How can we Define Evil?
Is it a condition we are born with?
Are people born evil? Or are they born good and become evil?
In class, we discussed a spectrum on evil: the very right side if you think that we are “born evil” and the left side if you thought that we’re “born good”. The majority picked “born good.” Dr. Watney then proceeded to ask questions and read a few short articles to see if we would change our minds…
First, Robin Douglass’s article, “Hobbes vs Rousseau: are we inherently evil?” Hobbes and Rousseau’s positions are on opposite extremes. Hobbes believed that we were born evil and then Rousseau believed that we were born good, but society makes us evil. He made it clear that they were very opposite when it came to spectrums of whether we were born good or bad and he had a very hard time coming to a conclusion, but I noticed a very good point he made which was:
“How you answer this question will largely depend on what you think the alternatives are, and those alternatives will be based on assumptions about human nature: whether we’re good or evil, which is to say whether it’s possible to organize societies around the best aspects of our nature — empathy, generosity, solidarity — or whether the most we can hope for is finding ingenious ways of turning our self-interest to good use.”
Douglass was definitely on the “we’re born evil” side. He said that Hobbes was more of an “optimist”, like Biden, and simply thought we were “born to sin”… Unlike Rousseau, who was considered a “pessimist”, like Trump, and believes that we have a choice to become good or evil.
We began our discussion with the question of whether we thought that we were born “evil” or if we thought we were born “good”. I was one of the first people to go and I said that we were born good, as well as a good chunk of the rest of my class. If you look at the other side of the spectrum that believes that we are born evil, they think that society can make us good. They probably were more influenced by Hobbes. I was more influenced by, being the pessimist, I believe that society messes people up for good and bad. I believe that we have a choice to be good or bad. Not saying that I don’t believe that we were born to sin, just in that discussion I believe that everyone has a choice no matter the circumstances… They can choose to do better. Yes, the environment and culture have a lot to do with whether someone turns out good as they age but only YOU have control of your actions and that’s something that I’ll always live by. I have not shifted my position considering everything we went over in class and what I have read on my own. I am still a follower of Rousseau and believe that what he has to say makes sense. The question of if “I’m broken” or not is another story. I think that everyone is broken in their own ways and that we weren’t born broken. But society is a huge factor in how most people turn out and what they become in the future.
In Matt Perman’s, “What is the Biblical Evidence for Original Sin?”, he claims the Bible says that when we come into this world we already have and were born with the urge to sin. The strongest evidence for this thesis is from Proverbs 22:15 and Perman emphasized that “foolishness is bound up in the heart of the child.” This quote I think really describes how he claims that infants are sinners and how he believes that if we weren’t born to sin then why hasn’t someone “beaten the odds and never sinned?”
I think that very few people choose to be evil. I understand that most people that have rough lives, end up either succeeding in life(which is very rare) or end up worse than they started. Yes, I think people try to be good and try to not go through stuff but some people can’t help it and I honestly don’t know if they can use that as an excuse because of the people who have made it out of those situations. But they will anyways…
Being “Evil” can be defined very differently by many people. Being “Good” also can be defined differently by different people as well. Like my evil compared to a guy in prisons’ evil are two very very different evils.
No one really knows if we were born evil or if we are born good. It depends on your points of view like said, Hobbes and Rousseau’s, and as well as Robin Douglass and Matt Perman’s. They all gave different views and all made very very good points. To conclude, I hope I made sense and also made a very good point as well.
