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Is humanity inherently good or bad? Login/Join 
:^)
Picture of BillyBonesNY
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Nither!

Not a subscriber to the "original sin" construct.


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http://lonesurvivorfoundation.org
 
Posts: 7177 | Registered: March 19, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Charmingly unsophisticated
Picture of AllenInAR
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I'm with Artie and Rogue.


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The artist formerly known as AllenInWV
 
Posts: 16177 | Location: Harrison, AR | Registered: February 05, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Page late and a dollar short
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I think that humanity is somewhere in the middle with leaning toward bad, the "take what is rightly mine" mentality driving the lean.


-------------------------------------——————
————————--Ignorance is a powerful tool if applied at the right time, even, usually, surpassing knowledge(E.J.Potter, A.K.A. The Michigan Madman)
 
Posts: 8067 | Location: Livingston County Michigan USA | Registered: August 11, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ammoholic
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Can’t figure a vote. In my view/experience we’re a blend. The best of us will moments of selfishness or thoughtlessness and the worst of us will have some moments where they do something positive. I suspect most of us want to be good, we just aren’t as successful at it as we’d like as often as we’d like.
 
Posts: 6872 | Location: Lost, but making time. | Registered: February 23, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
It's not you,
it's me.
Picture of RAMIUS
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What makes a person bad? What makes a person good?
 
Posts: 7016 | Location: Right outside Philly | Registered: September 08, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ammoholic
Picture of Skins2881
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This, but also what Artie said.



Jesse

Sic Semper Tyrannis
 
Posts: 20758 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: December 27, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lawyers, Guns
and Money
Picture of chellim1
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quote:
Originally posted by jaaron11:
Good in that we are made in the image of our creator and he declared all of his creation "very good". But we fail because we have the self-induced critical flaw of sin, which invades every aspect of our behavior.

That sums it up pretty well, theologically.

quote:
A mix, of course.

And that sums it up pretty well, practically.

Yes, all men are sinners in need of salvation. But some seek salvation and some do not. And some are more evil than good.

As for the poll, I voted:
Good, but generally failing.

I think most people strive for the good... but none of us succeed all of the time. I see people as inherently good, and give them the benefit of the doubt, assuming good intentions, until shown otherwise.



"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible."
-- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth."
-rduckwor
 
Posts: 23948 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: April 03, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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for forty years I have said that there are way more good people than bad.
I am 60 now and I think that it turned around,

there are now 10% more bad people than good people.

its what happens when good people choose to do nothing





Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency.



Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first
 
Posts: 54504 | Location: Henry County , Il | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of mark60
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I think most people are inherently good, deep down inside, but like bendable, I think the most part is smaller than it used to be.
 
Posts: 3438 | Location: God Awful New York | Registered: July 01, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Oriental Redneck
Picture of 12131
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Both. Been that way since the beginning.


Q






 
Posts: 26205 | Location: TEXAS | Registered: September 04, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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If there is any such thing as "good", then we are logically forced to conclude that humans are "inherently" good. Otherwise, there would be no fundamental mechanism by which a human being could make a "good" decision to even recognize "good", because we would have no valid basis to even distinguish "good" from "bad" or evil, and we would certainly have no incentive to choose the "good".

I prefer to think of us as an inherently good potential, that can then be swayed, through ignorance, into a succession of ignorant choices. When the ignorance becomes profound enough, we call it "bad", and when it becomes deep enough, we call it "evil".

quote:
Originally posted by jaaron11:
Good in that we are made in the image of our creator and he declared all of his creation "very good". But we fail because we have the self-induced critical flaw of sin, which invades every aspect of our behavior.

And I believe that is exactly accurate, but expressed in more "religious" terminology. Smile


"Crom is strong! If I die, I have to go before him, and he will ask me, 'What is the riddle of steel?' If I don't know it, he will cast me out of Valhalla and laugh at me."
 
Posts: 6641 | Registered: September 10, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Ice Cream Man
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Depends on which social group you're dealing with.

(And usually, the more "inherently good" the less likely to want/have a strong state.)

PA Dutch, pretty much inherently good, and a deep hatred of the state - and a strong social "stigma" system.

Small Town Texas - mostly good. Small town South... eh, neutralish, but a long way from either of the earlier groups.

Cuban party members - evil. Cuba was an odd place. About half really nice people, and about half scum. Never been to a place w. that many scum bags.

Rural Mexico - mostly good people.

NYC/Atlanta/Houston/Austria/St. Petersburg all mostly good. Really, if it supports civilization, and created it on its own/sustains it on its own, mostly good.
 
Posts: 5706 | Location: Republic of Ice Cream, Miami Beach, FL | Registered: May 24, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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It is easier being bad than good.
Heck we go thrown out of the garden of Eden.
In Christianity we are taught we are born with original sin. So, we are basically sinful.

Communism teaches that it is easier to be good.
They say that capitalism makes people evil.


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Posts: 2794 | Location: Ohio | Registered: December 18, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
It's not you,
it's me.
Picture of RAMIUS
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There’s more good than bad. The internet and technology brings more bad to our attention.

People are good. Humanity is good. If you can’t see the good, maybe you need to look harder.
 
Posts: 7016 | Location: Right outside Philly | Registered: September 08, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
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This a Christain video. Whether you agree with that or not, the expressions on the faces of people when the realize what they are is priceless. You can skip ahead to :14.



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"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Certified All Positions
Picture of arcwelder
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People are naturally good. Talk to any children. Children are us, in our natural state, before the world pumps hate into us.


Arc.
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"Like a bitter weed, I'm a bad seed"- Johnny Cash
"I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel." - Pee Wee Herman
Rode hard, put away wet. RIP JHM
"You're a junkyard dog." - Lupe Flores. RIP

 
Posts: 27000 | Location: On fire, off the shoulder of Orion | Registered: June 09, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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certainly a vexing question

i would say 'mostly good' - with extremes at both ends

but it's also very instructive to see how people behave when the shackles of 'law enforcement' are removed - in other words - when they can commit crimes with no repercussion

things can get ugly quickly

but again - as a baseline - I say mostly good. i try to be optimistic - 'Mr Brightside' - without being naive

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Proverbs 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
 
Posts: 8940 | Location: Florida | Registered: September 20, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fire for effect
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Man naturally has an old sin nature that makes us selfish and "bad." We have to learn to be good. Look at small children for an example.



"Ride to the sound of the big guns."
 
Posts: 7210 | Location: South Georgia | Registered: May 13, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Both. Some people are more of one than the other, but pretty much everyone has the capacity to manifest either. I thing the vast majority of people aspire to be good, or do good, and most people also far short of their own standards on a regular basis. That’s not a failure, it’s just the human condition.
 
Posts: 989 | Location: Tampa | Registered: July 27, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Ammoholic
Picture of Skins2881
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quote:
Originally posted by Sig209:
...

but it's also very instructive to see how people behave when the shackles of 'law enforcement' are removed - in other words - when they can commit crimes with no repercussion

....


Did you enjoy your trip to Chicago?



Jesse

Sic Semper Tyrannis
 
Posts: 20758 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: December 27, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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