People are born with GOOD intentions. Their "evil" just comes out depending on how their parents or the society around them treat them. I think that we shouldn't bring religion into this, but all agnostics, atheists, and all religions have a do unto others as you would have them do unto you GOLDEN rule. Evil people's GREED, LUST, SELFISHNESS, ENVY and other bad things are based on life situations. They don't just conjure these things up without reason. I think there is BAD parenting and BAD society out there. We hear in the news about these people all the time... they end up as evil guys and sometimes as bad as power forwards for the Utah Jazz. There's a "good" gene?
What you're learning is that all adults have egos, biases and personal agendas; and that most human behavior is some form of aggression or submission.
Quite true. One only needs to look at other hominids to learn that behind "good" deeds stands ultimately self-interest. Actually, this should be stated more strongly, i.e., it is in one's self-interest to do good. And if one takes offense at the claim that their morality is primordially selfish, (s)he should understand that it hardly diminishes the value and beauty of being and doing good.
true. I read that from my biased point of view of what I think. That's the problem. Hear lots of people say ' he's a good friend, he would help me out if I needed it' that's total sh**it to me. so its about what they would do for you? but really it's about I give you something and you give me something? It's built into our business mindset. I have people that I used to call friends that I don't associate because of this. This whole well 'you gave a ride that one time and you let me drink that beer ,so now I owe you a cigarette??' wtf !! everything has to be some kind of f**ucking exchange!! I get tired of that. I try not to be like that with my wife and in the end it's hard to not think 'what about me' but in a good relationship you don't get that as much. still ultimately yes people are VERY selfish. Big part of me thinks the exchange 'tit for tat' mentality is an american thing..yeah I might be stereotyping but that's been my observation
personality is a combination of nature and nurture. given a combination of certain brain chemistries and certain life events and influences, one will become attracted to one sex or the other during puberty. you are not born gay or straight. there is no "good" or "bad." these terms are relative. we are born with our survival tools (genetics) and the ability to adapt to our environment. our personality is constantly evolving as it goes through life based on the influences and experiences we encounter.
Insightful and very encouraging. If I look at the world as a series of events which we have no control over, reactions set in motion by "forces" which proceeded us, wouldn't that be similar to being a Christian and believing that God has a plan for all of us, fate or destiny. What are the forces you mentioned?
I haven't read the book (definitely will at some point) but from what I've heard from Sam, I think Donny is taking about the fact that every thought you have first manifests itself in the brain before you consciously realize it. Meaning, in principle (to some extent in practice too already, AFAIK) your thoughts can be read before you think them. In this sense free will is a nice idea but ultimately doesn't exist. But maybe I misunderstood what Donny meant. What Sam was certainly NOT doing is reinforcing or supporting some sort of Christian dogma or its analogue. As I said, this has far deeper and older roots than modern America or capitalism. Altruism increases the odds of survival not only of the recipient but the altruist himself as well (not necessarily in any individual instance but the philosophy in general).
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people should be good but shouldn't be a pushover. Know how to hold your own in a conversation and when people are teasing you (usually just a test to see if you're a pushover or not). If you're a white knight in shining armor that can shoot the **** with the a$$holes then ur golden.
There are no more evil people than there are evil fish. If you mean people that commit crimes against our agreed upon societal laws, I think it is absolutely a mixture of nature and nurture. In some cases it might be 50/50. In some it might be 99/1. In either direction. Are people born "bad?" (And again I use the word "bad" even, under the duress of trying to play by the generally agreed upon vocabulary.) The answer is obviously yes. Some people are born "bad" and probably never had any chance at all to become "good." People are born sociopaths. People are born pedophiles. People are born with rage issues and violent impulses. In some cases even these incidents even fall in the nurture category as a mother might be a crack addict, let's say, impacting the baby's brain's development. But violent or addictive behaviors or whatever are also often hereditary. Alcoholism runs in families. Violent personality disorders do too. But I would never underestimate society's or especially a parent's ability to turn a kid "bad" for good. That happens every minute of every day. The thing is--and this is the reason I don't believe in "bad" or "evil"--that parent or teacher or priest that touched the little boy in the wrong place was very likely to have been traumatized as a child too. So I can't even call the 'bad actor' an ******* or whatever. We repeat trauma and bad behavior and abuse. It's a very natural thing to do. And it's a rare thing to escape childhood plus adolescence without experiencing at least one serious, personality-altering trauma.
Doesn't this remove all sense of personal accountability and also purpose? It could also easily also lead to apathy, complacency, and resignation. Besides those negative consequences, I just think it's wrong
