Social Do you believe a person can be born evil?

[Tone C]

"A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all,
Even to roaring."

 

[moreorless87]

Whichever chemicals manifest empathy are absent in some.

Although I think more recent research tends to point to sociopathic individuals actually being very good at repressing empathy rather than not having it at all.

I'd say a big issue as well is that environmental factors which help create such a person may not be so obvious, they may not always be for example something like being seriously abused as a child(although that is often a factor).

 

[pugilistico]

I used to work with small children in an expensive institute for rich people to drop their kids off. All the parents were executives of big companies and made tons of money so all the kids came from well off, educated parents and were spoiled and coddled. Some kids were sweet, some kids were assholes because their parents never disciplined them. But there was one kid who was definitely a psychopath. You could just see the something was "off" when you looked into his eyes and he seemed to lack the ability to understand other's feelings. I would not be surprised at all if he later beheads kittens as a hobby.

Materially he is from a wealthy caring family with parents who could provide him with anything he needs (except the admission that their son may be missing a few screws and needs special attention from a professional). His parents seemed normal and nice. You never know but I doubt that his issues are a result of trauma. It seems he was just born that way.

 

[Flower2dPeople]

I used to work with small children in an expensive institute for rich people to drop their kids off. All the parents were executives of big companies and made tons of money so all the kids came from well off, educated parents and were spoiled and coddled. Some kids were sweet, some kids were assholes because their parents never disciplined them. But there was one kid who was definitely a psychopath. You could just see the something was "off" when you looked into his eyes and he seemed to lack the ability to understand other's feelings. I would not be surprised at all if he later beheads kittens as a hobby.

Materially he is from a wealthy caring family with parents who could provide him with anything he needs (except the admission that their son may be missing a few screws and needs special attention from a professional). His parents seemed normal and nice. You never know but I doubt that his issues are a result of trauma. It seems he was just born that way.

Kid is going to be a sherdog mod in a couple of years.

 

[TCE]

I think you can be. I mean someone like Hitler was quite clearly born evil. I mean he had a good upbringing, right?

 

[Wrath of Foamy]

My podiatrist.

He took a couple hundred pounds from me, threw a bit of acid on my foot and won't return my calls for advanced treatment.

I've sent an e-mail, a voicemail, and I feel like a stalker.

Bastard.

 

[William Huggins]

Oh.

I'll let you but you've got to share it with me and not attack me...... Nothing wrong can happen.

 

[William Huggins]

I think you can be. I mean someone like Hitler was quite clearly born evil. I mean he had a good upbringing, right?

100%, he had candy as a child and bockwurst as a man..... Yes I know you'll say he asked for Bratwurst but it was bloody WWI........

 

[Ponchik]

Shoutout to my mother in law.

 

[LEWIS540]

Wow. I'm surprised at the result. It's currently 9 yes, 1 no. The no being me.

I think people are generally molted by their environment they are exposed to. What is acceptable what isn't, actions or thoughts.

Also I might add, doing bad things doesn't necessary make a person evil.

Majority of them are likely formed by their environment, but obviously some people are born with it too........majority of psychopaths are born that way. (Not that all psychopaths are evil, but guess it is what TS is getting at).

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

"Evil" implies supernatural or some outside force. So...no.

Can people be born with mental issues and wired "wrong" and without empathy? Absolutely. That's all you are really seeing it.

 

[RoastBeast]

Most serial killers have awful parenting, overbearing mothers and physical or sexual abuse but some have very normal childhoods. Jeffrey Dahmer even said there was nothing abusive about his upbringing that made him the way he was.

 

[Travis Alexander]

People are born with great capacity. The great capacity for good or evil and everything in between. It is a wavering meter that moves based upon all of the micro decisions one makes as they embark through their life…the things that life throws at them (outside factors both natural and societal etc) also push the meter one way or the other.

I do not believe that people are born inherently evil.

 

[ObsoleteSoul]

Considering anyone can be regarded as "evil" in someone else's mind; sure. Though we would need to narrow down the definition. If you are just talking about the textbook religious Western view, then I don't think so.

 

[Spam On Rye]

Evil has no ontology. It is the privation of good.

 

[Berserker13]

Yes... especially when their parents enable it

 

[Jesus X]

One of my cousins is a felon and since he was a kid he would do bad things and get other kids to do bad things he was basically evil even since he was toddler like the batman movie says some people just want to watch the world burn. I have pretty much disowned him now.

 

[Jesus X]

Yes... especially when their parents enable it

That reminds me of this prank you tuber who got shot parents enabled his behavior.

 

[ferrisjso]

Yes but the vast majority of evil people are evil because they were born into a society that rewards it. This is not to say they would have been good otherwise but environment is the biggest factor.

 

[chill doggie]

"Evil" implies supernatural or some outside force. So...no.

Can people be born with mental issues and wired "wrong" and without empathy? Absolutely. That's all you are really seeing it.

Considering anyone can be regarded as "evil" in someone else's mind; sure. Though we would need to narrow down the definition. If you are just talking about the textbook religious Western view, then I don't think so.

The dictionary definition is: “profoundly immoral and wicked.”
You could argue that can be interpreted somewhat subjectively but the word profound indicates that the concept deals with the extremes.

One thing is to not feel empathy, but you also have people that derive pleasure from inflicting or passively seeing other innocent people suffering from pain, physical, emotional, or psychological.
If you consider these personalities to be a hodgepodge of evolutionary biology consequences,e.g. a bunch of selfish genes that harm those around the individual, well that could be one secular definition of evil.

Personally I do believe in the supernatural, and I believe in a human’s “soul” or whatever it is the agency that transcends our physical bodies.
I don’t know if it is people’s souls that are sometimes inherently evil, but I consider the possibility of that and also of being influenced from outside forces.