ANSWERS: 43
  • Yes, the human race is essentially good. But, as soon as anyone grabs too much power, it tends to corrupt, friction starts and problems start to develop. Too much power tends to take us back to more basic, primitive, less civilized standards of living.
  • I look at human history and I gotta say no. If left to ourselves we are capable of the greatest of atrosities. There seems to be no limit to our willingness to destroy anything and everything. One person can get it into their heads that they want to kill every person of another race, tribe, religion, whatever. He can then convence millions that this is a good idea and like magic it happens. No one says, "Hey, these people have a right to be what they want to be." until tens of thousands are all ready killed. Even here in the U.S. "where all men are created equal" there has been great atrosities commited. Some in the name of power, some in the name of greed, some in the name of religious beliefs, it doesn't matter the name you give it. We, as a race, have proven over and over again that we are not essentialy good.
  • No, I don't think so. We are systematically destroying our own race. Does that make us bad or just stupid?
  • No this world is going to HELL...
  • As a whole the human race is an arrogant group of self-centered beings whose own arrogance will eventually wipe them out. I am not human so Im OK.
  • Yes it's just that we are shown all the bad - new's - gossip - ex....
  • No. Undoubtably no. There is no concept of good and evil in nature and we are merely part of it. We live for the sake of living and will survive selfishly at all costs. The human race is neither good nor evil. It is life.
  • Well, how do you define good? Before you can say something is good or evil, you first have to define them. Using the blurry, phantom definitions of good and evil, I would have to say... it's both. From one perspective, it's good--a baby isn't capable of any thoughts we could consider evil, and its intentions are pure, free from what we consider corruption. On the other hand, things such as greed, lust for power, the need to do anything to survive--are built into the human consciousness in order for the human race to survive. In that sense, you could consider the human race inherently evil.
  • Yes. But if you start showing good news on TV most people would change channels. So the media just shows bad news which keeps people glued to their sets.
  • ABSOLUTELY. Overall, without question, yes. So many selfless acts and kindnesses occur each day we take them for granted. Civilization would have not advanced this far without the predominant instinct of mankind to cooperate and work together. If the balance was not towards the good, we'd never have left the Stone Age.
  • I believe it is,but society and media find that good is a sign of weakness,and therefore pushed aside,for less virtuous qualities.
  • Absolutely not, we are still animals, and still feel many of our animal insticts, it is only because of the way society has developed, and humanity has developed through history that we are how we are today. For example, the development of a sense of spirituality has lead a great deal of people to act kindly towards others where they normally might not have (A modern example being the Judaeo-Christian 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you' belief) Also the sense of community puts a great deal of pressure on many people to conform to the standards other people hold, and because many people honestly want to do what is 'good' (for various reasons), other people who would not have done so normally, now will through their desire to be part of their community rather than an outcast. So... To more directly answer your question, I would say on a primal level, Humanity isn't what we consider 'good', but often when examined as a whole, the majority of people try to do what is 'good' rather than what is 'evil', but it seems it isn't for a particularly noble reason; it often seems that it's just the desire to be part of something bigger, rather than the honest desire to do what's 'good', essentially meaning that humanity isn't 'good', but our 'society' or 'community' makes us 'good'.
  • From the evolutionary perspective, we are neither good nor bad. All we are doing is trying to survive with the rest of the species {although some species are disappearing,, thanks to us} Religious ones would like to think we are good because then we have more hope and gain a sense of control and responsibility.
  • I believe people in general are good, just corruptable
  • I hope so...
  • No. We are generally selfish and any semblance of goodness generally only extends to friends and family. There are exceptions of course, but the majority of humanity is selfish and neither good nor evil.
  • No. We'd like to fool ourself into thinking it is.
  • I think we are essetailly "good". We are a pack animal and with out that ingrained knowledge of good and bad we would have no boundries on how to behave in a benifical way. In effect we would have killed ourselves off.
  • Maybe, I believe that the human race has evolved always in the name of survival, so if you think that survival is good, then yes.
  • Yes. I am sure of it. There is far more good than evil in this world.
  • First off, you would have to start off by defining good.. is it morality, ethics, religious standards or what? Well its my belief that when it comes down to it take away as much as you can from a man, for example place him on an island with nothing but himself and another man who is equal to him in every way, in other words one does not over power the other... you find that morality or good and evil comes down to what helps us survive and what hurts our survival... if you kill the other man, you hurt your chances of survival and therefore you are bad, and also the possiblity of him killing you hurts your survival and his therefore it hurts you both and he is considered bad... if you kill the man in order to survive i.e. hes trying to steal your food, then some, maybe even most people would consider you to be in the right... he was hurting your chances of survival... so is the human race essentialy good? Essentialy everyone tries to survive.. and according to each persons unique standards of how to survive, they will do everything in their power to do so... by all means we are a social creature and we know that it takes two to reproduce :P, so essentially killing anyone is always bad.. and of course you cannot put value on human life.. but scientifically speaking, it almost never benefits anyone to kill another person... you can apply this concept to so many different areas of our society, people rally behind religions because it teaches morality which protects the weak from the strong and helps survival, you find it in laws, in any place where order reigns, in any prospering civilization, everything that helps people survive is considered good, and anything that hinders is bad, which is why crime which hinders our ability to survive is considered bad, but if you look at the boy whos lost his parents that steals bread to survive, we automatically sympathize because he was merely trying to survive, and people wonder how to fix such injustice as a child that goes hungry because bad had to have happened to put this child in this position and they aim to fix this because it helps the survival of our society... :) anyways sorry i rant! this would be my first answer to any question on AB, i liked the question, and i wanted to say my piece ^^. oh and human race is essentialy good but we cant forget that there are people who do have mental diseases such as sociopaths or psychopaths, who do not fit the every day mold of a human being, and it is unwise to try and find good in someone such as this.. they may have good tendencies, but they will never be altogether good.. but then again.. really not too many humans are :) we are by nature ambiguous and our passionate moments can lead to horrible mistakes =[.
  • We're neutral. We do both help and hurt each other. We probably average out to be evil, overall, if you sum up the net suffering and joy we generate as a species, even if you don't factor in (another sign we're maybe closer to evil) the pain and suffering of the nonhumans we pointlessly subject to lifetime torture and then undigified death for all manner of reasons, worst of all factory farming. I do think we're essentially selfish. But that's not necessarily evil or wrong. And our selfishness, like narcissism and the desire to increase your image to your self and others has motivated very noble deeds from humanity.
  • Every single human on this planet and beyond has the potential to decided to be either positive or not. The human race is essentially neutral, and develops according to influence. There is no right to say whether the human race in general is 'good' or 'bad'. It just is. Now, every person is to choose their own path. And no person is good or bad- their intents are. It's all in the potential.
  • No, the human race is essentially evil. No matter what action a person or persons takes in his or her lifetime, they are always thinking of themselves in the end. It doesn't have to be as common as wanting something in return, but instead it could be the need to feel like you are doing something 'good' in the world. Say a person is donating money to a charity, well the subconscious reasoning behind that is that they want the reassurance that if they themselves were in that position, they would receive the same help. Also, they are feeling like they are doing something 'good'. So, the human race is evil because they are selfish.
  • there are some people hat have been in existence that i believe were essentially good, for example Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Jesus Christ (if u believe him to be real), and others that have tried to help others instead of themselves. In some way every human being has the ability to help and harm, it all depends on what we value most and what we believe is right. but if we look at it from that angle then we cant really tell what 'good' is. if good in our own mind is killing hundreds and hundreds of people for no apparent reason then i guess we are good. but if good was defined as giving every person on the face of this earth a good chance to live life to the fullest then no, we as a race are not 'essentially good' and we have failed.
  • I think we are all born evil by deffinition and we learn to be good through are interaction in life and what we are taught.
  • No. We are essentially neutral. You have to teach a child good behavior, or reinforce bad behavior (which is mostly behavior that occurs through ignorance rather than malice).
  • define good
  • I guess this depends on how you judge. Judged by what we do, we’ll almost all fry in hell. Judged by our perception, we deserve heaven. Ethics seems like a matter of fashion to me, except in one respect – serious suffering. Serious suffering feels like serious suffering, and therefore, it’s evil. You can discuss whether spanking a child may be justified or is always wrong, but burning a child is definitely evil. Nature itself is evil – “eat or be eaten” is one of the most diabolical world orders imaginable. And we are part of it, whether we want it or not. We have to torture and murder just to survive (except for a few hermits dressed in leaves and living off water and roots). For most of us, there is no escape from this, except death. But the fact that we have no choice is a great excuse in itself – after all, we cannot all commit suicide, due to a will to live bigger than any ethical consideration. We are as much victims as perpetrators. But it’s our perception that possibly frees us from moral responsibility. Killing an animal is the same as killing a human, from the victim’s point of view. But we, the perpetrators, don’t perceive it that way, so we can kill and eat animals without even giving a serious thought to morality. Hitler perceived Jews as a threat, so it was okay for him to kill them. He was doing it for his country, so he was a hero from his point of view. The drug addict that mugs you in the park doesn’t perceive you as a feeling being, just as a source of money. Our lack of empathy is our strongest excuse. We do evil, but we don’t realize it. We aren’t even capable of doing evil knowingly – first we have to convince ourselves that it’s good somehow. We are horrible sinners but at the same time, we are innocent. Therefore, no true justice is possible. I guess it’s just evil trying to be perfect.
  • we're always flawed and so not all of it is good
  • Nope. The human race is instinctive and to counter such behaviour (that is judged not civil) we invented the principles of good and evil. Good and evil are but a creation that regulates a society by placing boundaries to behaviours. But basically, the humans try to survive (eat, sleep, procreate), all of these urges that are stronger and often beyond our control.
  • No. The human race is essentially good and evil. We have both in us. It's your responsibility to decide which you want to be more of.
  • Yes, but unfortunately people focus more on the negative than the positive. Just listen to the evening news.
  • I'll tell you what: Go pick up a current newspaper and a history book. Also try and catch the the evening news if you can. Then come back. If you can tell me humanity is essentialy good with a straight face then more power to you.
  • no question of good or evil...we humans live by natures law of survival of the fittest...crude n selfish as it may sound...theres no shame in going by the natures own selection process.:)
  • the human race essentialy isnt good it is filled with muders and rapest the human race is its worst weakness and its worst curce although credit where credits due we have had people like gondie.
  • No, the human race has done more to hurt this world, in a very small window of time, than anything else that has ever existed. We kill each other pointlessly, we kill animals because "they are encroaching on our territory", meanwhile we are the ones who are expanding cities into what were previously forested lands; we have domesticated certain animals to the point they would die without us, and have killed off entire other species for no better reason than "we want their pelt/tusks/etc". We have great capacity for good, but essentially we are a brutal people.
  • unfortunately, in general, the human race isnt good. Thats not to say that there aren't good people, but, as a whole, the human race isn't essentially good. we have done many things that have hurt other species and hurt the enviorment. Humans are genarally selfish creatures, its just our nature. but, that doesn't mean that we can't try to make it better
  • Can there be light without dark? ;-)
  • I believe that humans are created for good. Never say something is bad when it is created for good, but just because it is created to do good, doesn't mean it will be. Ex. The knife. It is created to do something good: help out in the kitchen. However, you can still use it for bad.
  • No. Looking back, Judas, Hitler, Lucifer, Bennedict Arnold. These Evils make us all rotten. But once every sooften, a child wil come and do justice. The Innocence of a child, clears our sins and helps us recapture our souls.
  • if good and evil exists, then humans are all evil
  • Good but flawed.

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