Are most people more good than bad?
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  Are most people more good than bad?
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Author Topic: Are most people more good than bad?  (Read 1067 times)
GregTheGreat657
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« on: October 26, 2021, 05:40:02 PM »

I believe this
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Spectator
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« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2021, 07:32:26 PM »

On the whole probably, but I feel like everyone has a dark side to them, and it’s probably closer to 60-40 for most people
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dead0man
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« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2021, 09:50:56 AM »

depends on where and when you are, but generally speaking, yes
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afleitch
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« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2021, 11:04:27 AM »

If people were more bad than good, life would be dangerous and short.
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Alcibiades
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« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2021, 11:24:31 AM »

This may at first glance seem an impossible or even vacuous question to answer, but I firmly believe the answer is yes. Our current social model, which broadly works, presupposes that most people will be good-faith participants in it.
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Filuwaúrdjan
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« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2021, 11:32:40 AM »

Oh I think so, yes. The trouble is that when push comes to shove this often turns out to mean as little as might be expected.
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John Dule
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« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2021, 01:22:30 PM »

If people were more bad than good, life would be dangerous and short.

Solitary, poor, nasty, and brutish, in fact...
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Cassius
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« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2021, 03:47:42 PM »
« Edited: October 27, 2021, 04:01:32 PM by Cassius »

Not a question with a meaningful answer. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ are subjective concepts, and can quite happily coexist inside one person. When they’re good, they can be very, very good - but when they’re bad they can be horrid. It seems rather odd to me to try and quantify this, as if a person is a pie chart that can read “60% good, 40% bad” or “5% very good, 33% good, 47% bad, 15% horrid”. People can go along for decades without hurting a fly, and then one day they kill someone and nobody can explain why..

I don’t think that human beings are inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad’ - we all pursue our own interests and for some this gets them canonized and for others it gets them demonized. For some, the deeds that got them canonized were done for totally impure reasons, whilst for others, the deeds that they were demonised for were done for totally selfless reasons. ‘Human nature’, such as it is, is so complex that it’s really almost impossible to unpick and categorise inside the blunt dichotomy of ‘good vs bad’. I do, however, tend to think with people that come across as being squeaky clean, you really just need to look hard enough and wait long enough and eventually you’ll find a black spot.
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DC Al Fine
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« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2021, 06:09:53 AM »

More bad than good.

I think we often confuse having a bit of self control to act in one's self interest and living in a prosperous society with "being good"
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RFayette
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« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2021, 07:47:55 AM »

More bad than good.

I think we often confuse having a bit of self control to act in one's self interest and living in a prosperous society with "being good"


This is very true.  We also see this dynamic when people refer to wealthy countries as "more moral" because there is less violence, but a lot of that is because there are a lot more positive-sum interactions in an advanced economy (and much less material need) so the temptation is far less.  
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DaleCooper
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« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2021, 12:36:29 PM »

No, I don't believe so.
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thumb21
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« Reply #11 on: October 30, 2021, 08:29:48 AM »

I'd say yes.

People do a lot of good that can't simply be explained by self interest. Most people have values, moral codes and a feeling of guilt when they do something they feel was wrong - I think that's evidence that most people want to do good for the sake of doing good. Everyone has some mixture of good and bad tendencies of course - and not to be naive about the fact that many people are clearly on the more bad than good side.
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If my soul was made of stone
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« Reply #12 on: October 30, 2021, 11:20:16 PM »

Our species was created with the capability for both for a reason, and no one can truly be one or the other in isolation. I would credit the wickedness in the actions of most people (who don't hold ludicrous amounts of power, at least) at this point in history to alienation, exploitation, and the basic parameters of living in a means of social organization so far removed from what the forces that engineered us intended: some of it being our attempts to follow our instincts in a world that alternately shuns and commodifies them and some of it being our failure as imperfect beings created for another purpose to perfectly comply with the standards of our own designs.

I have faith that our Mother created us to serve and venerate Her and Her creation with joy and solemnity, and that we are and have been in the distant past capable of holding to that ideal as long as we are humbled by it (rather than seeking to transcend it, which is the root of sin). Had we been created without the capacity for evil, rather than as mere mindless servants, then there would be no true fulfillment in following a path of righteousness, or for Her in creating something that knew of nothing else.
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2021, 01:00:49 AM »

Yes and purgatory was a way for Evil to be punished in the afterlife which is a theory not a fact like reincarnation, debt for sin, is Death itself, but nothing last forever

Murders, thrives were crucified or given the death penalty just like Jesus was, but he was Good not Evil,
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Fetterman my beloved
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« Reply #14 on: November 04, 2021, 12:08:34 PM »

Generally speaking, I’d say most are more good than bad, but it’s hard to say really.
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fhtagn
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« Reply #15 on: November 09, 2021, 10:52:13 PM »

There's a lot of good people who make bad choices. Even the few we can consider truly bad people had redeeming qualities.
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Pericles
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« Reply #16 on: November 11, 2021, 04:05:07 AM »

Yes. In fact, we should as much as possible default to seeing others as good people and getting the best out of them, not writing them off as bad people.
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Kleine Scheiße
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« Reply #17 on: December 07, 2021, 01:43:55 AM »

Why
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Mr. Smith
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« Reply #18 on: December 07, 2021, 10:01:25 PM »

If people were more bad than good, life would be dangerous and short.

Are dangerous and short not relative terms?

And is not mortality inherently, by means of being finite, short anyway?
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Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers
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« Reply #19 on: December 08, 2021, 04:26:18 PM »

Obviously, if you're not a sériel killer or a criminal you are good better than bad but our sins are our mistakes lie, cheat are all sins, you can't see your sins but another person can see your sins that's why ever religion call for repentance and then pray for your Earthly desires

The Prophets preach they're perfect Human beings they are the Redeemers we pray to or High Priest we redeem to
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DaleCooper
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« Reply #20 on: December 11, 2021, 02:32:30 PM »

I feel like the only way to believe this is to think that "good" means little more than not actively hurting other people. I have a higher standard. I think good people are people that go out of their way to do right by others and do everything they can to make amends for their own wrongdoing. I don't consider myself a good person by my own definition. Sure, most people aren't spitting in the faces of homeless people, but abstaining from the most depraved behavior imaginable is not enough for me to think of someone as good. The vast majority of people make almost no tangible contribution to humanity or even their own little sliver of it, e.g. their community or family or circle of friends. Most people (and yes, I'm ashamed to admit that this includes myself too) are content to watch the rest of the world suffer so long as they are comfortable. Does that mean most people are evil? No, but they are definitely not good either.
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Blue3
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« Reply #21 on: December 11, 2021, 02:40:16 PM »

yes
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« Reply #22 on: December 20, 2021, 03:13:46 PM »

Badness is a perversion or absence of the good; Doesn't have an existence in itself.
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