Yes.
Humans in general are ambitious and greedy creatures. It because of society that we restrict and control ourselves.

It depends what you define as bad and what you define as good. I believe that the general nature of humans is to be selfish though I am well aware there are times that we make sacrifices for others, but usually in those times I notice that the sacrifice they make, in the long run, also benefits the person sacrificing. In that case, the end result is for a selfish reason (themselves).

Humans are capable of both good and bad. It's all how you define what is what. There are people who are mentally screwed in the head (e.g. they enjoy killing animals in a way where they suffer, murderers who enjoy murdering, people who enjoy inflicting pain, people who steal because they are selfish, etc).

I have made a lot of friends where I'm at now who are willing to buy things (e.g. food) or give things (e.g. note cards) to their friends, but I don't know if it's just because they want to or because they think it'll strengthen the friendship. They want friends so they give their potential friends things in attempt to keep them as friends--in attempt to make that person think they are a good person. If you look at that reasoning, it's somewhat selfish though the act is kind.

I look at the underlining reason as to why people do things when I decide what for. :)

I'm totally in agreement with Kerensa

Humans, as any other animal, are selfish by nature. All what we do is for survive, and only when we feel that our survival is guaranteed we start to do altruist actions. However, being selfish is not necessary evil. But, if you need a non-neutral answer, I'll say yes, we're evil by nature.

I think from the start everyone is good, but the environment and the people around us defines if a person will be evil or good.

Some people can tell that a baby can be evil at first, but the teachings you give him/her are the base of his/her nature.

Good and evil are subjective terms invented by people. Whether something is good or evil then will depend on how an individual defines it for him/herself. In this sense, though many of the answers to this question may sway between "yes we are basely evil" or "no we are not", either side may be correct based on how the answerer personally defines the parameters of good and evil through the filter of their life experience.

I think in order to better answer the question, we would first need to establish what constitutes "good" and "evil". But in order for these terms to be absolute in themselves implies necessarily that we share the same perspective absolutely, and I don't think that would ever be possible lest we were all the same person (like a sea of LCL fluid as proffered in Evangelion). Until something like that should be conceivable we'll all possess our own unique blends of perspective.

So strangely enough, though the answer may vary, each answer to this question is in its own microcosm correct.

pink-sakura

Humans are the only species on this planet with an intelligence that is capable of judging and criticizing themselves. Other animal species simply exist and survive by instinct. Survival of the fittest is how it works in the animal kingdom. Yet for humans, it's a lot more complicated than that. One can't group human beings into such a narrow space: good or evil.

I completely agree with this. Someone else in this topic mentioned that the world is inherently evil, whereas people are inherently good. That makes no sense, especially when coupled with the logic of the above quote. How is the world itself evil? One would then have to assume some sort of intelligence within our environment that works to tempt us to do "evil" deeds. While I do believe in some sort of divine being, I don't believe that our environment has the will to drive us to commit such acts.

What I truly believe is that people are driven by an inherent need to do what is best for themselves. There is no such thing as true altruism: you are helping others because it makes you feel good about yourself. This does not mean it is a bad thing, only that you cannot label anyone completely altruistic. In much the same way, it is hard to label anyone truly evil. Do I believe there have been evil acts committed by people - yes. Why? Because they completely ignored the social norms (rules set by society that allow us to determine what is "good" and "evil") of many different societies to pursue their own goals. They refuse to fit within any set of defined rules with which society can function.

Humans are social creatures capable of complex thought, born with a certain degree of inbred personality. Between their nature, and the environment which raises them, each person is found somewhere on the social scale of good or bad. How they are perceived, and the way they perceive the world at large, depends on these two elements. As such, there is no black and white, only the varying shades of gray.

There are alway certain people want to be power and control countries, which could be cause selfish for them and could be result into the wars. That was happened for all times in mankind history and would be always repeat. You might can imagine other races than mankind have same problems.

But there are alway certain people who are really care about others and often take sacrifices for sake of others. That was happened for all times in mankind history and therefore would be always repeat.

Child development might be hold key reasons for this results. But who know...

Human nature has both good and bad parts. It depends which part takes the lead, and that happens in his childhood.

Deep inside we all have our crazy, sadistic, savage, evil side.
But that side to us is never triggered by small means - the situation would have to be life-threatening and desperate and your stress level would be like through the roof in order for you to reach that breaking point.

Base of human nature is blank like a white piece of paper.
i dont think anyone is born evil or born holy or etc.
they all start with blank sheet of paper and depends on how they color it.

« ni ange, ni bête »

Pascal – a french philosopher – said that (XVIth Century). In English : “neither angel, nor beast”.
Our body make us have needs (feed, sex, etc...) and our mind make us desire in relation with our body and our society, etc...
So we can be as much good than bad, according to our desire and our control on our body and me.

I don't know if I'm clear...

I think people are born bad, because the world is bad, and without external good from outside of the world, the world is always bad.

Yin and Yang,... without Good there cannot be evil... For every positive there must exist a negative. Human being has its good personalities and bad ones. In how much each opposite affects the human being him or herself is a matter of how he or she grew up.

Different people different personalities. Generally we are born to make a living in society. No matter where you were born or were you come from, we strive for a living. Regarding the circumstances... everyone has to move on and live your life to its fullest potential.

It's not to stereotype, but 99.99% of the human population, no matter how humane they seem, is evil and wrong, by definition, the end goodbye. Yes, a doctor helps people, saves lives, but when he goes home, he smokes the rabbits out of his backyard when he knows that they might have had babies in there.

So now, you're thinking, what does this have to do with anything? Rabbits? WTH? Who the heck cares? I'll answer your question on the "WTH" thing: it's just the first example that came to my mind.

And with the "Who cares?!" part, that's all the proof I need to say humans are evil and vile. They only care about other humans, and all other creatures can just go to hell. We even kill eachother. We even do things that kill and destroy and don't even look at it as wrong: building a home, for example.

Do you know all the life that could be where you are living? Do you have any idea how many lives and families you are afflicting by doing this? Right now, you are just thinking "Well, I don't give a shit" And that's all there is to it. Humans don't care. With that, we become vile, and wrong.

And before a million people come at me with "Animals kill too, you know", remember this: They only do it to survive. They adapted to their environment. You made the environment adapt to you.

That is overly selfish. You have a right to be selfish, no doubt about it, but that just crosses the line.

Not, probably. Religious belief below:

God created us (Adam, actually) in his own image; and He is pure. The only reason we came to know evil is because Adam ate the Forbidden Fruit. Then maybe, ever since, each human infant born had an evil and good side. Depending on the environment that child grows in, either side has the probability of being honed.