by Brenda Nelson

Created on: March 12, 2009

The question is "Are people inherently good?". I am inclined to answer "No". This is not to say I think we are inherently evil, just that we "are what we are".

At a young age we are taught by our parents what is right and what is wrong. Young children are excused from some bad behaviors with the reasoning "They don't know any different". If we were born "good" then theoretically we would know the difference, and not have to be taught it.

Given no boundaries children would hit each other just to see the reaction of the other child. We have taught them that it is wrong. In the animal kingdom, creatures establish their "pecking order". We as humans, are animals, but are expected not to behave in such ways. Bullying still happens, and if the question is, "Is bullying good?", well the answer would be that it is not good, but that it is normal.

The implication is that if something is not good, it must be bad, or for some people it is either good or evil. Let us look again at the animal kingdom, dogs are not born with the knowledge of what is good or bad dog behavior. Their mothers first teach them. Through gentle nips and growls mother dogs teach their pups proper socialization skills, later their owners teach them what is good or not. Until we teach a pup it cannot chew anything it wants, and cannot urinate indoors, how does it know? We refer to a well trained dog as a "good dog", but the opposite of good is not "evil" or "bad", sometimes the opposite of good is "normal". Now it might not fit with what we want in a pet, but it is their normal behavior.

We refer to a well behaved child as a good child, we refer to a hard working employee as a good employee. Who among us would work as hard as a "good" employee works, if we were not getting a pay check or if not for the fear of loosing our job?

Some people act good only for reward, or out of fear of threats. At the very heart of this is religion. Some religions use the threat of Hell, or the reward of Heaven, to control people into acting and being good. Is this our real selves? Is it a role we play because we want that reward or are fearful of that punishment?

I have heard it myself, people actually say "What would Jesus do?". If that is their reason for picking a path of action, it is not genuine. They are not acting according to what they would do, but in accordance to what they "think" they should do to get the reward of Heaven. A truly good person would never need to ask what action is the right one.

If humanity were inherently good then we would not need any reward/punishment systems at all. We would not need to be taught what is acceptable and what is not. We pick what path we take based on our experiences and convictions. As such I rest my case that people are not inherently good, we simply "are".

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