...in the crib, but then he begins to wail again. You find this interesting. You might not see it, but the baby is acting very selfishly. Just wanting to get your attention when he is perfectly fine. He needs nothing but still cries for you when you are dying for only a few minutes of sleep. Babies are just an example of how the human species is naturally selfish even at birth. Since the day humans are born, they are brought into...
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...Often, a nihilistic view of human nature is taken by philosophers. Their dense and dreary works point out that humans are condemned to a life where evil is at the core of our essence. Their claims are hardly unfounded, what with conflict plaguing nearly all of human history, My problem with this philosophy, however, arises with the idea that we as humans are inherently evil because of our capability to make evil decisions. To say that humans are inherently evil because we have the capacity to be evil is, in my opinion, a false equivalency that simply cannot be made. I believe that evil is not something that lives and grows inside of us; it is not something that we must combat on a regular basis to make ‘good’ decisions. I am not denying humankind’s...
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...To begin with, Plato believed that people are naturally good and are just, so when people are good there is justice (herdes). This philosophy can be seen in the way Canada believes in rehabilitation. That people can get better because they are naturally good. Plato also believed that people are not equal (herdes). The Canadian government also believes this which is why people who make more money have to pay higher taxes and people who do not have a lot of money do not pay a lot of taxes. When Plato thought of a strong leader for a country he thought of someone who is willing to do and understand what is fair (herdes). In Canada the same ideology and law is present. Canadian citizens have the right to vote for someone who they believe is a strong leader that represents justice (Canada). It is clear that Plato's theories on people being naturally good, that not everyone is equal and that a country requires a strong leader who seeks justice have had a big impact on Canadian...
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...Problem of Evil (Theodicy) An age-old question that has been and is being asked from various religions, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds is how can a loving and good God allow evil to come into the world? It is a problem that has come up several times by mostly atheists and non-believers, but few Christians are asking it as well. This paper is going to address the problem of evil, why bad things happen to good people, and state the theodicies that explain and answer the problem. The problem of evil has been brought up and used as an argument by non-believers for a long time. How can a loving and good God allow evil to come into the world? They claim that these two Christian beliefs are self-contradictory and that nothing can make sense of it. They state that Christians believe that God is all-powerful, that God is good and loves His people, and that an all-powerful God is capable of doing anything and everything. They say that This question has been used to unjustifiably contradict the Christian worldview in its attempt to prove that it is flawed. They are biased and desire to convince other people and themselves that their worldview is correct by discrediting the Christian religion and/or the Bible. (Feinberg, 414). The deductive reasoning that atheists have are that if God is all powerful, kind and generous, humans are the cause of evil, an all powerful God is fully capable of doing anything and everything, then God should be able to remove evil and he will...
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...also related. Burton Leiser questions the way “unnatural” is used when he hears people say that homosexual intercourse is unnatural. Views on homosexuality were based on Christianity, which views homosexuality as unnatural, a violation of natural law, immoral, and condemnable. When we use the word “natural”, we have to deal with how ambiguous it is. In nature, it can either mean one of two things. It either means that whatever is natural follows the law of nature, or that whatever is natural is not man-made or artificial. The first argument on if homosexuality is unnatural is based on if it does not follow the laws of nature. The laws of nature are not guidelines that living beings enforce and follow. These laws describe how events in nature work. There is no punishment if the laws of nature can’t be followed, but either way, the laws of nature can’t be violated. There is no written law on how far and what direction a person’s elbow or wrist will move or bend. The elbow naturally bends typically in one direction, closes at around 45 degrees and opens to about 180 degrees, while the wrist naturally bends slightly, but can bend in any direction. If the laws of nature are not followed, the end result can lead to an injury, such as a break, a sprain, or a dislocation. A person can’t be condemned for not following how to naturally move his or her elbow or wrist, nor be rewarded for moving them naturally. The only way for a natural law to be broken or changed is for a certain event...
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...conclusion that the spread of falsity is outpacing the truth because human beings are more likely to retweet false than true news,” which was determined by investigating the sharing of more than 100,000 news stories on Twitter (Coldewey). According to this article, people like to share and spread “fake news”, including scandal, lies, and deceit, rather than “real news”. This proves that humans are more evil-natured due to the desire to gossip and scandals. In fact, it is later stated in the article that there is more of a bias to share negative news rather than positive news. The view of a more evil-natured human was originally driven by 16th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Credited with the famous quote “nasty, brutish, and short”, Hobbes also stated, “We are all basically selfish, driven by fear of death and the hope of personal gain. All of us seek power over others, whether we realize this or not,” which is clearly a very pessimistic view of human nature (Thomas Hobbes). One might argue, however, that only some are selfish, but Hobbes disagreed. He thought that in our heart we truly are, but the only thing keeping us in check is fear of punishment that keeps us on course. Regardless of how someone may act or talk, people may very well be...
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...Rosel, Jeannette Psych 100 Telecourse The Origins of Evil To many human beings when they hear the word evil what automatically comes to their mind is the devil. Evil to me means someone that does something morally wrong that can cause pain or injury to someone either physically or mentally. I have many examples of someone that I would consider evil. One of them would be a convicted murderer, a person who has taken the life of another human being that has cause pain to the family and of course to the one whose life was taken away. Another one would be Hitler he just has that evil reputation. He didn’t care if they were women, children, seniors he took their life’s and he didn’t care he had no feelings what so ever he caused so much suffering and pain on all of the families. Our environment and our upbringing have a lot to do with how someone becomes evil. Our environment such as the neighborhood that we grow up on or the group of people that we interact has some effects of how we can become evil. They always say be careful with who you hang out with because their bad behaviors will influence your own behaviors. For example if someone grows up seeing people getting shot at in the streets or just seeing violence one grows up thinking that its ok and that that’s the way how life is. They become that evil person that may end up taking someone else’s life. Our upbringing also affects it too if there is abuse in the family such as domestic violence and sometimes rape...
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...argument was that if this way of thinking were not true, then it must be that God created evil since it is well known that Satan is evil and God created Satan. I immediately explained to her that God did not create evil and that He cannot coexist with evil at any level and here is why: I began by explaining that what she is referring to is called religious dualism. Religious dualism is known as the belief that there are two opposite powers of good and evil that is operating in the universe. [1] The documentary specifically talked about the biblical revelation that the two sides of religious dualism are God versus Satan. Religious dualism is unbiblical since nowhere in Scripture can we find teachings that the universe consists of opposites, nor does it teach that Satan and God are equal and opposing forces. God, as we find in Scripture, is infinitely more powerful than Satan and will deliver punishment to Satan by eventually casting him into hell. This in itself proves the common misconception of dualism false and could not be done if they were equal and opposing forces. I then posed the question that if God were indeed generous and loving, full of complete power and authority, then where exactly did Satan and his evil ways actually come from? And more importantly, why did God allow Satan to take things as far as he has? [2] This addresses the second part of Anna’s argument of God creating evil. The Bible tells specifically about the origin and destiny of Satan and how this is...
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...Without the structure civilization provides, mankind naturally drifts toward disorder. When the rules of everyday society go away, people can give in to their deepest and darkest desires without thought of consequences. In the 20th century novels Brave New World and Lord of the Flies, Aldous Huxley and William Golding use the martyr archetype to show how civilization controls human evil. Without civilization, humans gravitate towards violence and chaos. The presence of a structural society limits the brutality of humans. In Brave New World, Huxley utilizes the martyr archetype John Savage to show the controlling nature of civilization. When John questions how humans can show heroism in such a deeply regulated world, Mustapha Mond tells him...
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...contradictory. Indeed, one has questioned the necessity of evil and whether God is truly a loving god. This can be answered and/or argued on different levels depending on a certain set of perspective. Those who conform to a religion may even state various stories to prove why evil continues to persist in mankind. The people who have experienced a tragic event in the past have the tendency to stay away from any religious system.Some would even affirm that religion and the existence of God is a form of colonization and exploitation to some extent. The moral standards set by religion can affect the social...
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...Humans are born to be naturally selfish, cruel, and hypocritical even if they were taught “good morals”. The poems “Those Winter Sundays” and “Rite of Passage”,the book “Lord of the Flies”, Zimbardo prison study, and through personal experiences shows the evil behind mankind. The poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “Rite of Passage” by Sharon Olds both shows the evil of mankind. In the “Rite of Passage” the author depicts a birthday party where kids of various ages gather. A quarrel between a six and seven year old “men” arises where the seven says he could easily beat up the six, but is soon resolved as another kid says, “We could easily kill a two-year-old” (22). This shows that kids at such a young age are naturally aggressive...
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...problem of evil and analytically assess how it is that evil weakens the traditional characteristics of God. I will attempt to explain how the existence of evil challenges the traditional characteristics of God such as omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence and Omni benevolence using Hume’s famous quote, “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then is he impotent. Is he able but not willing? Then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil?” (Hume) The theological and metaphysical problem of evil was formulated in 1779 by David Hume in his work “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion” where he asked the question, if God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and omnibenevolent then why does evil exist (Sherry)? The problem of evil causes us to look at the traditional characteristics of God and to analytically assess our suppositions about evil itself. If our God is a good, all powerful and just God as many people believe, then why would such a God allow evil to exist? This problem also brings to light questions about what is considered to be evil, whether it is moral evil committed by man or natural evil such as earthquakes, hurricanes and famine (Sherry). There are several arguments that have developed in reaction to the problem of evil that was suggested by David Hume. One such argument which is known as the free will defense claims that evil is solely caused by human beings, who must have the opportunity to choose to do evil if they are...
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...assert that God does not exist due to scientific reasoning and logic and Rowe’s argument from evil. However, a theist would refute the atheist’s argument with Paley’s design argument and Swinburne’s free will defense. Ultimately, what can truly be known about God’s existence? God’s Existence Versus Logic From an atheist’s perspective, there is no evidence supporting God’s...
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...punishments to those who choose to sin, regardless of how little evidence they have about what choices they should make, and (2) that God may be unloving of his subjects. Seeking to defend the traditional view of eternal damnation, Murray evaluates two models of hell that Christians commonly endorse, which he calls the penalty model and the natural consequence model. As he analyzes objections to each model, Murray concludes that the best defense for the traditional view of eternal damnation is a combination of the two, a hybrid model. The penalty model presents an idea that all humans who are guilty of sin must pay a penalty, and so are punished with spiritual death. However, since Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, those who accept him do not have to pay the penalty. The natural consequences model presents an idea that on Earth, all humans are given libertarian freedom. The decisions that one makes throughout their life will dictate whether they’re a self-lover or a God-lover, which in turn dictates their after-life. The hybrid model takes a combination of these two...
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...Good and evil are moral concepts that coexist in modern society, categorizing actions and feelings based on a philosophical concept. Both are linked together, like the concept of ying and yang; one cannot exist without the other, they form a balance. According to team member Erika Alati, when using the word values, you must think of the subjects that a person views as important to his or her life. For example, a person with strong familial values may put family before other facets of life. A person’s morals refer to what is internally viewed as right or wrong. Morals are almost like personal traits; they are inborn into an individual’s character. As a person is growing older, they are exposed to many different ideas. Using this input of information, a person forms different beliefs. One of the most common examples refers to religious beliefs, for example Christianity. Team member Kelly O’Brien believes that a moral, a value and a belief are all uniquely correlated. There are some distinct differences, but all combine to determine the good or evil nature of an individual. A moral is an internal sense of what we believe to be right and wrong. Values are the principles by which we construct decisions about right and wrong; while prioritizing the importance of the value(s). Morals encompass more about good and bad leading to a stronger contradictory judgment, such as being immoral. A belief, however, is a more incendiary device. Satre (1956/2003) stated “we are always...
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