NationStates Jolt Archive

Is mankind good or evil in nature? Is there even such a thing as good or evil. Is The Lord of the Flies to be believed about the tendency for humans to resort to anarchy with no enforcible system of government or will humans always cooperate? Discuss.

Is mankind good or evil in nature? Is there even such a thing as good or evil. Is The Lord of the Flies to be believed about the tendency for humans to resort to anarchy with no enforcible system of government or will humans always cooperate? Discuss.

The characters in Lord of the Flies didn't resort to anarchy: instead they form heirarchical social structures and then got to war with each other. chaotic yes, but not anarchy.

Mankind is thoroughly perverse, corrupt, and rotten to the core with sin.

I feel that mankind has an ego problem. We view ourselves as the only important species in the entire world. People kill wolves just so we can keep our monoply on hunting.

I couldn't resist clicking "I Like Pie". :)

Mankind is thoroughly perverse, corrupt, and rotten to the core with sin.

So there is absolutely no good in the world?

I couldn't resist clicking "I Like Pie". :)

Likewise

Is mankind good or evil in nature? Is there even such a thing as good or evil. Is The Lord of the Flies to be believed about the tendency for humans to resort to anarchy with no enforcible system of government or will humans always cooperate? Discuss.
I prefer to define good as that which results in the nurture or care of living things. Evil would be that which harms or neglects living things. As conscious beings capable of intentional action, humans by default are "husbandmen" of living things. We also likely represent the universe in the process of becoming self-aware.

Humans are egomaniacs because we are animals. Our sole purpose is to eat, sleep and spread our DNA (and lots of it :p ).
That we have become to much for the planet to handle is a logical consequence.

None of the above
Humans are neither good nore evil, they're just... human, which is a mix of the two

PS: which doesn't mean "there is no good or evil"

Myrth

I think we're one of nature's little oddities. Kind of like those wacky deepsea creatures that you look at and really wonder about. So given all the quirkiness and craziness we have to deal with compared to other animals I'd say we're doing pretty well for ourselves. No other creature in history has held the power over the earth that we do, thus our evolutionary past hasn't prepared us for the trials in wisdom and restraint that we must now face.

But even if we do end up rendering our environment uninhabitable and consequently going extinct, it wouldn't be the first time in the earth's history that such a thing has happened. The oxide layers of the Cambrian seafloors date from the first instances of anaerobic life. Over the course of a few hundred million years the little microbes had a population explosion, expended the world's oxygen supply by converting metals to oxides, and then died off.

We're not evil, we're not good. There is no evil or good whatsoever in anything; only our perception of whether it is evil or good, and whether it is fitting or not in our eyes.

I would say we are born with the capacity for both good and evil but are not inherently either.

Imagine the entire human race all rolled up into one person. That person..... is. No more, no less. He is the sum of his traits, neutral in every sense of the word. As you break that person apart and group the fragments into separate bunches the groups will tend towards either end of the good/evil gradient. When you get down to the individual level a person can exist ANYWHERE on the gradient. Personally I believe that virtue is the mean of two vices, that the middle ground is the moral "sweet spot."

Take this for an analogy.

You have this guy, let’s call him Bob. He is about to kill 100 totally defenseless people.

Standing with him is Mohandas Gandhi, there is a gun within his reach. Gandhi was a man completely unwilling to take a life, even if his choice led to the death of others. He firmly believed that they should not fight back lest they become like the people who would kill them.

Now we have a third person, you. You have a gun and three choices.

A. Stand with Gandhi and try to talk the guy out of it. Bob kills the people.

B. Help Bob kill the people, hell maybe even do it yourself while Bob revels in it.

C. Kill Bob.

Based on the moral middle ground, Gandhi is no better then Bob. Both positions are that of “vice” and both lead to the death of 100 people. Their blood is on both of their hands.

If you shoot Bob, you rid the world of an evil man, and you saved the lives of 100 people. You are virtuous; you are a “hero.”

The same basic structure can be applied to just about anything. Follow?

I couldn't resist clicking "I Like Pie". :)

Likewise

I'm high...

I'm high...
likewise

I'm high...

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/Assets/bong.jpg


Is it just you or does this guy seem to babble on and on without making any sense whatsoever? Does he lurch from one non sequitur to another? Are you baffled by his obscure metaphors? Are there so many typos you think that maybe he was typing while wearing a catcher's mit? Can he really MEAN what he just said? What in the hell is hey talking about, anyway? Is this guy smoking something? Well, yes...in fact he is, and lightly tethered in orbit high above the Earth Bong remains far beyond the grasp of the even the most powerful of Warriors.

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/bong.htm

Go Pie! Fuck Humans! :)

likewise
Oh yeah! Your medium, eh? My toke came from a glass pipe. That's some good grass, though not as good as pipe.

The nature of man is to love earth and mellow out.

The nature of man is to love earth and mellow out.
i really wish that were true

Sometimes I feel like I'm going sane in an insane world. What is good and evil anyway? Humans tend to be egomaniacs who look out for #1 while #2 gets the shaft. While animals tend to do the same, we are the only ones with machine guns and atomic bombs. We are the ones who really need to be careful. Spiderman was correct. With great power comes greater responsibility.

We sure messed earth up big time. I mean, the only animal we dispise more than the wolf is ourselves. We like to wage wars against ourselves. The US had to nuke Japan just to stop it from taking over half the world. We even have terrorists running around. The human race truly is dumber than sea sponginess and monkerfellers combined. We are crazy. Damn you, evolution or guy who messed us up after the big guy stopped taking care of us as much.

humans are maybe good or evil. it dosen't matter.
the humanity as whole is evil. you just need to look about waht it did.
at the first was religion. good idea. faith give hope and let you some prorpuse in life. most of religions had morals of understanding, care for the poors and other good ideas.
humanity? take it and used it for justification of the worst crimes, religion-based war and money-grabbing for the religious workers.

then we get science. good way to improve the life quality and help the populace, right? no, it mainly used for weaponary.
democracy? good system that came from the basic egomaniacy. to defend about our basic rights. that the only way there is some sort of cooporation there.
charity? combination of superiority feelings (because you in better situation than them), and debt for the conscience (the poors don't really get anything from charity, but some more days of foods).

every "good thing" is abused by the humanity, or happened because of egoistic interests.
the history proved one thing: humanity can't done total good things. inquization, holocust, wars, neglect, crimes, hate, destruction of environment, greed, dictatorships, slavery, corruption. what good the humanity can done, that will only be equal to one per mile of the bad?

Exactly. Humans are morons. Why else would we devote so much technology into killing things? Most of the things we kill aren't a threat to us, except other people. What other species do you know that wages massive wars against itself?

Originally Posted by Avika
What other species do you know that wages massive wars against itself? Ants do it quite frequently. Not only that, they assassinate royalty and enslave one another on a regular basis.

It's very difficult in some circumstances to define what is good and what is evil. Then we enter the grey zone of necessary or "justified evil". How much bad are we willing to do in order to do good? Where do we draw the line? Are we to measure evil by our actions or by our intentions?

People tend to be good in nature. Unfortunately, they also tend to be stupid and can't see futher than two minutes ahead in time.

All good for survival in a drought or an ice age, but not for much else.

people are good AND bad

havent we all done things that we knew at the time were wrong?

havent we all done things to help others even when it was somewhat inconvenient for us to do so?

Yes I do like pie so it is no wonder nature hates us http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/pikea/

no good or evil. they are just viewpoints. primary instinct=SURVIVAL

primary instincts are dead in fact human instincts are nearly wiped out because of modern life.....and er supermarkets :headbang:

What the hell was that? (talking about show thingy).

So there is absolutely no good in the world?

Man has potential for good, but on the whole, the bad far outweighs the good.

I don't believe it's as easy as that. I think it is the nature of mankind to adapt. Good or evil is irrelevant to the situation, and neither is natural. Mankind has shown, however, by its settling of everywhere in the world, and by travelling beyond, that it is our key nature to always be changing, adapting to situations.

For the record, I also like pie.

I see.

I like pie too

Who doesn't?

Mankind=evil
Womankind=good
:p
J/K

I believe every human being has some good and some evil within them.

I lied on the poll. I said I like pie. The only pie I like is pizza pie. :D

You monster!!! :sniper: :mp5:

The nature of mankind is knowledge of both good and evil. You don't know what the things you create will do. Some have found a door into life. Where every material possesion means nothing to him and his only goal is to be in the right place at the right moment.

Man has potential for good, but on the whole, the bad far outweighs the good.

That means nothing, what are you saying is bad or good? And if we have potential for good, are you saying we automatically commit bad things?

Ehh...not answering the question yet.

This goes back to that single question: What defines good and evil? I know my mix of thought provoking ideas/questions and my humor may piss some people off. Oh well. :p

Human nature is an excuse for idiocy.

Humans tend to be human in nature. :p

So there is absolutely no good in the world?

Well, there are always animals other than humans...

humans are morons. What other animal creates excuses to kill other animals when they're not killing themselves? What other animal ignores common sense when making decisions?

Humans are animals, though we often forget it. Outside of our primal urge to survive, we are nothing. Every effort made by man is simply a thinly veiled effort in keeping with the principles of survival.

Originally Posted by Avika
What other animal creates excuses to kill other animals when they're not killing themselves? I don't quite understand what you mean. Animals kill other animals all the time.

What other animal ignores common sense when making decisions? I would imagine a lot of animals don't have anything remotely like "common sense". They'd have instincts, yes, but not sense.

I had to pick "Good" because I don't like pie (except of the hairpie persuasion) and I don't agree with Evil, or the wish washy "um....duh?" of the other two choices. I think mankind has two natures. One is his Animal Nature: the need for survival, at any cost, just like all the other animals we share this place with. The most basic survival urge is Hunger, the search for sustenance (for those who think sex is the primary survival instinct: You can't fuck if you die of starvation) Whenever a human or group of humans does something evil, it is because of Hunger gone unchecked. It can lead to obesity ;) rape, murder, theivery, war and all the other nasty things we do to eachother.

The other nature we have is what I call "Good" for lack of a better word. It is our ability to rise above our survival instincts and try to be and do Good. Along with our intellect (which it can be argued is just another survival tool), it is what seperates us from the the other animals. Its when we are able to step outside of our own little world and our own deep down survival instincts that we are able to step away from them a bit and do something "Good" no matter how simple. Some of us are better at this than others. Obversely, some of us are better at being evil than others. The thing is, being and doing good is often unspectacular and boring, just the choices we face and make in our ho-hum day to day lives. We hear more about the evil because its more remarkable.

Bah, I better stop now, lest I insert my foot in my mouth. Been up 24 hours (its 5:00AM here)

Humans are naturally evil in nature. But through nurture of morals and order can civilization be established. Looking at the Democratic Republic of Congo, with all it's tribal warfare, brutal warlordism and widespread cannibalism (amongst other extremely brutal common atrocities such as widespread mutilations and rapes), are humans truly good? Would anarchy work?!

Humans have part devil DNA. But through education and moral teaching, can the evil side of Man be temporarily suppressed. Every person alive is capable of committing murders, rapes and other crimes, when no deterrence is present. It is indeed sad to be human... Every human can be subhuman.

Animals tend to kill to eat or to avoid getting eaten, except for those animals trying to please people by kiling stuff. Only humans kill just for pure enjoyment, even when we're healthy. But, what is good? What defines it? Is it pure perspective or something far more meaningful?

We make bakers rich.

Human nature is an excuse for idiocy.

Aren't they the same?

Wow, you ask people a question like this......

Humans are naturally evil in nature. But through nurture of morals and order can civilization be established. Looking at the Democratic Republic of Congo, with all it's tribal warfare, brutal warlordism and widespread cannibalism (amongst other extremely brutal common atrocities such as widespread mutilations and rapes), are humans truly good? Would anarchy work?!

Really? And how do you know that each and every person is evil down to the smallest bit? And these morals, are they the teaching of what is good and what is bad? Are you saying a world that is depicted in black/white and an order structured by polotics and 'governments' would be better? (Hmm wow so were basically staying where we are.)

So your saying that your views, your beliefs, your thoughts alone define that their own current lifestyle defines the Democratic Republic of the Congo as evil, even though you can only state your thoughts?

Humans have part devil DNA. But through education and moral teaching, can the evil side of Man be temporarily suppressed. Every person alive is capable of committing murders, rapes and other crimes, when no deterrence is present. It is indeed sad to be human... Every human can be subhuman.

Devil DNA? Where is the devil DNA? What are its compounds? Does it work as normal DNA? What is its match? Really what proof do you have to say we have Devil DNA? (What was the point of saying this?)

Once again are you saying good and bad? Black/White?

Truly what proof do you have of anything you stated? How can you make such broad steroetypes and accusations, when no one in the world knows every other person?

Subhuman? I won't bother with this.

If all you can go by is the media, the news, others words, or your own thoughts think about things from more than one side, or all you can say is nothing.

Without any restraints, humans are evil by human standards. With restraint, humans are good by human standards. Of course, humans are morons. Look what we're doing to the earth. Where else will we live? the Sun?

mnnnnnn

yum.....

pie.

A very mean person doesn't like pie. Let us not allow such a person to fowl the many toungues of the lovers of the taste of pie.

......no comment on pie.

(Doesn't mean of course I'll 'fowl' your mouths :rolleyes: )