Man is inherently good or evil?

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I have been looking this up today because I have gone through yet another distressing experience involving humiliation and exile from a group of people and I wanted to see opinions on whether people feel humans are good or evil. Most of what I found through web searches was either existential garbage (Theism vs. Atheism) or politically charged BS. (Republicans vs. Democrats) I would like to get some opinions based on pure experiences with humans, so I'll ask here.

For me there is no question that humans are inherently evil.

I have been on the receiving end of far too much hostility, much of it levied without cause. People seem to go out of their way to hurt and humiliate me simply for entertainment. I have clocked decades of experience with being bullied online and off, in school and work, as well as beaten by my father and manipulated by my mother and pretty much reviled or ignored by everyone else. I can safely say that no one has ever done anything genuinely nice for me, and the few platitudes I received came with strings attached. Even in the most tragic moment of my life, a house fire where everything I owned was lost, including cherished pets, no one was really willing to come to my aid. My mother and my brother had friends and people helping them get back on track, while I was left to fend for myself and the insurance money I was counting was siphoned away to pay for taxes and necessities for the rest of the family leaving me with nothing.

Of course, that's just my experience with humanity. I think it's clear why I come to my conclusion, but I'd like to hear what others believe.

Neither, good and evil are not literal entities but descriptors that can be applied to actions based on the subjective experiences of the beholder

Humans are inherently boorish and lazy it takes society to make them evil.

If we really were innately evil I don't think we would ask the question.

neither or either. A man is what he does.

ruveyn

Good and evil are not things. There is no inherent moral good or bad on a universal scale, and both concepts must be defined based on whatever patterns of thought and action are expedient in a given situation to the accomplishment of whatever goal an individual may have in a given situation.

I'm both

I voted for good because I think that there are good people.

My current thought is that if people are inherently evil, then why would any do good things? But if people are inherently good they can be enticed to do evil by others, or from selfishness...

This is probably unsupportable logically, so it is subject to change...

I am thinking good at first but over time man can be twisted into becoming evil.

I feel my old time Lutheran cynicism about human nature raising its head. While not every person is a monster (though plenty are), I think we've all got that potential to be. And as a former history major, I think human history more than backs that notion up.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Neither, because neither category has objective meaning.

You should read Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism, he explains it very well.

I'd say neither - humans are inherently selfish. That's kinda a consequence of having, y'know, a limited viewpoint (I.E. whatever you can personally experience, research, and imagine). Human beings have proven capable of astonishing virtue and appalling depravity both, and mostly where any given person falls on the scale seems to depends on how much they understand the need for other human beings and how deep their tolerance runs (which is often further dependent on whether or not they've come to their own conclusions on morality, though that assertion is shaky and I don't think I can defend it properly).

I said good. But, I do have a question -- why are so many evil things so pleasurable ?

Oldout - like what?

We are selfish and complacent but not necessarily evil.