We addressed this in one of my religion courses so I thought it would be interested to address here.
So, good or evil, and state your reasoning behind it.
Please don't just post "good" or "evil" without explanation, it will defeat the point of the topic 
good. adam and eve were good until they screwed up everything. so i guess we are good until we screw up our lives then its our fault.
The only reason we would screw up our lives is if we were not good.
My personal view is that humans are "evil," in the human sense of the world. Biologically, we're just very good at surviving. Stealing, fighting, etc. are all biological functions that have been programmed into us. I've read recently that lying is affected by a gene.
Y'all might want to do some research on the Church of Satan, which is quite wrongly named, as it's not a Satan-worshipping cult, to my knowledge. It gives a pretty good argument as to why greed, lust, etc. are not evil but are routine animalistic traits.
The only reason we would screw up our lives is if we were not good.
My personal view is that humans are "evil," in the human sense of the world. Biologically, we're just very good at surviving. Stealing, fighting, etc. are all biological functions that have been programmed into us. I've read recently that lying is affected by a gene.
Y'all might want to do some research on the Church of Satan, which is quite wrongly named, as it's not a Satan-worshipping cult, to my knowledge. It gives a pretty good argument as to why greed, lust, etc. are not evil but are routine animalistic traits.
but then you are putting us on the same level of animals which isn't true because we have the capability to reason.
Not to mention if we are inherently evil then why do we have the attribute of feeling guilty?
And why are people so shocked when people do BAD things?
And why are children so innocent?
And why does self-sacrifice exist? If its all survival, I mean.
1. Animals have the capability to reason too.
2. Dogs feel guilty when they crap up your house. The monkey I babysit sometimes for community service looks guilty when he pees on me. It's often clear that animals feel guilt.
3. Some things have the stigma of being bad. Bad simply means socially unacceptable on the basest level. Think about it: Why is stealing bad? Why is murder bad? These lead to a system where everyone starts to act for themselves without altruism, leading to the degeneration of the 'civilization phase' of human evolution. Basically, anarchy is very often bad for the survival of a mass of people, so we void it.
4. Innocence will eventually turn into experience.
5. Self-sacrifice is simply altruism. If the point in life is to propagate one's genes, your relaives share genes with you, so it's in your interests to ensure their survival as well. This isn't saying emotions of love, etc. don't exist, they most certainly do. It could have evolved because those that were most able to do altruism were the organisms that felt the most emotion, leading to who we are now.
My point, we begin innocent, until society influences us.
Dogs feel guilty because they will be punished. If you do not punish a dog for doing something bad then he will seem guilty. Humans however, will feel horrified and terrified if they shoot and kill someone even if they had to do it for survival reasons. and people don't necessarily self-sacrifice ONLY in regards to their family.
And explain to me how animals have the capability to reason?
Animals understand there own reason, they comprehend their own universe, they do not seek to find out what is NOT there. Everything they do is purely instinctual. You don't see dogs putting things together and trying to figure out things. They don't really sit there and ponder their own existence.
We also have the ability to lie, and the ability to invent.
Humans seem guilty because they will be punished. If I grew up in a society that promoted lying and cheating, I doubt I'd feel guilty.
I've read something about how humans fear death because of... something. The point s, other animals how revulsion at corpses of their own species, notably elephants.
Self-sacrifice can extend to friends, too. They're friends for a reason; it's mutualism.
And it's a little unfair to say that dogs can't reason. True, I don't know for sure tht they do, but to me, it seems like they do sometimes. Look up Zhuang Zi and the Fish. You might get a kick out of it.
And one could always argue that humans only undergo deep thought because our brains are more developed. What freed up this area of evolution? As humans grouped into tribes, roles became more specialized, and the people who had better deduction skills, etc. survived more, whereas before it was just buff people. Wolves already display pack behavior, which is quite similar to tribal life. Maybe if humans weren't here to subjugate them, some other animal would already have developed large societies over Earth.
Not necessarily, they can feel guilt even if they manage to get away with something. They are people who confess and take their punishment simply because the guilt overwhelms them.
I'd also like to point out, I have two dogs, Nellie and Sal. If SAL does something bad, Nellie acts guilty. Nellie has done nothing wrong but she doesn't understand that she didn't do it so she won't get punished. She cannot reason it out.
I believe that everyone is born with a clean slate. And this slate is eventually drawn on (in other words: affected) by relatives, your parents, siblings and friends. It'll also get affected by enemies. Since you'd do stuff to enemies that you wouldn't normally do to friends/family.
I believe that everyone is born with a clean slate. And this slate is eventually drawn on (in other words: affected) by relatives, your parents, siblings and friends. It'll also get affected by enemies. Since you'd do stuff to enemies that you wouldn't normally do to friends/family.
Makes sense to me
hm
I would say we are good, because first of all since I'm a Christian i believe that God created us to do Good. NOT Evil. Also we know what is right and wrong, we are born with a sense of that. If you look back through time you will see we have all had generally th same rights and wrongs as we do today, this proving that we know what good and bad is.
So if we were born evil why would God give us these feelings of right and wrong, and more so; why would he create us if he meant for us to do evil?
I would say we are good, because first of all since I'm a Christian i believe that God created us to do Good. NOT Evil. Also we know what is right and wrong, we are born with a sense of that. If you look back through time you will see we have all had generally th same rights and wrongs as we do today, this proving that we know what good and bad is.
So if we were born evil why would God give us these feelings of right and wrong, and more so; why would he create us if he meant for us to do evil?
The same rights and wrongs in the past thing could mean that we inherited these moral feelings from parents and they were subsequently passed on until they became laws when governments were formed.
Frankly, sometimes it's fun to watch people do bad things. You know it's true. You yourself have probably tried your hand at pranks in the past too (I know I have) but it's generally for fun and it just a joke. You can also take something like SimCity, it's always fun to build a thriving city (then save) and then wreck havoc on the virtual citizens below.
Rarely are harmful pranks celebrated, harmLESS pranks however, are the ones that most people think are funny.
And if things are truly passed down by the parents from generation to generation then how come law has changed? Why did slavery end? Why was beating your wife and having the ability to kill her or your daughter changed?
Things have changed because people realized that these things were inherently evil and recognized them as wrong.
A child sees no difference in people, not in regards to color of skin or $$. They simply accept until they are told that they are not to accept.
And inherited moral feelings are still inherited MORAL feelings.
Harmless pranks can still be, and usually are, bad. But we accept it as a joke between friends so it's usually ok.
Laws and stuff could have changed because people's views and attitudes change. One person starts to think something is unjust and calls upon the movement of change, then this cause is supported by others in similar situations. Over time this causes the change in laws etc.
Even now, there is a distinct generation gap between parents and child (in most families anyway). I can see it in my own, I'm the guy my whole family (especially my parents) looks to for information and advice on all new technology. And they seem to value different things to me, and gain happiness through different means.
Some things are passed along, but times change and the generations afterwards may think that those things did the parents thought were socially acceptable back then are not socially acceptable in their society.
So we are constantly striving to better ourselves? We are not remaining stagnant in one place. We are consistently trying to right the wrongs, and to remedy things that we consider injustices.
If we were inherently bad, why would we care?
Yea, we are constantly trying to make a better society to live in. For us and our children (although a lot of parents are too over-protective nowadays).
That's the point, we aren't inherently bad. I believe my clean slate idea fits well for most people.
But no matter who we are: murderers, clergymen, judges, policemen, serial killers. There will always ultimately be someone you love that will make you want them to live a long and happy life. And you will right what you believe are wrongs to allow them to do so.
Yea, we are constantly trying to make a better society to live in. For us and our children (although a lot of parents are too over-protective nowadays).
That's the point, we aren't inherently bad. I believe my clean slate idea fits well for most people.
But no matter who we are: murderers, clergymen, judges, policemen, serial killers. There will always ultimately be someone you love that will make you want them to live a long and happy life. And you will right what you believe are wrongs to allow them to do so.
=D haha
Yeah I guess what most people would consider an issue with the clean slate theory is that most religions believe that people are born with original sin . . .
Original sin? I've never heard of that before.
ah
Original Sin = "called in the Eastern Orthodox tradition ancestral sin,[1] is, according to a doctrine in Christian theology, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man."
Basically Adam and Eve screwed up big time.
Copy from Wiki much? 
Kinda obvious with the [1] citation. But I get what it's getting at, even though I understood your definition much more.
So, it's like the slate idea. But when your born, your slate has the markings of your ancestors as well. So, it's like generational slates... if you know what I mean.
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