Are People Basically Good or Basically Evil?

Are People Basically Good or Basically Evil?

  • People are basically good

    Votes: 5 23.8%
  • People are basically evil

    Votes: 5 23.8%
  • Deep down, most people are good

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • Deep down, all people are evil

    Votes: 10 47.6%

  • Total voters
    21

OrthodoxyUSA

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Familial resemblance. . . Jesus said, "You are of your father, the Devil" to a group of Pharisees.

He said this so that they would turn back. Christ is not saying that the Devil created them, but that they are acting as if he had.

Still no mention of God's image being taken away.

Forgive me...
 
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Adstar

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So, evil people can love and do good.
Yes.. I know people who have very bad tempers and short fuzzes and they will go off at their kids of even the most minor infraction... Later on they genuinely regret their hot hotheadedness and wish they where more level headed and calm when dealing with their kids...

I also know of drug addicts who wish they could never touch drugs ever again. But the addiction takes control and they find themselves doing what they hate..

Roman 7 gives insight to this phenomenon..

Romans 7: KJV

14"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. {15} For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. {16} If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. {17} Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. {18} For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. {19} For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. {20} Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. {21} I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. {22} For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: {23} But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. {24} O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? {25} I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
 
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jimmyjimmy

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He said this so that they would turn back. Christ is not saying that the Devil created them, but that they are acting as if he had.

Still no mention of God's image being taken away.

Forgive me...

God created Satan. Does Satan bear God's image? Neither do fallen men.
 
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RadiantGrace

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People are instriscially oriented toward the good. People that believe otherwise are projecting some form of psychological abuse or perverted religious indoctrination. It was this belief that justified so many of the evils of modern times such as slavery, libertarianism and the twisted sociology of Hobbes, Hume, Locke Rousseau, et al.

If you take five seconds to distance yourself from the idea that you should convince a person they are worthless unless they believe as you do, you'll see the abusive and twisted nature of this type of thinking.
 
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OrthodoxyUSA

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God created Satan. Does Satan bear God's image? Neither do fallen men.

non sequitur and offers no evidence.

Angels are the uncreated.

Forgive me...
 
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OrthodoxyUSA

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Angels are the uncreated? Is this EO doctrine?

"bodiless Powers of Heaven"

IOW ~ eternal

same as with the words "begotten, not made" refers to the uncreated.

Forgive me...
 
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OrthodoxyUSA

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jimmyjimmy

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The Gibborim

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Are People Basically Good or Basically Evil?

I think looking at it this simply can lead to some miss understandings. If God created people to be basically evil then I think we have a problem. Here is a video that explains why God must be good and how he can only create good. Evil comes from twisting good things. Not from a evil itself.

 
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jimmyjimmy

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I think looking at it this simply can lead to some miss understandings. If God created people to be basically evil then I think we have a problem. Here is a video that explains why God must be good and how he can only create good. Evil comes from twisting good things. Not from a evil itself.


Are humans twisted?
 
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The Gibborim

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Are humans twisted?

I think we have the ability to twist good. Does that mean we ARE twisted? No? I think it means we have free will. I guess the question is, from birth, do we have a propensity to twist good into evil or are we more inclined to just aim for good.
 
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HeatRamosHidden

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I think we have the ability to twist good. Does that mean we ARE twisted? No? I think it means we have free will. I guess the question is, from birth, do we have a propensity to twist good into evil or are we more inclined to just aim for good.

The fact we can be twisted means we are basically sinful. In God's standards, we are evil, not just naughty, because sin corrupts so badly we can't go to Heaven. That's why Jesus washes away our sins with his blood and water. It makes us comparably good compared to what we were before, but it doesn't mean our goodness originates from within us. Our goodness comes from the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, or to put it less incoherently, our goodness comes from within but it isn't fully ours yet.

We don't finish maturing into good people until we dead.
 
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sdowney717

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People are instriscially oriented toward the good. People that believe otherwise are projecting some form of psychological abuse or perverted religious indoctrination. It was this belief that justified so many of the evils of modern times such as slavery, libertarianism and the twisted sociology of Hobbes, Hume, Locke Rousseau, et al.

If you take five seconds to distance yourself from the idea that you should convince a person they are worthless unless they believe as you do, you'll see the abusive and twisted nature of this type of thinking.
God tells us this about man and evil, and nothing has changed since that ancient time.
Gen 8
21 And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
 
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_-iconoclast-_

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Jeremiah 17:9-10 - The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Luke 6:45 - A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

Ezekiel 36:26 - A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Psalms 51:10 - Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Proverbs 23:19 - Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
 
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bling

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Are People Basically Good or Basically Evil?

Is a new born baby good or evil at birth?

Since satan is running around influencing people, how could we tell how they might react in a vacuum?

Since we are not born have Godly type Love instinctively (robotic type love) we can do nothing of real value, but can only allow God/Christ to do something of value to us. Mature adults start out sinning.
 
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jimmyjimmy

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The fact we can be twisted means we are basically sinful. In God's standards, we are evil, not just naughty, because sin corrupts so badly we can't go to Heaven. That's why Jesus washes away our sins with his blood and water. It makes us comparably good compared to what we were before, but it doesn't mean our goodness originates from within us. Our goodness comes from the Holy Spirit, who lives within us, or to put it less incoherently, our goodness comes from within but it isn't fully ours yet.

So true.

When we minimize our problem, we, at the same time, reduce the sacrifice of Christ. If we only had a head cold, then His cross means very little; however, if we have stage 4 inoperable cancer (which is far less serious than our actual condition) then His death on our behalf has greater value to us. When we diminish our sin, we demolish the work of our Savior.
 
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