Do you think that people are born evil or learn to be evil?

Question

Is evilness innate or learned...

Answer 1

Peoples are learn to be evil.When we are born,all of us have pure heart without any sins.We are the one whom create sins because influence by the surrondings.

Answer 2

We're all capable of great good and great evil, since without good, there would be no evil and vice versa.

Therefore, I believe we are born evil.

Answer 3

We're all born with a clean slate.

And, for better or worse, others get the first shot at it.

Answer 4

we are born with nothing and it is what is happenning around us that makes us who we are, when we grow older we have more choices. that is what my brother told, i however am not sure... it seems pretty reasonable though.... oh and dont forget evil and good are only matter of opinions

Answer 5

malice is influenced.

Answer 6

I think they are born.Watch"The Bad Seed".The badness starts to come out young.

Answer 7

The Bible says we are born inherently evil and capable of performing it. I'd have to say I agree. A lot of little kids throw tantrums when they are small if they don't get their way. This implies selfishness which is involved in any form of evil.

Answer 8

"Children learn what they live", I remember reading that as a child on a plate that hung in my grandmothers kitchen, I always read it and re-read it trying to make sense of the words. Until recently I never really thought about it until I saw it on a little sign in a store that I was passing by. I couldn't help thinking about it all day. It was kind of neat because I was able to really think about what it meant 10 years later, as a matured adult. Beings that I am not part of an organized religion I don't really believe in sin, however I do believe that there are good things and bad things, as well as good and bad people.

Children when they are small, do a few things, they eat and cry and play but the thing that they do the most is imitate. If you watch small children for an hour or so, anything they see others doing they will watch, process and then try themselves. Same holds true in this question. If children are raised in an environment where they are criticized, put down, beaten, around drugs, mentally abused by parents, classmates, as well as many other terrible things that can happen, then obviously they are coming from somewhere that is not good and can result in consequences for them later. This is not true for everyone, there are many people who grow up on the wrong side of the tracks yet make a very profitable, incredible life for themselves, then there are still others who chose to continue on a bad track because that is what they were taught was the way of life from a young age. So basically what I am saying is I don't think rapists and murderers are born that way, I think it is a learned behavior, it's terribly unfortunate but that is just the way of the world.

Answer 9

We are all born with two sides: the good and the evil. It is up to us to pick which one we will act on.

Answer 10

i believe that people are born evil. the evil is deep within us. and it's up to us if we will do good instead of being wicked.  

Answer 11

i think we aren't born with that....

small children learn things and habits which they watch at their home..

but there are some things in us which are hereditary..so small part of evil 'may' come in us if our parents or grandparents or relatives are evil or bad persons......but that evilness can be erased if the child is given proper lessons....

Answer 12

i just answered this in my post...tell me what you think!

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...

Answer 13

Evil is only what you 'choose' to define something to be in your own mind!

When will people grasp this basic concept & stop believing in religious bullshit?

You can help people by doing what you believe to be 'bad' & you can hurt people doing what you believe is 'good'.

The universe is a spectrum of 2 polars we call positive & negative, think of a car battery, - + pretty simple analogy, the battery (life) cant function without both terminals.

& you attract things to yourself like a magnet, these things are your thoughts, the frequency is your emotions. It is the law of attraction.

So if you're focusing your awareness on what you believe to be evil people for whatever reason, expect them to show up in some shape in your life. Guess somethings provoked you to write about 'them' already. LOL