Are people intrinsically good or bad? (page 3)

frankiespeakin

Good and bad?? What is good??Is it not simply a judgement base on a faulty evaluation device,,the human mind?? And the same goes for bad!

My idea of bad may be a killer whale's view of good. You see what I mean? Who sets the standard man or the whale?? Which one is more valid?? If you say man,,then you are only showing your predjudice. And there is no proof anywhere that some guy name jehovah is the official standard setter for the universe.

So to answer the question :

Are people intrinsically good or bad?

I would say the answer depends only on who you ask,,ask any member of the whale family Humpbacks, Gray whales,,etc...and I'm sure you would get more towards the bad specturm,,ask a dog and he might go towards good. I guess what I'm really saying is:"It is all a conceptual non-reality"

onacruse

Satanus:

In countries where there is rule of law, laws enable order to be maintained amidst all these competing egos.

And those laws, whether written or oral, are developed by generations of human beings, not by some divine being. It's a matter of how humans control other humans.

It is a system where, instead of a law of the jungle of the most powerful getting all the power, the group gives it's power/support to certain laws.

The jungle always rules.

We like to delude ourselves that, by reason of the rule of law, there is thereby order in the universe; a self-inflicted misconception of the nature of life. Just ask "God" about when you'd like your next flat tire, or when it would be most convenient for you to have the neighbor's tree blow over and smash the dickens out of your house.

Generally, even the most powerful are held to those laws.

I disagree. The most powerful are most often able to avoid the consequences of those laws, or to change those laws, as best fits their needs. "Him what has the gold, makes the rules."

Satanus

Ona

I should have said that sometimes the powerful are kept to those laws. Correct that they iether change laws, or get around them somehow. But, the illusion is given that they are also subject to law. That is enough to keep the herd passified and thinking that the system works. It keeps order among the commoners.

S

onacruse

Satanus:

But, the illusion is given that they are also subject to law.

"Illusion" is the word that eluded me! LOL

Some while back, it was said to me that "you are your own god."

In my strongly pro-JW thinking pattern (though DFd), I took great offense at that insinuation. How could I possibly be my own god????

But then, as my thinking progressed, I realized (must to my consternation) that I can, in fact, only be my own god...or, to quote the Biblical description: "In God's image I was made."

Thus, morality (are people intrinsically good or bad) becomes irrelevant, at least insofar as external judgements are concerned.

one

There is no need to be cynic nor physophical,

good and bad can be defined, good and bad actions can be filtered from the point of view of any "reasonable" person, which is the cretieria used in court of law.

Forget about circunstances, the environment etc etc as such variables ARE created by humans themselves. What some are saying (implicit) therefore is that human behaivor is the product of circunstanes created by human.

If a pc and software program turns out garbage because the input (circusntances) were not the best, still the problem is the pc and the software for no validating the input and rejecting it if neccesary..

Only a minority among humans will do that, reject the environment if is negative.

Something is wrong with most humans.... obviously the best thing to do is shut up.

eyeslice

My contention is that the majority of people are 'decent' folk who are interested in other. My guess would be that this is partly genetic (survival of the species) and part nutured (our parents bring us to be respectful of others). Those who do not conform to this 'norm' are a rarity and generally are ostrasied by society.

Eyeslice

Perry

If you have ever been in a business relationship and needed to put together a contract, your attorney being the pragmatist that he is will counsel you to assume that whatever can go wrong will. I don't know of any attorney that will write you a contract that will have as its premise an assumption that the other party is intrinsically good.

one

Perry,

amen

what_Truth?

Humans are too complicated to be labled "good" or "bad". For the most part we are social animals that desire to be part of a community. This desire promps us to get along with each other and treat eveyone more or less decently. Our main flaw is that as a species we are obsessed with status, and hording wealth. We put more importance on a stockbroker who makes a killing off the market than a coal miner who makes 1/10th as much providing fuel for the community even though the latter is much more valuble.

gumby

It depends on what bad is in the eyes of those reading this.

If a married woman walking with her husband passes a tall,dark, good lookin bastard, she might be polite and give a nice smile when in her heart she would like to at least touch just one butt cheeks or at least peek at it. Is she bad or good? I think she would be normal.

This is another one of those question in which the answer lies in the eye of the beholder in which there is never a 100% agreed upon answer....but it's still fun to discuss.

Gumby

Are people intrinsically good or bad?

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