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Is humanity "evil"?
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By your own definitions of morality, do humans by nature fall one way or another on your scale of what is right and what is wrong? Can we be categorized on such a scale for that matter?
Although I understand that someone can do 'wrong' and spend their time on this earth tormenting others, I try not assume that people are inherently evil, because that (if anything) is the fastest way to lose faith in the good of humanity, and in turn, for humanity to lose faith in itself to improve.
I totally agree with you on this one but "right" and "wrong" are very relative and subjective. However, the source of objective morality is a good topic for a debate. Some people love to live life with a negative attitude while others like their attitude positive. A human being changes his mind over time and sometimes jumps from one to another depending on his current/overall status/situation. Therefore, I have not met in my life anyone who is purely evil or good. If some are evil at a particular moment, there is a reason behind their evil acts such as: unmet needs/dreams, extreme pain living inside of them, human ego went crazy... etc... I invite logic and reason to explain every evil action done by human beings. Nevertheless, a major cause of evil in the world is the "LACK OF EDUCATION" and by education I mean real education. Real education is the will to get yourself to learn something and not the type of education you get in high school or college. Also, lack of sympathy and feelings causes the human animal to forget about or attack his fellow animal or hate him...
I find a lot of love and sympathy for this world and for life in children. So I think that humans are born with a good attitude and with a tendency for life. Everything gets @#$%&* up later. As George Carlin said, something is @#$%&* up with the world. The longer you can stay a child and the longer you can have that spirit of living and the more you educate yourself, the less likely you are going to engage in any objective wrongs. History is full of such examples.
Define "evil". Definition of it changes time to time.
Ignorance. It has always been ignorance.
It causes harm via the malice of the fearful, it facilitates the decomposition of the very foundations of civilization, it narrows man's view to few trivial dimensions, it is the very bane of empathy.
Those with power and no sense for responsibility are truely and purely evil to me. Ignorance is one of those attributes, but their are others such as greed or hate.
The only responsibility powerful people see is to do whatever they can to keep the power, not use the power to help anyone.
But could it be that you can't relate to people in power- to the point at which you deny their humanity?
According to the Bible ALL have done wrong and have fallen sort of the glory of God. Nobody can be perfect. When the rich man asked Jesus what could he do to get into heaven essentially; Jesus knowing that the man was thinking something like "great I'm already a good person what can I do." (big emphasis on the "I") however that is not how God's gift works. So Jesus told him what he had to do. That if he wanted to be holy on his own strength he would have to do everything in his power to help others. There is NOTHING a person can do to be any less sinful. I might not be hurting people in a noticeable way but I'm still doing things that God asked me not to do. Additionally I'm doing just about nothing to help others.
My church pastor explains all this a lot better than what I could do so just watch a few of his videos Youtube.com I should probably go to church more often but I can always watch a video at home while multitasking:) Right now for instance I'm watching Youtube.com even though it's old I haven't known about him back then, so I should catch up and watch any that I haven't watched yet. Also that one had a name that applied to this so I though I should share it but I didn't watch it yet therefore I am watching this while typing this and so far its as good as his other sermons. Lastly it deeply annoys me that he barely ever names them a useful, meaningful name so that I could find them later.
The guy in this picture is evil. Look how he stares into your soul...
I think this really depends on what degree of "evil" you mean. While we may not be willing to nuke our next door neigbours by default, the fact that humans lean towards self-preservation and survival is undeniable. Most of the world's examples of selflessness and empathy came from those who were educated regarding morality and the like.
Ignorance, greed, and mankind's natural desire for self-preservation are all a part of the problem. I'm not saying that our nature can't eventually be changed, I'm simply saying that whe left to ourselves without education or some sort of social standard, we fall apart. We become our worst nightmare.
People care too much about living to live fully as a sentient being. It is rather ironic.
We can either align our morals to fit our nature and say that most people are good, or we can judge our nature by certain "set" morals and label everyone evil.
Take your pick.
All I'm saying is that by default, we tend to value our own self-preservation over others. Whether that is good or evil is up to the individual to discover.
Evil and good are a matter of opinion. There is no cosmological definition of what makes good and evil. However, as a species of feelings and thought, there ought to be some sort of general definition of what makes good and evil to make sure everyone can have a peaceful loving life. I for one think no one should kill, harm, abuse, or punish anyone, these rules especially go to the treatment of children because it's violence in that time of someone's life that makes them violent in the future. Don't teach people good by threatening them, teach them to treat how you want to be treated and have empathy.
If I ever have a kid, I am naming him Dann in your honor.
I am honored! My full first name is Danny but most people call me Dann :P