Do you consider the average human to be good, neutral or evil?

[Eukaryote]

The title says it all. The poll also inculdes whether of not you're religous, to see how religon factors into it.

BTW - Please don't use the anwser "imperfect," that is both obvoius and not an actual awnser; "imperfect" does not tell us whether you mean good, neutral, or evil.

 

[The Yankee]

Cast my lot into the religious and answered that people, on balance, are more good than evil. Perhaps it's just wishful thinking, but I think that if good did not outweigh evil, we wouldn't have gotten to this point in history, which I do think is better than in the past, in terms of technology, in terms of acceptance (in some areas, at least), and so forth.

 

[Ramius75]

im non religious. I think that the human are neutral and there is nothing good or bad about them. Since we are all competing against one another. We view each others as competitors and may the best man wins.

 

[Red Door]

I'll give the stupid response that I actually believe. No human can be good or evil. Their actions are good or evil, and that makes them good or evil.

 

[Elrohir]

Are we talking about the people, or their actions? I think all human beings are "evil" in the sense that all have sinned, and none deserve anything but being punished for those sins. However, I don't think that all human actions are evil, some are good, some are bad, some are neutral. I don't think humans are evil and "totally depraved" in the sense that we never do anything good, but neither do I think we are good enough to "outweigh" our bad.

I'm not sure exactly which option to vote for.

 

[Synobun]

It's impossible to say, the brain is made up of triggers which trigger aggression etc etc, so I would say neutral. As Red Door said, it's their actions which determine if they're "good" or "evil".

 

[North King]

Non-religious, and I believe that in their heart of hearts, if you give someone the choice, they will be good.

 

[Gogf]

I'm not sure if there really is absolute good or evil, so I'm also not sure if I can really give much of an answer to this.

 

[Perfection]

I cite the 2003 University of Michigan Alignment study:

Alignment of all humans:
11% Lawful Good
20% Neutral Good
3% Chaotic Good
7% Lawful Neutral
16% True Neutral
10% Chaotic Neutral
11% Lawful Evil
10% Neutral Evil
12% Chaotic Evil

Of each catagory:
34% Good
33% Nuetral
33% Evil

29% Lawful
46% Nuetral
25% Chaotic

 

[Evie]

More good than evil *on average*. More often than not, when a human carries out an "evil" (in my opinion) act, it is the result of a misguided attempt to do good.

And I'm non-religious.

 

[Eukaryote]

Are we talking about the people, or their actions? I think all human beings are "evil" in the sense that all have sinned, and none deserve anything but being punished for those sins. However, I don't think that all human actions are evil, some are good, some are bad, some are neutral. I don't think humans are evil and "totally depraved" in the sense that we never do anything good, but neither do I think we are good enough to "outweigh" our bad.

I'm not sure exactly which option to vote for.

Now this is something I never get, how come some religous people focus on our sins and completly ignore the fact that we all virtue too, then call us evil. I think it's just because people keep comparing themselves to God, if I did that too much I might kill myself out of a lack of self-esteem.

 

[Aramazd]

Non-Religious, and I believe humans are neutral when it comes to good vs. evil.

 

[puglover]

I'm religious, and I believe people are naturally self-serving. More often than not, this leads to evil when conflicts of interest arise.

 

[Elrohir]

Now this is something I never get, how come some religous people focus on our sins and completly ignore the fact that we all virtue too, then call us evil. I think it's just because people keep comparing themselves to God, if I did that too much I might kill myself out of a lack of self-esteem.

Because we are, and will be judged by God's standard, which is perfect. Compared to God, I am a miserable little evil being with delusions of grandeur. The interesting part is that He actually cares about us....

That's not to say that people don't do good things. They do - they just can't counteract the negative effect of the bad. I don't ignore the good things people do, I just don't believe that they can be good enough to make God "forget" about the bad.

 

[JZ_UK]

Implacably Atheist: Neutral - an explanation will follow after I'm able to reason out considerable argument...

 

[scy12]

I'm religious, and I believe people are naturally self-serving. More often than not, this leads to evil when conflicts of interest arise.

Humans actions are best described as self serving. When humans pursue such conflict of interest , this leads to evil.

Or is it really , Profit at the expense of others , evil ?

 

[Japanrocks12]

the average human probably starts out Neutral Good

 

[ParadigmShifter]

The following groups of people are evil:

Children
Men With Beards

Not sure about everyone else. Probably OK.

 

[The Yankee]

The following groups of people are evil:

Men With Beards

:strokes stubble: Gosh darn it!

 

[Stylesjl]

Two things drive human behaviour

1) Rational self interest
2) Emotions/Irationality

The first tells us nothing, except that humans will act wether or not it is "Right" or "Wrong". So therefore humans are neither evil nor good when it comes to self service

The second is emotion which generally makes people "Good" although it sometimes causes "Evil"

I voted neutral. Because that is what pretty much sums up humans