The Depravity of Man

The continuation of this post…
If man is not inherently good, then we are left with two choices. Either he is merely a random organism that does everything by instinct, or he is the opposite of good. He is bad. Both are unpleasant thoughts to consider, though, in my opinion, the former is infinitely more unpleasant an idea than the latter.

The former, it seems obvious, does not make sense. Humans clearly have the ability to make critical choices that are anything but primitive and instinctual. A prime example of this is seen in economics. If it was merely a matter of instinct, it would seem that everyone would take the same direction in the handling of their money. Yet they, if they live under any sort of a modicum of free market, and some even if they don’t, will make various decisions based on a conscious thought process wherein they believe that they will succeed over others. Sure, it’s part of a survival instinct, but it requires constant, changing decisions to continue going. Contrast this with the animal world, where everything is instinctual. In many various herds, tribes, etc. of animals, whichever animal is the leader gets unquestioned loyalty and makes the decisions regarding economy, i.e. where to go, what to store up, what to eat, etc. It only makes sense to follow the leader because there is no other course of action to take. The leader is not determined by wisdom, but generally by the ability to fight off others and be the strongest. Everything in the animal world is ruled by whatever is instinctual, which in this case is follow the strongest. A human on the other hand, might not do always follow the strongest if they got the idea that they could survive better by doing something else.

So we are left with one option, and that is that man is inherently evil. We are forced to recognize this by both process of elimination and the obvious evidence all around us. Everyone has done something wrong (a.k.a. sinned, unethical) in their life. No realistic argument can be made for the absence of absolutes, seeing as how that very premise shoots itself down by its own assertion, so everyone admits that there is wrong in the world. Now, to say that man is inherently evil is not to say that all people are bad people, but is merely to say that all people have the propensity to do wrong at one point or another. Now, various people disagree on what is wrong and what is right. I base what I believe to be wrong and right on what the Bible, God’s written Word, says. Others base it on what their holy book might say. Those who subscribe to humanism base it on what they think is instinct, but what is in reality their conscience. (That claim will be discussed in a later post.) To say that simply because one has not committed murder or another serious crime that one has not done wrong is absurd. No one thinking reasonably is going to say that stealing or cheating, even small amounts, is right. They may say it, but deep down on the inside they have to find some way to justify it because it just doesn’t feel good or right.

In the previous post, I gave the example of a two year-old throwing a temper-tantrum, and no one having to teach him how, as example of man’s sin nature. While man has an innate sense of good and bad that animals obviously do not have, this alone will not keep him from doing wrong. Anyone who has a child knows this, and I daresay that anyone who is willing to look in a proverbial mirror will admit it.

I am forced to conclude, based on both observational and conditional evidence, that man is evil. A dismal outlook it leaves us with. It also begs another question. How did we get to be that way? How did we get the sense of good and bad within us that other organism apparently do not have? These will be addressed in a later post, so don’t touch that remote…