Is evil an inborn trait of mankind.

[XanAlderon]

Is evil an inborn trait of mankind?

 

If your going to ask the specifics of the question I don't know. This was an assignment question I've gotten and thats all the information I get.

[Vindekarr]

No.

 

But cowardice is far more detrimental than evil.

 

Evil is a deliberate and chosen action.

 

Cowardice however, and greed, are the real monsters.

 

Cowardice means mean dont interfere with evil out of fear. And "all needed for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing"

 

Greed makes good men sell their souls to evil for immediate gain.

[RebelOConner]

What is evil? is there an evil-standard, something everybody, without exeption can say "this is evil" ?

No.

evil is a point of view that depends of the society. as the Good is.

Other societies, past, present and future, gave, give and will give to people another definition of good and evil.

so evil does not exist.

we can say people are egoist, and we can say, in our society, egoism is evil.

but is egoism an inborn trait?

no, we learn to be. we learn to be all we are. some things are easier to learn, and we call them "evil", some other things are hard to learn, and need a constant fight to no forget them, and we call them "good"

a new born baby is a white page, and all he will to see, hear, feel will "write" his mind, and will give him a definition for good and evil.

 

i can add too that nobody defines himself as evil, even the worst murderer act for what he calls "good" .

 

you, people who are reading this test, please think about that: when you define "evil" do you think about yourself? or do you think only about other people?

[evilneko]

Making us do your homework? :tongue:

 

Fine, no. Evil is not in our nature, as much as some people would have you believe otherwise. It doesn't make sense on several levels. Most importantly, it does not make sense on an evolutionary level. Applying even only the most basic of morals--that is, that what we define as murder is evil--we can easily see how a species which is "evil" would at the very least have trouble surviving very long, much less climbing to the top of the food chain as we have.

 

This goes double for a social species such as ours. While the definition of evil will be set by the society, those who fit it are always a minority in the society, and they are seen as a cancer to be removed. They are an aberration, and a destabilizing force. If they made up the majority, the society would collapse.

 

Morality is subjective, tending to change over time. What was just and good even just a few decades (let alone centuries) ago can be seen as a terrible evil today. Some of the things we do today may yet be judged evil by our great-great grandchildren. Sometimes, it doesn't even require very much time at all to change, people can be convinced to change, even to a moral standard that they previously might have considered evil, I think you can puzzle out an easy example of this if you know much about history, more if you're a fair student of it. Thus there will always be evil individuals, as judged by their successors or even their peers.

 

This by no means however indicates that it's in our nature. What is, however, is our ability--nay, need--to define good and evil, and usually, to place oneself squarely on the side of good.

[grannywils]

I do not believe that evil is an inborn trait of mankind. But I believe that mankind is capable of evil behavior just as it is capable of good behavior. It is my hope and my belief that the good behavior in mankind more often than not overpowers the evil behavior in mankind.

[AliasTheory]

I've discussed something similar to this topic before.

 

Evil is defined by us, human beings. It is morals. While something like science is absolute and tells us what may happen, it doesn't necessarily tell us what is right or wrong. That's for us, human beings, to try to decide. Morals can change with time and depend on what kind of people you are talking to. Everyone has his or her own.

 

I'm gonna say this: when we are born, we are born with the instincts to do what all living things do out there: survive. Live. If it means taking another life, yeah. Society says no as we human beings live a radically different (and better) life than other creatures on this planet, and thus we say "evil," in this case.

 

So in short, I'd say no, we aren't evil.

 

[EDIT] Read evilneko's post. How well written... :D

[DarkZerker]

Everybody has their own "moral code" that they follow. What one perceives as evil could very well be same stuff different day to another who shares a similar code. My code is that I respect everyone with the benefit of the doubt but the MOMENT somebody attacks me or a loved one, I punish them ruthlessly.

 

That could be considered "evil" by some stretch of the imagination by saints and "forgiveness people" but that is my code and I believe that is the way to live normally. Evil is only within your own narrow views just like it's in my own narrow view that I perceive that respect is a virtue.

[brokenergy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil

 

I don't think humans are evil, I think its a perception that people take to fill the black and white void. You don't know how many times I had to point out the difference between inhumane and pragmatism.

[XanAlderon]

The problem here is defining evil, every draft I've written so far has gotten massively sidetracked trying to explain the concept of evil as well as going off on philosophical tangents. If it helps at all I can tell you the question is based on the themes discussed in William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

[RebelOConner]

The problem here is defining evil, every draft I've written so far has gotten massively sidetracked trying to explain the concept of evil as well as going off on philosophical tangents. If it helps at all I can tell you the question is based on the themes discussed in William Golding's Lord of the Flies.

i'm not sure it's a good idea to define the reality according to a fictionnal book.

reality is a lot of things, and even if you try to define evil according to history, you'll see all "evil" people were persuaded to act to the good.