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Are Humans inherently Evil?

^^ to gain you have to get a taste of resistance where you break, crumble, fail, struggle, whatever

the gain results from resting, healing, recovering, reflecting, whatever.

its a cycle, you decrease, trough, increase, peak.
but the peak and trough arent always equal opposites.

so yeah you feel the opposite, but it doesnt mean ur stuck with it.
 
sssssssssss;9619180[QUOTE said:
the gain results from resting, healing, recovering, reflecting, whatever.

its a cycle, you decrease, trough, increase, peak.
but the peak and trough arent always equal opposites.

so yeah you feel the opposite, but it doesnt mean ur stuck with it.
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As long as one considers circular travel as accomplishment, one is stuck.

Buddhism talks of getting off the wheel of birth and death.

We can just as readily talk of addiction -- the addiction to the idea of personal success.

Adherence to the notion that having another cigarette is accomplishing something -- is relieving your need for nicotine.

Is it?

Sooner or later one comes back to the depressive trough, and then the certainty that there is hope (in the cycle itself).

Is there?

This is the self-cycle, the self-circle. One can go one with it for a lifetime. Or not.

Peace...
 
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youre saying that we are 2 dimensional and rotating around a fixed circle. But i think that circle is actually a path inside of a sphere where each infinite set of tangent points of the sphere represents two polar opposite ideas. Everyone is somewhere within the confines of their own sphere and being on the outside means you are experiencing an absolute emotion.

I would imagine a buddhist would want to be at the exact center of the sphere where every infinite equilibrium intersects, but i dont know much about buddhism.

In a comparison, the outside would seem dark, black, far, and disconnected, and the middle would seem white, where all the colors meet, understanding, all knowing.

you have to cross other emotions to get where you are going because to go directly means you have to cross the center where you are completely alleviated of all emotion. but to cross from line to line isnt that easy because the farther from the center of the circle, the farther apart the lines are and the greater the void is. The void is full of everything you fear. so to go from one emotion to the other, you have to overcome some sort of struggle.

and as nothing is experiencing a certain "strain" of emotion, those emotions will collapse and the sphere will become smaller until the whole sphere collapses on itself into a black hole and we exit the universe we just accomplished

so the outside would represent fear, and the inside would represent courage.
and i think people hate people out of fear, and people love people out of fear, you dont let them go because you fear what will happen, and to love something means you have a set of biased values that correlate to that thing you love, while you hate something that negatively correlates to those values. so to reach the middle you would have to let go of your self, or everything you know

and the fact that you can love and hate at the same time means emotions are two dimensional, and can bend in a 3 dimensional space meaning that its not actually a sphere but some sort of form that everyone has created through time as we pass down our biased decisions each generation. meaning the gap between certain thoughts, and letting them go can be more difficult than others.

sorry for the long post, i got an idea and got really excited about it. i kind of regret it now cause instead of study for finals i wrote this lol
 
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I believe we are inherently innocent, and we lose parts of this innocence when corrupted by experiences, out of curiosity or other reasons.
 
ziggo said:
I believe we are inherently innocent, and we lose parts of this innocence when corrupted by experiences, out of curiosity or other reasons.
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I agree fully -- we are inherently innocent.

Our "problem", if any, is that we tend not to see others as inherently innocent -- there can even be a tendency to see them as evil.

"Other" is that which we've placed out and away from ourselves, and refuse to accept as an aspect of our own being.

To "let other in fully" is to die as a self, and to all that "being a separate self" suggests.

It's a lot to lose -- yet everything lost is an illusion.

Other people's bodies don't magically appear "here, with me" -- yet the persistent sense of separation accompanying the placement of others "out there, somewhere else, far away" -- disappears, as does the search for significant others.

One glimpses the true nature of other: He who mirrors me, as I mirror them.

And with the vanishing of placement in/as separation, one sees where "the other" is actually located:

"Right here with themselves, just as I am".

Peace...
 
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Inherently good. Even those who are doing evil things believe in their minds it is for a greater cause, and to them, that cause is a positive one.

Then there are those who are insane who do evil things. These things cannot be explained.
 
SpinOutOfControl said:
Inherently good. Even those who are doing evil things believe in their minds it is for a greater cause, and to them, that cause is a positive one.

Then there are those who are insane who do evil things. These things cannot be explained.
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Insanity is just "me" in extremis, hearing voices speaking to *me*, telling *me* what to do, personally interested in *me*, wanting to harm *me*, maybe even wanting to help *me*.

It's crazy how so much craziness revolves around *me*, eh?

Peas ;).
 
I do not think that humans are inherently evil, I do, however, believe that it is in our human nature to be either awake or asleep. One might ask, awake or asleep in what sense? i mean here i am, awake, and you insist i am either awake or asleep? we are all obviously awake, but then why is there evil?

yes, we may be awake right now as we read and chat on this forum, but i submit that there is still a dream current flowing through our waking state, thus, we are still asleep. We are dreaming and living in illusion if we arent dwelling in truth. What is truth and how does knowing it wake one up? Truth is god, knowing him wakes us up to our higher nature. Being ignorant of god means we are asleep, in deep illusion and out of touch with our true nature.

I do not believe we are born asleep, i believe we are born buddhas, pure and in harmony with existence itself. But it is the conditioning we go through as we grow up, that makes us disillusioned to the true nature of reality, blinding us to see it when it is here all along.

It is through our own misconceptions of the truth and illusions that make us appear evil before one another, but i do not think that we are each truly evil at heart. I mean, yes there are some evils out there, but that is not our inherent nature as beings of god. Our inherent nature as beings of god and partakers of the universe, is none other than love. However, we are all conditioned and trained by one another to go against our own nature and to follow the ways of society. This is why i believe yoga is so important. Yoga isnt a learning or a conditioning, its an unlearning and deconditioning, to get us back in touch with our true natures at heart. To quit society, realize its in deep illusion and to seek the truth within.
 
it just occurred to me that maybe by "evil" the OP or some people mean Sadistic. in that case then -- yes humans are particularly sadistic, and masochistic, every individual has opposing dualities / a master-slave complex.
 
I just read the OP's post so...
No, humans are not evil. We just live in a world with scarce resources and we attempt to acquire those resources by either helping or hurting each other. It's just survival of the fittest at play, and is visible throughout all species within the animal kingdom. For humans the overall population especially surpasses the amount of available resources needed and this sometimes results in violence, famine, etc. I think it's just nature doing it's thing.
 
Yes, humans are inherently evil.

Greed is what has allowed us to evolve and develop the brains we have. If it were not for greed the human race would have died, as we have not developed effective physical defense systems against the world.

We're kind of useless at the end of the day :!
 
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I view life as a kind of soul-test (with God grading you in the end but to never interfere during the test). i believe the opportunity to commit evil is one of the 2 bubbles to mark on this test. make the right choice n your "cosmic SAT" score heightens. what is evil?? evil (to any degree) would be actions or thoughts used to harm, dont forget you have the opportunity to harm more than just human physical bodies. even harm to yourself is an evil act because any evil disrupts or even dismantles the work of all good.
 
In order for this question to even have an answer you MUST hold an objective view of what evil is. By definition, if you hold a subjective view of evil - any answer you give to the question can go no further than yourself and your own standards.

Personally I believe in an objective view of evil. I believe to hold this view you are then forced to recognize a standard that is above all human reason (i.e. God). In other words, If i cant define evil by my own standards I am forced to look to a power above me that gives a concrete definition of what evil is.

FWIW the bible teaches that humanity is born in a state of war against their creator:
The apostle Paul summarizes the human condition in the letter to the church at Rome (Romans 3:10-18 )

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good, not even one.
Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
 
Well what we consider "evil" is entirely relative to the community we live in and its ethical and moral code. What we call Evil is just placing things which are against our moral/ethical code into a category on its own. IMHO things are only "evil" if the motive of the action is to intentionally hurt another person emotionally or physically. When a human being does this sort of thing their mental state of mind should always be taken into consideration.

Where they seriously depressed and angry that their emotions got the better of them and they acted out of anger?

Our emotions and impulses can ALWAYS get the better of us, but if we are remorseful and regretful later then it shows that we're not really 'evil' but just committed an evil action. That's one of the major things which separates us from animals. We can reflect and feel remorse for the actions we have committed. If most of us have this innate ability to reflect on the actions we have done and regret those actions which have hurt others, then we're not evil at all.

The "evil" ones are those who were in the SS and Gestapo and actually enjoyed the mass amounts of murder they committed. When taking that into consideration, then it shows that "humans are more prone to be evil when placed in a position of power" . Although I hate to say it, because I'd like to believe all humans are naturally good, but when placed in positions where an individual can have a massive effect on the lives of communities, then the feeling of power can get the better of them and they can commit very evil actions. *sigh*
 
citizen cained said:
I am sure if we removed things people say are evil or causing world problems (religion, money etc) we will still find a way to hurt and kill each other.

Do you think we are such violent animals by nature or nurture?

Or do you even agree with the topic title? What do we mean by Evil?

Discuss..
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Just selfish & greedy :|
 
Garden Man said:
IMHO things are only "evil" if the motive of the action is to intentionally hurt another person emotionally or physically. When a human being does this sort of thing their mental state of mind should always be taken into consideration.

Where they seriously depressed and angry that their emotions got the better of them and they acted out of anger?

Our emotions and impulses can ALWAYS get the better of us, but if we are remorseful and regretful later then it shows that we're not really 'evil' but just committed an evil action.
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Agreed. Evil to me means being willing to do things knowing that others will be harmed by your actions.

I think a person who can coldly rationalize doing harm to someone is far more evil than someone who explodes in a passionate fury and ends up harming someone. Passion can be tamed and controlled. "Loose cannons" can be taught to steer clear of situations that get them mad enough to fight. But if someone has his mind made up that doing someone wrong is the only sensible course of action, that's a different story. One may argue that a rational person can be reasoned with, and therefore that a cold and calm evil-doer can be talked down from his course of action. In the short term, that may be true. But in the long term, such a person has a more basic and worrying flaw -- he has forsaken empathy for personal glory.
 
what else can be evil besides people?


evil is "evil":
an action turned into a word, and then stronger yet a belief in the word, to beautify; an idealism to bring then a sense of innocence to ourselves.

maybe
 
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