Well, I know this can be a touchy subject, but I really want to know. After seeing the posts earlier, I can't help but wonder....

...Are Human Beings Inherently Good or Evil?

Discuss. Please.

Yes. No one's born into the world evil, imo

I don't think it's a choice.

Everyone's born good

People are inherently reactive to their environment. There are no good choices or evil choices, just wise and unwise decisions.

I think it depends on how you're raised

Neither. It's our ability to choose to that makes us human.

Explain. Please.

Evil is mostly subjective. Good is also mostly subjective. What is good to you, is often not good for other people. The same goes for evil. There are certain acts, which are absolutely good and absolutely evil, but even then, people will come at you with opinions.

For example, murder is accepted as an absolute evil. Yet we make loopholes for when murder is committed to punish or in times of war. We also don't mind murdering other species for food. Or if we understand a person's motive as being to murder someone else who is presumed to be evil, we also don't mind.

Love is thought of as an absolute good, but some people will make excuses that certain types of love are actually evil (homosexual, polyamorous, etc).

So, it's all just a bunch of gray area, imo

I don't think we're inherently good or evil. I think there's a very broad spectrum of "good" and "evil," and most people if not all are completely one or the other.

How do we "choose"?

True.

Agree with this

I think everyone's just naturally bad, maybe not evil. It's harder to make the right choices with all the temptation in the world.

You choose your actions and your actions are what defines you.

Good and Evil are subjective terms made up by humans so it really depends on your views.

I would say humans are neither, we have empathy and we teach our children to try and get along with others but many humans still do terrible things.

We're born pure. It's society that corrupts us.

Imagine locking a newborn baby away until he/she turned 18. I'll bet my life they wouldn't be racist, homophobic etc.

Then why are children so selfish? Why do they lack empathy?

Society doesn't make us bad, If anything society makes us better people. Of course this depends on the society and no society is perfect but the main reason why we have "good" at all is because it's better for us all if we get along with others.

Neither.

I would say we teach children both empathy and greed. The whole construct of masculinity, though it has positives, is all about being aggressive, dominating, wielding power over others, and competing for scarce resources. Materialism is directly or indirectly taught to all of us, as we learn to appreciate Christmas for the gifts, Halloween for the candy, college for the prospect of making money, etc. At the same time, we do learn empathy, but a lot of it comes from experience rather than being taught it directly. We learn it when we give gifts, when we give ourselves and our resources to the less fortunate, and when we build ourselves off of humankind's sometimes crappy sometimes wonderful history.