People are born good but become evil

People are born neutral, and are declared good and/or evil.

Anne, we're all altruists ... ;-)

People are born evil and taught to be good.

Did anyone teach you to lie? or were you taught NOT to lie?

People are born neutral, they change all the time!

Look at a baby and you'll see the most selfish creature in the world :)

Apart from joking, without discipline, caring, love, teaching, etc, kids will indeed stay selfish and become really evil.

Finally, if you really long for good, you'll find God.

Well, according to the Bible, its the other way around.

JW!

Maybe different people are born different ways, some are evil some are good, maybe they are reincarnated from evil or good people, or they are all intergalactic space traveling mutants (when they are fetuses) see my claim on that, either way it had to start somewhere, so I guess God rolled the dice or something.

Most people think they know what good and evil are, and unconsciously think everyone else does, too, but when you ask people what good and evil are, you get a broad range of different answers. In fact, many people can't even agree on whether good and evil are real, i.e., have an independent existence outside of some subjective personal judgment.

Similarly, a lot of people go around unconsciously assuming that others are more or less like them, since it makes their world seem safer and more predictable, until something wakes them up to the fact that it ain't so. Sure, we can talk about social norms and all that, but the bottom line is, people are all different. Some are born a particular way and some become that way. Parents who have been with their children from birth will tell you that people are not blank slates when they come into this world, chalk it up to whatever you will. And so naturally, society being a rather recent invention, especially the kind of society we live in, some people fit the suit better than others.

StA, perhaps you might be interested in this claim.

Thanks Ben.... It is interesting, but I quibble with its phrasing ("no longer").

Is there any purpose to your assertion besides the rush of primate satisfaction you get in using the "mofo" word, meta? Just curious.

Ah, come on StA. It's a fun word(pair of words?). Rolls of the tongue.

w/r/t 'no longer', yeah, if I had the claim to make again, I would substitute 'has never been'. Please feel free to reclaim as appropriate for your line of thought.

"annie" is you?

Nah, I just can't invest that kind of mental energy in "good" and "evil," because they tend to mean whatever people want them to mean....

?que? I thought you were quibbling with the 'no longer' section of 'Evil is no longer a meaningful word.' Investing mental energy buying into 'good' and 'evil' may not be a good use of time, but I frequently find it useful to remind myself of things I should not be suckered into taking seriously.

Ah... you like to be reminded of the straw man, then....

'Good' and 'Evil' is just a question of perspective.

I was born good, and now I'm mildly annoying.

If goodness and evilness are subjective, as the latest posts seem to conclude, then everyone is born good and remains good, according to their own point of view. Does anyone think of themselves as truly evil?

If good and evil really exist, then I was born evil and struggled to be good. Pure unhindered evil forced into a desperate soul, tortured by my demons, making the hardest choice. No one taught me to be good, I knew the difference all along, and I chose to strive for honorable traits. There can be no good without evil, no light without dark. To really be good, one must know the temptation of evil and overcome it. Without the opportunity to make the right choice, how can an action be deemed good. If a person is forced by circumstance to do the right thing, then how can you say they are really good and not just compliant. Such as a baby.