Is Man Inherently Good?

An argument one often hears touted is that man is really good at heart, and if we could just make that goodness come out and work together for a common goal (generally peace) everything would be all right. Sounds great, huh? Some men have long had the quite noble goal of bringing out the innate goodness in everyone and working together for the good of all mankind.

Let’s assume for a moment that these men are right. There is an inner goodness dwelling in all of us. No one really wants to do things that are “unethical.” The question one is forced to ask when faced with this possibility, is why then the “unethicalities,” if you will, in the world? If nobody really wants to do bad things, then how come people do them?

One theory I’ve heard is that people are simply influenced by bad in their life. They are born good, but then, because people around them do bad things to them, they become bad as a reflexive action. They merely need to be raised in a good atmosphere, without the influence of corrupt society. Again, sounds nice. Doesn’t work that way in real life. History demonstrates that some of the lowest people who have been the very face of evil in this world were raised in “good environments.” Hitler was extremely cultured. He and his minions played Mozart on the piano at night after killing thousands of innocents heartlessly. He was a privileged youth. Yet he is considered by many to be the most evil man that ever lived. Ancient kings and emperors, such as Nero, who were worshiped and treated with all manner of undue love and praise and worship, were among the most despotic men to exist. They merely used their kingdom and position for the fun they wished to have. They cared not for other men, so long as those men did not bother their fun. Then those men were killed. Viewed through the harsh reality of history, a good environment where one is treated well is not enough to keep man from being evil.

Another I’ve heard is that people view evil around them and think it is all that exists and naturally do it. That would somehow explain Hitler and Nero and the like. Except that Hitler almost became a priest. And Nero ruled a throne that had been once occupied by one of the greatest rulers of history, Julius Caesar, who, while certainly not an entirely good man, was far more righteous than many of the rulers of his day. Nero had the tradition of what had once been a great democracy to look back to as well.

Do babies have to be taught to throw a “temper-tantrum” when they don’t get their way? No, they certainly don’t. All of my younger brothers have done it, and it wasn’t because they saw my parents doing it, either. They did it because it was ingrained within them. Throwing a fit is wrong. We often call it childish, which seems to me to be nothing more than a nice way of saying idiotic, simple, dumb, and usually wrong.

A great experiment was tried once, supposedly based on man’s inherent goodness. Few people know that the entire known world was once under a single government, and I am not speaking of Rome. It was Babel. At that time, men all spoke the same tongue. They all seemed to be working together for a common goal: the peace and unity of mankind. They built a gigantic ziggurat to themselves, called The Tower of Babel. They decreed that they would be as high as God. However, one can surmise that this unity was artificial and enforced. The probability that all mankind was united in that manner is ridiculous, considering the evil that was rampant at that time. God would have none of it. Why? Surely if God was just He would not mind man becoming like Him. Except that man had been innocent of sin before Adam’s sin. Now, man was corrupt, and was pushing to this goal of being as a god with purely evil motives in mind. Even at the supposed height of unity in civilization, man was plotting how he could gain more power. He wanted absolute power, and it is not unlikely that someone already had absolute power. The Bible sometimes leaves details out. Ever heard the old saying “absolute power corrupts.” Well, it’s wrong. Man is merely allowed to show his corruption more with absolute power.

You may be asking what exactly that last paragraph has to do with my argument. It is an attempt to demonstrate that even while these lofty goals of peace and unity are supposedly being achieved, they are not successful in eliminating evil.

Don’t pretend this is real. Man is not obviously not inherently good. By default we are forced to say that he is evil, though my argument will not rest solely on default. Unfortunately, it is late, and I must sleep sometime.

To be continued…