Do you think humans are inherently good or evil? I say we're inherently good. How else would society function?

7098384
I think that either view is an inherently flawed way of thinking.

7098387
Please elaborate.

7098389
The idea that an entire species can be generalized as either inherently (as you put it) one or two absolutes is flawed, not just from a subjective point (my opinion or someone else's, for example) but leans exclusively on flaws regardless of the two choices your question proposes. Also, the idea that goodness (I'm assuming we're going to equate goodness with moral goodness in general) = a functioning society doesn't work. Aside from that it also is held up by using logical fallacies like your question, it ignores that tyranny is often extremely efficient. And efficiency and moral goodness have no impact on one another.

Unless, you intended 'good' to mean 'innocent'. That's a different can of worms altogether.

7098384
Evil.
What's the first game kids play?
War.
What do they do?
Whine, scream, and fight and hurt others, without realizing it.

7098384

We're the only moral agents that exist as far as I can tell. We could be better and we could be worse, but with nothing to compare ourselves to there's really no way to answer that question.

But I do like to close my eyes and pretend that ponies are more moral than us sometimes. I suppose relative to that, we're bad, but that's not really a fair comparison now is it?

7098409
Au contraire.

https://www.apa.org/monitor/dec06/kids

7098424
How.
When I was a kid, me and my friends regularly used to beat each other up with golf clubs

7098426
The study shows children as young as two can be altruistic. Also, I'm not denying evil or bad behavior. I'm simply suggesting good is our default state.

7098429
That's wack. That is complete and total wack.

7098430
Not really. If we were inherently evil, society would have collapsed by now. Every time you cross the street, you're trusting the goodness of total strangers.

7098431
Huh... Interesting...

7098433
Out of curoiosity, what's your spiritual tradition? (I'm an Eclectic Neopagan.)

7098435
Animism Agnostic.

7098409

There's a big difference between playing war and actual war. Pretend violence is the best. Actual violence sucks.

7098439
Fair enough. But kids don't know the difference.