Human Nature: good or bad?

[Slasher]

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Is human nature good or bad?

This question is still a debate for me. I don't think that any human can really be bad because of themselve only. Really hard situations can make people doing actions hurting other. We are all making our own choices, but they are mostly influenced by the education we received and the person close to us.

[Cara]

I personally think human nature is bad. 90% of people won't admit this, but we have all wished someone dead or maybe even had thoughts of killing someone that we hate/annoys us. I believe if there wasn't a threat to be thrown in jail, all humans would steal, injure, or even kill lots of other people to get what they want. How hard a persons life is has nothing to do with how they are as an individual, in my opinion. You hear about/see rich, respectable people doing bad things all the time. We're mammals, and I think we have lots of bad in us. Not saying we have no good :P

[SmokeToke]

^ I agree with Cara in most ways, But I do believe you follow others footsteps to become bad.
It sounds odd, but I know so many people who we're pure and good. After hanging with a few of the wrong people,
They turned over, which is expectable I suppose, but I mean I had a tough life myself, and I know I hated the world because I was suffering. I guess it all depends on the person really.
EVERYBODY is different, like Cara said, we are ALL mammals, and no Animal, Mammal, Rodent, etc is the same through out.

[Slasher]

I think that every action HAVE to bring something better than worst in our toughts before doing it. Why do you want someone to be dead or hurt? Because you don't like him/her, because they have hurted you in any direct/indirect way. Nobody likes to suffer. Wouldn't it be normal to wish that some people couldn't make us suffer anymore or get a revenge?
Steal/kill/etc. if there weren't any rules? Maybe not, if society wasn't actually that much pushing us to buy more and more things. If everyone was having their basic need completely full, would their be so much violence? Maybe less, if we wouldn't always want to have more.
In my opinion selfish is in our nature and it is bad, but society is making our nature going very worst.

[SmokeToke]

I agree 100%
The way people build their profiles nowadays is based on our economy.
WE drive people to do what they do, not themselves.
It's called peer pressure & stupidity LOL.

[Adam]

This reminds me of Lord of The Flies.... :O

But anyways, I think Human nature is generally bad.
I don't think it's 100% what's around us that influences our bad nature.
The fact that man has had to survive through the ages through violence gives us the "bad nature."
You can say it's in our genes to harm others/do violence, but almost 50% of people will disagree.

Just remember: Mankind is God's most imperfect creature and there will always be that "kick" in the back of your head to do bad things.

[plsmy1]

Human Nature is fueled by self interest. Your perception of good or bad is dictated by it,

[Nightlark]

No one is completely good and no one is completely bad. We all have those days when things just go really badly, and we have a want to make others suffer. We may be greedy and inconsiderate at times, not to mention lazy. However, there are things that we do that are good, like helping others.

[plsmy1]

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Ying Yang theory; everything in the world is in balance (circular).

Black = evil, darkness, masculanity, night, war (everything)
White = good, light, feminity, day, peace (everything)

If you pay close attention you will notice that the black has a white spot in it and vice versa. Meaning nothing is solely one thing. Good people have tiny capacity to do bad, and bad people have a tiny capacity to do good. Masculinity has a tiny element of feminity and vice versa.
Philosophy through the ages =)

[zxzero]

No one is born evil or bad, and no one goes out into the world saying ok I am going to screw all these people over today. They obviously find a way to make what they are doing right in their heads. Most of the events that you see have a thing called group thinking and/or obedience to authority; look at the Milgram experiments for more information on this. I believe that it has a lot to do with pressure from society and media for 80% of it, the other 20% is you letting it get to you and then letting the pressure that is placed upon you get to you, mainly because you see other sheeple doing it.

If you need me to elaborate more or have any questions feel free to say anything; if you don't understand something I said. Constructive criticism is always welcomed, hit me up on a PM and I will edit this with your question and name (if you want it there).

[saltymushi]

We are all be part-angel, part-demon on the inside, with different parts becoming more dominant depending on the circumstance. I doubt that there is such a thing as a totally good, or totally bad person. We all switch between the two from time to time.

But if I had to make a choice, I'd say bad. Children seem more prone to enjoy hurting others, before the environment sets in.

[Slasher]

Don't you think that child sometimes don't know how bad they can hurt people? And that hurting them is making them stronger and more popular? I don't if I can consider children as "bad". Ignorant could be a better description.

[saltymushi]

Don't you think that child sometimes don't know how bad they can hurt people? And that hurting them is making them stronger and more popular? I don't if I can consider children as "bad". Ignorant could be a better description.

Some of them seem to derive enjoyment from watching people suffer. Furthermore, I think that it is when people are ignorant, and hence unaffected, that their nature can be seen. Perhaps they'd change if they knew how bad they hurt people, but it wouldn't be in their nature to do something like that.

[Meagan]

To the children comments, I believe it's the reaction they get when they do wrong. Negative attention is better than no attention. My daughter is only 8 months old and thinks it's hilarious to pinch me by my reaction, it's funny to her when I yelp. As she gets older if I don't learn to discipline her she'll continue to hurt me, possibly, but there's more times when she shows affection and cuddles on me when she wants comfort. So I'd say there's 50/50 in everyone, at least at some point in their life.

[Eggy]

Bad. Take away laws and we revert to cave men.

[tofusquares]

Human nature is bad. Although most people are not completely bad, there are so many examples of bad human nature. Humans are fueled by greed, anger, lust, and many other negative emotions. Are the books we read in English class ever about the positives of human nature? Usually not.

[tchaikovsky]

Human nature is bad. Although most people are not completely bad, there are so many examples of bad human nature. Humans are fueled by greed, anger, lust, and many other negative emotions. Are the books we read in English class ever about the positives of human nature? Usually not.

Or maybe, human nature is bad because we teach it as such as you said? There's got to be a flip side.

I personally think human nature is inherently bad, but you have to ask why and if at the core that is really true. As we see it in today's society however, it's definitely malevolent.

[Lucy]

you can't just say that human nature is entirely good or entirely bad
there's cases which show that human nature is good e.g. the woman who helped the little girl in china who was ran over
and bad e.g. the guy who actually ran her over and drove away
everybody's human nature is different
hence why we have (had) people like mother teresa and hitler.

[OFWGKTA]

I agree and don't believe human nature in itself is bad. There's many circumstances that can affect the nature of one. Family, wealth, and background history (heritage) can play a major role in the outcome of one's human nature. So I don't think there's a direct answer of good or bad when it comes to human nature.

[ratero]

both, We all have evilness and kindness

[killawatt]

I recommend for any folks interested into the psychology of it , to see the TED TALKS video of Philip Zimbardo , a psychologist who's research shed light into this very question.
but basically, just as other forum members have suggested i believe neither. We may have evolutionary adaptations for self preservation but it all comes down to consciously deciding the next step in the choice of action, good or bad.


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