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good?
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sail_dancer
Posts: 8,495
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Another absentee father, I guess No!
Just a father that loves his children and believe in their goodness.
To see evil in children, the viewer has to be evil to the core themselves.
You assume that all people are evil because your dogma has twisted your mind into believing that you yourself are evil. You see evil in a person as normal and any good that a person does as not their goodness but inspired by your invisible mythical god.
You are a very deranged person and need professional help.
Peace
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| Sep 15 @ 9:54 AM |
Are people evil by nature? Or good? |
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lazareth
Posts: 1,066
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"What about anger, jealousy, hate, all small children have that in them. What about hitting biting scratching other kids when they don't get their way? They don't learn that behavior, parents don't teach them that."
small children are not born that way...... it is a learned bahavior ...... sheesh 
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