Remember your childhood, is neutral.

Of course not, man my nature can't be good or evil. But it's the Surroundings & situation which influence the nature of a person. Every person in his/her life time always get influenced & attracted by the nature of their surroundings. They analyze different habits and try to adopt them in their personality. But it's must for a man to have a ability to analyze that which habit is considered good and which is not. Lack of this ability can make a person evil.
We all know that every human infant react with a smile when her mother also smiles to her i.e. the infant just make it a habbit to react the same way everytime she does it. She is the first person who influence it. But as the child grow up he start to meet various person, start to get curious about people & their different thinking & then in the way he/she try to make his/her own identity in between a crowd of people. In the process of Struggling in life, we show the influence of our family, our friends and our social & educational background. If these background had been healthy then a person turn out to be good if not then it create problems to others.

If some of you haven't noticed this is like the nature vs. nurture argument. This argument still goes on in the professional fields, of one side or the other, but the fact is that both sides play a role if some of you weren't well informed. You can stay at your position but it is good to know that sometimes it isn't all to one side.

Hate to quote a movie for this, but...

"Humans are animals - brute creatures." I'd continue on with that quote, but the example is in that specific area, not the "They fear nothing because they are nothing. But you and I, we will change all that." XD Because yeah has no basis in the argument.

It's sadly true, though. We're animals, and the base instinct of any animal is to feed, mate, and conquer territories. We're evolving at least, so that gives hope that us. Whether or not it makes us evil, I don't know. But using those base instincts as an example, I'm sure everything can be justified unless the person has lost their marbles.

I believe it's a bit more complex then yes or no. As others have said, the concept of evil/bad is not a natural concept, but more a human concept. We don't necessarily consider cats who kill mice for the fun of it as evil, but do for humans who do the same. Secondly we have to ask ourselves what truly is "bad" or "evil". I've always thought of that question through a quote by Thief Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh, who said "What is evil?" "If I am loyal to what you say is right, is that all that it takes to make me good?".

What exactly is bad/evil? If we take into thought that humans have an instinct called fight or flight which tells us when we should run and when we should attack. If someone attacks me unknowing that I don't pose a threat to them, can I consider them as bad as a person who would deliberately attack me? If I attack someone deliberately in order to defend myself or another, am I to be considered evil/bad? What makes something bad/evil?

I guess those are the kind of questions you have to ask before finding out whether or not people are inherently evil/bad. I guess I'd have to go with saying that humans are neither, but rather too complex to be fit into any 1 category.

It's simple. Humans are selfish by nature. Whether that's good or bad remains in the context of the situation. Humans are also communal. The reason for all unselfish behaviour is yet a deeper need to be accepted by society. Thus, to answer your question: No. Humans are not inherently bad.

Well,... it is the fight for survival that makes humans more or less evil, good, motivated or whatever... also depending under which circumstances one is growing up...

Unfortunately our ongoing history has been kinda capitalized over the years, meaning we take certain things for granted which made our relationships to one another nifty mixed and messed up. I can tell a hundred stories from my point of view, but I am too lazy to tell one today...

I personally have no answer to that...But i do believe that every human has a bad as well as good mentality/characteristic that exist within themselves,it is just a question of either which one becomes more dominant due to the surrroundings and experiences in life you have as you grow.
But then again,guess it doesn't really matter if human were born kind or evil cause it will eventually be influenced and channged by what you see,hear and learn later after birth...

The human race is the only animal that kills others of its own species... do I have to say more?

@ root1412 that is not true; male lions kill cubs and stragglers that are not a part of their pride that get too close. Ants enslave one another if one ant colony beats another, the losing colony has to work for the winner and all the eggs of the losing colony are killed. I watched a male howler monkey snatch a baby from the mother howler monkey swing up to a tree and bite its face off and then threw it back down at her...am i evil cuz i thought that was funny lolz XD that was so freakin cold! On a show documenting meer cats (ya know timone from timone an pumba on the lion king?) yeah they have clan wars all the time. rats eat each other...mice do too it was terrible this one case of that i saw. but im gettin off subject

eh humans are naturally situational liars if a kid about 4 or 5 years old gets caught eating cookies from the cookie jar and knew he wasn't supposed to he'd lie in an attempt to not get in trouble for it even with crumbs and chocolate chips all over his face. a friend of yours is ugly but to not hurt their feelings you will tell them they look good.XD omg you know she is ugly yet you still try to tell her she is not!? you are not a good friend be real!! Im sure she can handle it! are those situations examples of evil or a just natural defense mechanisms? but im gettin off subject

I used to think that humans were so bad and imperfect that it could have only been a perfect God who set up laws in the first place right? actually WRONG! 3000 years before the 10 commandments( which were made about 1513 BC. or 1400 maybe) were ever thought of, the ancient Egyptians created the Principals of Ma'at...then there is Urukagina one of the first ever recorded set of laws ever discovered, and also the Code of Ur-Nammu oldest tablets of law ever found, and the Code of Hammurabi (1760 BC ) is one of my faves. and this time im not getting off subject

one thing that bothers me is how easily evil can be based on perspective. during the holy wars both sides deemed the other as evil! and according to what ever environment you were raised in you your self probably think that one side was bad and the other good. in some countries even today if a woman commits adultery the right thing to do is to stone her according to their laws in the bible the Jewish people did this too. back in the day the so called holy Catholic church tortured and killed people who didn't conform to them and not just over in Europe ask the Native Americans burned at the stake for not converting.

we all have knowledge of what is right and wrong and basic ideals about it may vary based on how you were raised but we all have in our hearts something inside us that tells us when we our selves are being wronged, when something that someone else is doing is wrong because of the effect that their action had may have been a negative one. i think naturally we all have the potential to be bad or to just do things that are generally viewed as wrong based on the values of your society. (like huckleberry fin who thought he was going to hell for going back to help negro Jim not to be a slave again) but if mankind was really evil what then would separate us from demons much less the animals?

to say we are evil is to say humans are demons that is what you are saying to me and that makes absolutely no sense and its a slap in the face of people who dedicate their lives to doing real good in the world rather than sit around saying that we are all demons.
humans aren't 100 percent evil but we actually are just imperfect
by my logic....
a demon= evil an angel=good but a human= balanced potential of good and evil with the majority in favor of doing "the right thing" according to some extent how they feel plus their own understanding of it, but largely how they were raised and what they were taught, ...or decided to pick up.

I believe we are simply imperfect beings with a penchant for labeling things :P that are currently in the process of evolving or changing for the better

I believe you can't look at people without their context. All people are in some way determined by their environment, their ancestors, the education they get. So I wouldn't say that they are born good or evil, but maybe, they can be born with a predisposition towards good or evil, depending on their birth circumstances. Obviously this is not a rule and not everybody's life is the same as their ancestors', but I think it's safe to say that this is the case in the majority of events.
Also I think the cultural aspect is vital here, as many different cultures have various ways of interpreting good and evil. Even to a degree where killing is not always bad. This is a completely separate subject, so I'd just like to point out that the cultural circumstances may very well be a major factor in the child's development. So, to answer the question, I think that there is no such thing as the base nature of humans, because this nature is something we create when we're already alive (or that is created for us by our parents, society, etc). We are born with a set of qualities inherited from our ancestors, which may be both good and evil. Then we undergo socialization, which can also have negative or positive effects on the individual. So basically, we have no predetermined nature, but we do have tendencies passed on by previous generations.

@ BlackMoral I can't say that I don't agree with you on that and that you did a better job of summing up a point i wanted to make without the wall of text you see above lolz. If we were inherently evil laws would never have been made in the very beginning. My closing point is that we are continually adjusting in changing in every single thing we do whether it be religion or education we are continuously starting new ideas and exploring new aspects of these ideas. We even changed physically at one point; skin color and racial features(I would imagine that Adam and Eve were not rainbow children and don't any one dare say they gave birth to diff races rather than it being the obvious result of a natural adjustment to the climate of their areas) We are working our way to being better we just need the room to grow. Everything happens for a reason.

@Warangel: not coming from a Christian background I know nothing about Adam and Eve, however I totally agree that people who believe that different races were the result of ANYTHING else than evolution - these people are idiots. It is a scientific fact that different races emerged because of having to adjust to geographical differences in specific regions of the world. When you read about it, it's so obvious. Yet somehow some people still deny it. Man, what an embarrassment. Sorry for going OT. :)

Personally I don't believe so. I believe that there are key points or experiences in a person's life that shape that person into what they are or become. For example we have two boys born within a short time of each other. They grow up in similar neighborhoods in similar situations. One day while they are walking down life's highway something happens (they see a relative or close friend get shot down like a stray animal.) Well it affects them both on all levels throughout their lives. One boy grows up making himself a promise that he will go to school get a degree and finally become a lawyer. He does this, its hard but throughout it all he preserves.

He leaves law school having graduated within the top percentile of his class. Many law firms court him but his eye is set on one thing. What is that? Going back to his old neighborhood and using his abilities to bring justice to his old neighborhood. His career spans many years and he does an admirable job considering the circumstances.

Lets go back and look at the second young man from the same neighborhood who had a similar experience. This traumatize the 2nd young man also. Well how does he handle it. He quits living (becomes a shell of his former self) His motto is live fast die young leave a mangled corpse. Occasionally he will get into the drum of society (hold a job live a productive life) but at best its a hit and miss situation. This is just one of many examples (we could go on for infinity) The point that I am trying to make here is this, each and every day we are faced with countless choices and those choices have results. Its not about what a person sees themselves doing down the road. Its the minute to minute life that we live that counts in the short and long run.

As Tich Nat Hanh says this is because that is. Where does a person see themselves down the road a certain amount of time from now? Let them see what they are doing moment by moment, and then they will understand. We hear this all the time a person can be anything they want to be. This is true, but what price are they willing to pay to get there? This is the question.

Hm... some trolling and an nice answer :D I'll honor that.

thewarangel

@ root1412 that is not true; male lions kill cubs and stragglers that are not a part of their pride that get too close. Ants enslave one another if one ant colony beats another, the losing colony has to work for the winner and all the eggs of the losing colony are killed. I watched a male howler monkey snatch a baby from the mother howler monkey swing up to a tree and bite its face off and then threw it back down at her...am i evil cuz i thought that was funny lolz XD that was so freakin cold! On a show documenting meer cats (ya know timone from timone an pumba on the lion king?) yeah they have clan wars all the time. rats eat each other...mice do too it was terrible this one case of that i saw. but im gettin off subject

Such things as infanticide have a good explanation, actually the female gets on heat faster if the male does that, therefore it increases its offspring.

eh humans are naturally situational liars if a kid about 4 or 5 years old gets caught eating cookies from the cookie jar and knew he wasn't supposed to he'd lie in an attempt to not get in trouble for it even with crumbs and chocolate chips all over his face. a friend of yours is ugly but to not hurt their feelings you will tell them they look good.XD omg you know she is ugly yet you still try to tell her she is not!? you are not a good friend be real!! Im sure she can handle it! are those situations examples of evil or a just natural defense mechanisms? but im gettin off subject

The relationship of the community with lies (is that correct english?) is a twisted one. If you want me to write more, open another topic ;)

I used to think that humans were so bad and imperfect that it could have only been a perfect God who set up laws in the first place right? actually WRONG! 3000 years before the 10 commandments( which were made about 1513 BC. or 1400 maybe) were ever thought of, the ancient Egyptians created the Principals of Ma'at...then there is Urukagina one of the first ever recorded set of laws ever discovered, and also the Code of Ur-Nammu oldest tablets of law ever found, and the Code of Hammurabi (1760 BC ) is one of my faves. and this time im not getting off subject

Well, your chain of logic is somehow twisted ;) Why do you need laws? Because people may tend to do evil things. The other direction isn't always true, that's sure.

one thing that bothers me is how easily evil can be based on perspective. during the holy wars both sides deemed the other as evil! and according to what ever environment you were raised in you your self probably think that one side was bad and the other good. in some countries even today if a woman commits adultery the right thing to do is to stone her according to their laws in the bible the Jewish people did this too. back in the day the so called holy Catholic church tortured and killed people who didn't conform to them and not just over in Europe ask the Native Americans burned at the stake for not converting.

There is no black and white. What do you think of the question "Is it socially accpetable to kill evil people?" (recall Death Note). I'm pretty sure I know the answer you'll post here, as Light already showed.

we all have knowledge of what is right and wrong

That's not really knowledge, more like intuition.

and basic ideals about it may vary based on how you were raised but we all have in our hearts something inside us that tells us when we our selves are being wronged, when something that someone else is doing is wrong because of the effect that their action had may have been a negative one. i think naturally we all have the potential to be bad or to just do things that are generally viewed as wrong based on the values of your society. (like huckleberry fin who thought he was going to hell for going back to help negro Jim not to be a slave again) but if mankind was really evil what then would separate us from demons much less the animals?

Good and evil is just a human construct to differentiate us from animals. Actually, good and evil is needed to hold society together, as it implies some moral rules which can't be written into law, as they are too inaccurate.

to say we are evil is to say humans are demons that is what you are saying to me and that makes absolutely no sense and its a slap in the face of people who dedicate their lives to doing real good in the world rather than sit around saying that we are all demons.
humans aren't 100 percent evil but we actually are just imperfect by my logic....

"World is hell, and everone is everyone's devil" (A famous quote, but I'm too lazy to dig out who said it)

a demon= evil an angel=good but a human= balanced potential of good and evil with the majority in favor of doing "the right thing" according to some extent how they feel plus their own understanding of it, but largely how they were raised and what they were taught, ...or decided to pick up.

The right thing for whom?

I believe we are simply imperfect beings with a penchant for labeling things :P that are currently

not really

in the process of evolving or changing for the better