Are humans "good"? What's your opinion?
Submitted by RonPaulLIVES on Mon, 03/22/2010 - 10:04
I have been debating this question in my mind for a long,long, time. I have had an open mind on the subject but still have not come to a definite conclusion. I know the answer must lie somewhere in-between, but I would like to hear others opinions on the subject to hopefully gain more knowledge.
I think I remember hearing Ron Paul asked this question and he was indecisive as well. It was one question RP didn't have an answer for, I guess.
I most always see the good in
I most always see the good in people, so I have been ripped off numerous times, as well as told to resign from an SED center where I taught once, because of it. I can not help but see them as good. There does exist another force in them as well though, and that is obvious. I once told a Christian doctor that people were born pure and good. He said "Oh Yeah? Well who teaches children to lie then?" No one does. They just do. It gave me pause, and still comes up in my musings from time to time.
Humans are almost entirely extinct
Read "The End of Man" by C.S. Lewis and you'll understand what I'm talking about. The globe is increasingly inhabitated by consuming copulators that are devoid of humanity altogether.
Knowing where you're coming from, I'd say humans have the capacity for both good and bad and can often do good for bad reasons and bad for good reasons. Without a solid foundation of what exactly good and bad is it becomes even harder to say which side anyone or anything falls. It all boils down to free will or God's will.
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I don't know anymore.
Interesting times we live for sure.
Prepare & Share the Message of Freedom through Positive-Peaceful-Activism.
The Bible is Clear
We are made in the image of God himself, yet we are fallen. We may be redeemed in Christ. Once we are redeemed we may still fall away oncemore, and may be redeemed oncemore anew--the process never ends. We must walk the right path and fight the good fight forever. It is the cosmic battle of Dark and Light which is in all things.
"The body is but a vessel for the soul,
A puppet which bends to the soul's tyranny.
And lo, the body is not eternal,
For it must feed on the flesh of others,
Lest it return to the dust whence it came.
Therefore the soul deceives and despises."
Once redeemed; though
we may fall, we shall not be utterly cast down again.
For it is HE that upholds us with HIS right hand.
Our confidence is in HIM.
We are HIS workmanship.
We have been bought with a price.
To love anything
more than loving God , is evil.
For God is love. He presents the charachter of love.
Christ fullfilled the utmost example in love.
LOVE gave itself for love of many.
So that many my also receive that LOVE, and be able to overcome evil and the evil one.
It is called salvation from the Domination of the evil one. The World has two masters. You choose.
We all have...
a trace of self-centerness, egotistical, and arrogance in a certain percentage.
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win!"
GANDHI
For the most part, yes,
For the most part, yes, humans are good. However, the problem is that the minority who are bad can be extremely bad.
...
No all of them
There are very bad humans and very good humans and a bunch somewhere in between. The problem is mental illness. Too Too many have mental illnesses caused by the very drugs given to them to help them.
Good and Evil are RELATIVE terms
Most of all – they are tied to religious or personal value systems. A free world is a free market place of values, therefore; to each his own.
One poster mentioned self interest and that is the correct route. Human's self interest drives them to reach their goals the easiest way possible – this makes theft very tempting and the desire to engage in theft very natural.
If all humans were ‘good’ based on whatever value system and relative framework you choose – then there would be no purpose for government.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Is the view 'to each his own'
Is the view 'to each his own' good? If so, is it good only in a relative sense, or does that apply to everyone? Is a free world good only in a relative sense?
Humans are. Beyond that, it becomes perspective.
I believed with all my heart that I was what I called "the pinky finger on the left hand of The Healer." I LOVED what I did. I would see an old person who could barely see me wave my hand in front of their face. Next day after cataract surgery, I would pull off the patch and they would see 20/20, and often they would weep. Any idea how "good" I felt about what I did?
How about the day I held the man who had just lost his only eye in that same wonderful procedure? He wept, too. Know what just ate at me that day, and eats at me today? I am pretty sure it did not have to happen. The doctor screwed up. Know how the doctor handled it? Started to come in to the room, saw us both crying, called me into the hall and chewed me out. Worried about lawsuits, you know. Then he went in and gave the guy all the info on the Commission for the Blind and things he was NOT ready to hear.
So, this doctor restored the vision to thousands upon thousands of people. Yet he blinded one and was as cold-hearted about it as a human can be. Is he a good man or a bad man? Here is my take, he is a man. He LOVED restoring sight. When he screwed up, he HAD to believe he was still a good man, or he could not have gone into surgery the next day and restored sight to another dozen people.
People are people. What they express is USUALLY influenced by what WE try to bring out in them...
Stay tuned for the next Jubilee Report. Or, do a little freelance lovemongering of your own... ;) Do I think I am a "good person" for what I am doing? Nah. I am a totally mixed bag, just like all the other humans here. But it is a really good thing I am doing. Now, I am going to pour another cup of coffee that is bad for my stomach and my heart... Mixed bag.
Whatever else I said a minute ago, the last word I want to get in is
LOVE!
Good and evil don't factor into it
Self-interest... hopefully "enlightened self-interest"... drives each of us.
Support freedom and liberty candidates in 2012... Ron Paul... Gary Johnson...
I think most of us are just cowards.
Cowards can be induced into doing almost anything, including killing innocent people. One of my favorite movies is "Thief," largely because,when James Caan is given the choice of buckling under to the organized crime boss or face the loss of everything he held dear, he didn't hesitate to show up at the crime boss's house and kill him. Why I don't really understand about the cowards of this world is how they can be compelled to put themselves in danger to hurt innocent people (such as the Middle East) when it would be just as easy to turn their weapons on the guilty (and we know who they are).
good, but miserable.
good, but miserable.
I meet many more good people
I meet many more good people than I do bad people throughout the day.
Hell no!
The end.
Ooh, That was pretty good.
\
Free includes debt-free!
NO
Humans are not good.
Born evil after the fall of man in Eden.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
If you look at what man has justified and what people justify doing day in and day out and still think they're good, YOU are foolish.
The mountains(Indians, vietnam, 9-11, war after war) of humans sacrificed by our government, run by men/women.
The mountains of humans slaughtered by Stalin and the Muslims in India?
Humans in North Korea and China??
The completely corrupt banking system and financial system in the US?
Humans good?? HOW could anyone come to that conclusion?
I shutter for the judgement God will send to us.
Gwinnett County Georgia
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.
Thomas Jefferson
Speak for yourself. Yours is the only heart
you know. Many good people do good works all of their lives, quietly without fanfare. These are the normal, the ordinary; they don't get into newspaper headlines, their stories aren't nail-bitingly exciting.
those who believe evil is rampant are usually victims of philosophies that label human nature as evil. It's like saying tigers and deer and fish are evil. Nonsense.
Humans by nature are generally cooperative and empathetic. A minority seem to have had these natural impulses blocked and twisted, generally by authoritarian upbringing or homes in which pride of responsible good works was not nurtured.
That is why the educational work of philosophical libertarians is so important, to change the negative, authoritarian turn societies have taken. Activism not rooted in consistent clear advocacy of peace and freedom misfires more often than not.
You may speak for yourself, as well....
When I was exceptionally young I may have been innocent, but ever since that time & growing up....
I have seen untold evil, witnessed untold evil at my hands and had no real specific urge to relate to anything in a different way.
Those so called "perfect homes" I heard about, I actually investigated...they were nothing but shams as well. Once it was discovered that society is internally broken, I didn't pause for reflection...Especially after seeing what the Police did in Arizona...When I actually delusionally believed they were helping people.
I believe anonymous1 is
I believe anonymous1 is correct except that the general idea regarding money is that the love of money is the root of all kinds or manners of evil, not all evil itself. The root of all evil is rebellion to God.
Why is it our founding fathers put so many restrictions on government? Because they knew that men, by nature, are evil. As one said above, we are driven by self-interest. This self-interest automatically supersedes interest in others.
You don't have to teach a child to lie, or to be selfish, or to consider their own desires more important than others' desires. You have to teach them to share, to care, to give, and to think of others.
We are evil by nature, but not as bad as we could be, because we are restrained by God from doing all that we would do. We will soon see what people are like when God does not restrain their evil.
"You have to teach them to share
care, to give and to think of others"
THAT is exactly how this government wants everyone to think...omg
damn socialists
No, government does not teach
government forces by legislation. If humans were good they would not need to have a society of laws.
The laws "would be" written in the human Heart.
Treat your neigbor as you would treat yourself , every time. Try that.
And if they were not brainwashed drones....
...They would not even need a "central government" with its bank to run every single thing in sight.
Just the truth, not anything else than the truth.
Humans have tendancies towards unnatural "cult like" following symptoms, such as stand-up frauds such as Jerry Seinfeld or Doctor Katz. Soon enough they rely on these Idols or celebrities to think "for" them - and this is no joke.
Or even religious kooks like Glenn Beck and Tim Turner, as well as Bill Maher.
The problem with all of these very flawed individuals is, they are fairly stupid....and deceptive. So the sheep among the flock, those whom seek out idols & idol worship....automatically gravitate towards these buffoons. Like bees to honey! You're left with millions of drones and in the end won't learn a damn thing, just as the most evil intended.
In other words...
The love of idols and money, which yes, is the root of all evil ....
You are nearly entirely correct. For example, many here would consider themselves "good". Even myself, for fighting the "good" fight is how they interpret.
However, I guarantee most people here have done thousands of evil things. I have done a whole lot of evil things without restraint. So that can't be it.
We're all here for a different reason, and a different game because although all of us may fight the good fight or have done many evil acts....we are known for being "less" evil & inhumane than the sycophants we face against.
As some of them don't even have a conscience, I guess that's why we're all here today. Yet in spite of that, this battle only ends in one place...and most of us will have to call on what's most important the second we can shut the banks down.
A Note of Interest
And I'm not sure whether to make this comment here, or as a comment to the original thread. But since your post mentions 'good' and 'evil' so often, I decided to place it here.
What seems to be missing from much of these comments is any discussion about what we mean by terms such as good and evil. It would appear that these categories themselves are accepted as a given, with no one really engaged in a debate about how we know these categories and seem to have general consensus on their meaning, while still debating the degree to which humans are one or the other.
Perhaps if we question our definitions, then the disagreements would either disappear (not likely) or would be better understood.
Just a thought.
Love it...the resurrection of an old post
I am ambivalent as well. My first thought is that humans are not intrinsically evil, and I would like to believe that those who propagate "evil" behavior could be educated out of doing so.
However, I wonder if evil isn't something that arises when there is no one around to do good. Then evil rushes into the vacuum that was left by the absence of anyone doing something to improve things. This is how a society full of sleeping minds can become corrupted...no one is standing guard, so less benign forces can come in and do whatever they want.
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem. ("I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude"). Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 30 January 1787.
It was in some kind of religious parable...
"The love of idols is the root of all evil."
That isn't only in the christian theology it's also in buddhism, methodist, judaism especially and particularly found in Islam and Hindu cultures.
Based on my experience, human beings naturally gravitate towards Idol worship. Especially when there's anything financial involved.
When I read history books now, I literally laugh because its like all of it was a fairy tale. Every last bit of it. What I was taught in 3rd grade about Davy Crockett, and a heroic nation full of integrity is a load of garbage.
It's complete bullsht on a stick and none of it even comes close to amounting to truth. I was deceived, the public school system is a failure & there is almost nothing worthy of note to mention about the United States(apparently).
I think its possible that society behaved in a different manner, back when people had to actually work hard & gold and silver was plentiful. It sure sounds different. Greed was good because greed filled Americans didn't have limitless piles of money more than they should have, they helped their fellow man more often & taught people to fish/hunt, and despite the flaws of say...Thomas Jefferson he actually opened up his own business and freed the slaves that society told him to keep.
He was one of the few to free them all and lead a movement against it even. Lincoln and the like never gave a damn, and when Lincoln finally crafted the Greenback he turned into a spoiled tyrant who kept on flushing the whole upper peninsula with endless streams of cash. Lincoln was actually worse that Coolidge. His support of overthrowing the Central bank had more to do with "supporting his Army", and taking control of the currency for his own ends than anything else. Lincoln also spent & printed what seems like unlimited lines of Greenbacks, not any different than paper money.
There seems to be a day in history where a single individual no longer had to worry about affording a loaf of bread, because they could print endless & unlimited supplies of green paper money. They over-inflated everything from their houses, to their glass boats, to their yachts over-spilling with free pools of cash. Once this 'God-like' power was given to human beings, it seems it all went to their head. No longer necessary to work hard nor earn what you get, paper money over-inflated the money supply of the 'givers' to such a degree that they no longer care for anything else.
As a result all I can see in history is rampant inflation, endless wars, endless totalitarianism & not a single concern for anyone's neighbor. Worst of all still, it appears that the Currency derived from central banking is indistinguishable from a video game- Infinite in supply, and limitless in demand. And just as worthless. So all the biggest actors in the, high-class society of criminal negligence.....may have the most paper money, but at the same time own nothing but air. As once it crashes, everything else they own disappears....putting the rich in the poorhouse & the destitute in the palace. At least those who own copper, gold or anything tangible.
Wait a minute....Did this decline really start in 1913? Somehow looking at this pathetic display, it really seems like centralized banking failed in countless years prior....starting in 1712.
Founding Fathers...
The founding fathers were influenced by reformation principles (which ones were "reformed" is matter of debate) which definitely taught the depravity of man. Why do you think there are so many checks and balances in our system? It was based in the belief that man is NOT basically good.