GOOD OR BAD

Is mankind inherently good or is he inherently bad?

I think this is the question that greatly divides our country today. Are we basically good and influenced to do bad things or are we basically bad and sometimes do good things? This opinion is the moral foundation on how we as a society treat each other.

As I watch the evening news and see people being interviewed who have just suffered as a result of others behavior, I am greatly sorrowful, as are many others. But at the end of the interview the interviewer asks the question toward the audience “How can we fix this?” We all want to live in a safe and loving community, we feel sorrow for the victims and sometimes for the criminal but it seems like no one knows the answer.

In a recent survey of U.S. residents by “One Poll” they asked that question and 81% said that humankind is inherently good. Debate.org phrased the question in a few different ways and the response was from 50 -75% who said that man was inherently good. I also just randomly downloaded eleven different posts on that subject and six said good, four said good or bad, and one said bad. I know this is not a very extensive study but it seems to indicate what Americans believe and as a result would influence what they think could be possible answers to the issues we face as a society.

So let’s look at some of the major issues of the day and how the opposing views fit into what I believe is their view of mankind. I’ll start with crime since I mentioned it already.

Crime:

 If we believe that mankind is basically good then defunding the police makes sense because policing doesn’t keep us safe. Those who believe this say If policing and imprisonment stopped violence the US would be the most peaceful country in the world. A recent example of this is the NY DA Alvin Bragg decision not to prosecute certain crimes and reduce the punishment on more serious crimes.

If we believe that mankind is basically bad then we need to increase punishment and make the punishment fit the crime. Proverbs 10:13b states “but the rod is for the back of him who lacks sense.” Several verses in the Old Testament state that punishment is not just to correct the criminal but also so that others will see and not do the crime. A good example of this today is in Singapore. They punish crime and their crime rate is one-tenth the rate of the United States.

We can’t correct mankind if we don’t view him correctly.

If you want more information on this view see my post on “The Cure for Crime.”

Immigration:

Those who believe mankind is basically good say that he should be able to travel this planet freely because it is a common home to all of us. In that regard the US should open its borders because in their view restricting migration violates the ethical principle of our common right to life on this planet.

If mankind is basically bad we need to protect our own countries. We cannot compromise national security and public safety. Every nation has the right to secure its borders and ports of entry and control what and who is coming into its country.

Foreign Policy:

From the PEW Research center they state that “roughly seven-in-ten Americans (73%) say that good diplomacy is the best way to secure peace, while 26% say that military strength is the best way to do this.” This falls directly in line with the majority who think that man is basically good. If you think your enemies are basically good then you can reason with them from a position of weakness and they will be nice to you. But if they are basically bad then only a position of strength will bring them to the negotiating table.

Also if we think mankind is basically good we should be willing to share technical information and keep no secrets. We should declassify everything because we would expect our enemies to use the information for our and their own good.

Socialism:

The argument for or against socialism is built around the nature of mankind. Both socialists and capitalists would say that there are elements of good and bad in everyone but the key is the foundation of their behavior. Again, are we basically good or bad?

Socialism requires a person to willingly put more into a society than he will receive. Socialists would say this is possible because of the good nature of man. Actually most Marxists would state that people act selfishly as a product of scarcity and capitalism, but not as a result of their nature. Where anti-socialists would focus on the inherent capacity of mankind to be selfish and cruel. Therefore for socialism to work mankind must be basically good and always putting the needs of others before his own.

I know these are some hot topics in which Americans are deeply divided and solutions come from a correct view of the nature of man. So in order to get it right let’s see what the Bible says about the nature of man.

Biblical Position:

In just going through the Bible we can see God’s perspective on the subject. Just before the flood God describes the state of mankind in Genesis 6:5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” David said in Psalms 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” In Ecclesiastics 7:20 Solomon says “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” And also in Ecclesiastics 9:3b he said “the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live.”

In Jeremiah 17:9 Jeremiah said of everyone “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it?” Jesus said in Matthew 7:11 “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” and in Mark 7:21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

So God states that man is inherently bad and who should know more than God?

So if mankind is inherently evil and Americans think that he is good we are trying to better our life, keep us safe, and to live peacefully without correctly understanding mankind and therefore not correctly understanding the issues we face as a nation.

Finally, the purpose of this post is not for us to go out and try to change the minds of all those who think that mankind is good but for us to better understand what they are thinking so we can come up with solutions that are acceptable to both sides of this great moral divide.