Are people born evil or do they become evil? Are they evil if their intentions are not, in their mind, evil? take osama bin laden for example. he really believes that what he did to us was right and that he was SUPPOSED to do that. he believes that president bush is evil, but does that make him evil? (ok, if you are a democrat, i did not mean that question from a political point of view, lol) this question came up because we were studying lord of the flies in english: a book about how society will convert back to their natural evil tendences. so are people evil naturally? or does society make them evil?

On topic....

I'm curious myself how someone could think that a personality trait (as I consider "evil" and "goodness" to be) can be determined by birth, or blood.

gah attack of the asteriks and i belive Osama Bin Ladin is dead as well (due to the fact that he was on dialisisssss twice a week before the 9/11 attack which means his kidney's either already failed or were failing but du to him hiding in the mountaains he could receive the dialisisssssss which would have meant he would have died of blood poisoning due to toxins and waste mateiral that his body couldnt get rid of due to bad kidneys

are you serious?!?!!...they hung him!?!?!
****!!,,,how cum i didnt know about this???..
gosh,,,

I think its kind of interesting, about Bin laden.
I didnt know that.Obviously its gonna have several perspectives but I think that in his case, no.
If he thought in that way,I dont think that hes evil, just ill,lol but its just in the way people think that describes them as "evil" or not. No one can be born evil, the way they are raised and their believes..well as in like killing is good [as an example] [bin laden is totally different]
and their environment. ...bush...evil..lol

thank your horse i now feal like a jeanuois

quote:

Originally posted by SLASHIROTH:

quote:

Originally posted by Ikki14Reed:
Saddam Hussein's been dead for almost 18 months.

Just thought I'd clarify.

Source With Exact Date.

thank you for the correction ikki ive kinda been busy so i didnt know the exact date

At least you knew he was dead.

quote:

Originally posted by Ikki14Reed:
Saddam Hussein's been dead for almost 18 months.

Just thought I'd clarify.

Source With Exact Date.

thank you for the correction ikki ive kinda been busy so i didnt know the exact date

Saddam Hussein's been dead for almost 18 months.

Just thought I'd clarify.

Source With Exact Date.

quote:

Originally posted by poopoodoo:
I think people are naturally born good.
If you were to go tickle Sadam when he was born, do you think he would giggle or scream and beat the hell out of you??? I think he would giggle, yea, definitely.

If you took Sadam away from his home in Iraq and put him into a very loving, caring, and responsible family in the United States that always did things together, family dinner table (fact says dinner with family improves outlook of kid's future), then Sadam wouldn't be "Evil" like he is/was (I forget if he is dead or not, haha).

they hung im in (Febuary i think) none the less he's been dead for a few months

I think people are naturally born good.
If you were to go tickle Sadam when he was born, do you think he would giggle or scream and beat the hell out of you??? I think he would giggle, yea, definitely.

If you took Sadam away from his home in Iraq and put him into a very loving, caring, and responsible family in the United States that always did things together, family dinner table (fact says dinner with family improves outlook of kid's future), then Sadam wouldn't be "Evil" like he is/was (I forget if he is dead or not, haha).

i dont think theres no such thing as born evil.or an evil person itself...only devils are evil...although we sometimes do evil things too..doesnt make us generally evil

In my opinion, evil isn't determined by actions. If someone wants to do evil things, but is too afraid of consequences (such as jail, social exclusion, etc.) then are they still evil? I think evil is just wanting to hurt others. Some people act on it, and others don't. Some people are more evil than others, some are relatively good but with occasional slip ups. Our society tends to overlook little displays of evil though, leaving Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam and others as the poster children for 'evil'.

First I believe we must address the concept of evil before we address the question of whether or not people are "born" evil. First off evil is a concept which is expressed through actions. The fact is the concept of evil is dependent on actions and in order for somebody to be deemed evil they must perform an action that is deemed evil. So, on this level, it’s illogical to say somebody is born evil because the concept of evil is dependent on actions
Now another question is, "is there a transcendental concept of evil and or does it exist". But it is ultimately impossible for us to tell whether transcendental concept exist because we live in a reality of experience. Therefore evil is a concept made by man, and the concept of evil does not exist outside man. Sure the actions still exists but the classification doesn't exist.
Now man does have predispositions towards certain actions. But these predispositions are dependent on stimulus in order for them to be fully expressed and fulfilled. So this question is another example of the nature vs. nurture debate, which has already been concluded awhile ago. They are both dependent on each other, so somebody could have a predisposition towards actions, which could be deemed evil. But these actions, that a person has predisposition to engage in, won't come into effect unless the person, who has the predisposition, encounters enough stimuli that would bring out the actions that are predisposed.

___All people are born with a certain level of human nature. Exactly what human nature entails is what's questionable(greed? love? sin? goodness? evil?). What people are brought up to think and feel, along with the things that they experience, may change how they go about acting on things they were born to be like.

___°°°°°There are two children, an intelligent one and a less-intelligent one: They are led into a room with muffins. The inteligent one grabs one first and burns his mouth on a fresh hot muffin. The other child waits for them to cool down.°°°°° Does that make him smarter? No, it means he learned from something he witnessed, and by doing so, changed from who he was born to be, into who he grew to be.

___Every passing minute is another chance to grow into a different and/or more intelligent person. What you are born as, is merely the starting point. Whatever you were like as a baby doesn't matter because it's not until we become responsible for our actions that "what you allow yourself to be changed into" becomes a wary decision to be constantly made and re-made.

___It's really all a big question of responsibility and accountability (yes there's a difference). Then there are people with a-d-d or down symdrome that("I" think) grow at different paces. And if you want to get real into this.... there are people that had childhoods that are.. well.. *impossible to be jealous of*(like abuse, incest, or no parents at all), how much of who they are, should they have to be accountable for? Who is qualified to make these asumptions? It's not like you can just press a magical button that reveals how stable a person is to decide things for themselves. And, who would you blame anyway?

___Sorry, lots of unanswerable questions, its just my scoop on the topic. Take it in as you will. After all, we do decide which things will or wont change us... well... hopefully we do.

Ooh, this is quite a good topic...I love philosophical conversations like this one...too bad there aren't a lot of people on it...they don't know what they're missing. Anyway...

I have no idea how people like Saddam and Stalin and Hitler became what they were. I'm not trying to sound self-righteous, but I honestly cannot comprehend how those types of people, or other murderers, rapists, etc, can do those things and not feel even a tiny, tiny feeling of hesitation or repulsion or remorse. I think on a lesser scale, people are mean and hurtful to others because of their experiences. Also coming into play and directly related to experiences are ignorance and unhappiness. If someone grows up in an evil place with people doing evil things constantly, without there ever being a legitimate argument against evil, I think that person will become what they see. They don't know that what they/others are doing is evil...they are ignorant. I'm also a very firm believer that evil, and all forms of sin, cause unhappiness. Mean, hurtful people aren't happy with the world or themselves. So these people grow up with a large exposure to evil, not knowing it's bad, and are very unhappy (no one can be happy while surrounded by evil), and these factors cause them to become evil. That's my opinion. I don't think evil is primarily genetic, but there may be personalities that are more susceptible to evil. But then I heard that little of your personality is determined by your genes, a large part of it by your first few years, and then the rest of your life to a certain extent, so maybe evil isn't gene-related at all. Sorry about the rambling nature of my post, but I had fun writing it so it's all good...

Saying that people are evil and pick up good habits is like saying zebras are black with white stripes.

I think that people are born "evil." People are "evil" because of how they are raised and their religion. Bin Ladin is "evil" because that's what his religion tells him (that Bush is evil).

Evy

people are just born ignorant

and you can do anything with ignorant people... teach them to be good or bad, train them to be your slaves, tempt them with material goods, power, money, and sex

society is corrupt

Yes! This is my area of expertise! Note: Also read Wicked, the Life And Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. The central themes are parallel. What is the true nature of evil? Is it a patch of badness, you have an experience and you become evil? Is it a genetic trait? Is it born from your experiences and surroundings? For example, let's take Hitler, perhaps the evilest man who ever walked on the face of the earth. How did he form his opinions that led him to almost annihilate the Jewish people? Hitler's mom was Jewish, so could it be that an EXPERIENCE happened to Hitler that formed a strong opinion? In the early record books, it shows a distinct lack of father. Perhaps because of Hitler's lack of father, he proceeded to seperate fathers and children, and wifes and husbands. But, it could also be genetic. Research shows that there is a chemical imbalance in the brain that promotes criminal activities. When it is activated by an EXPERIENCE, the person becomes criminal. Okay, I don't know whether you've noticed, but most things tie on with experience. Of course Hitler was evil, as is Saddam and Stalin, but if his experiences were different, perhaps he would have turned out as a different person.