My Friend Dr. Jekyll

I posted the following in response to this thread, and I wanted to re-post it here so I'd remember it and reflect on it later.

Are Humans By Nature Good or Evil?

I have toiled over this for years. I grew up not ever entirely fitting in, and feeling upset by others at times. Looking back on my childhood I can see I was just lonely, and confused about where true human value comes from.

Now, as an adult, I am surrounded often by people involved in philanthropy and good-doing because of the work I try to do; it is hard when in this environment to see any bad in people. But once I step outside of that 'circle' and read the news, I remember the "duality of man" and that plenty of darkness comes with the light.

I still don't have an answer. Things happen that make me think we are horrible, hateful creatures. And then people do things to try to fix those things and help me see that we have great capacity to be loving, kind, and passionate.

From an evolutionary standpoint, if you look at us as animals, we are neither good nor evil, we just do what we think we have to to "survive". This could mean different things to different people. It could mean working hard to acquire wealth. For some it could even mean killing.

But I like to think that, in a grand evolutionary scheme, we are the next step. If we find our roots in the animal kingdom, our evolved intelligence in this modern age has led us to the capacity to do great good or evil, and has given us the moral compass to choose good. It has shown us that we don't need to have the animalistic mentality that the strongest individual is the best, but that the best individual is the one who helps his or her community thrive. Idealism aside, there is actually a great deal of logic behind the idea of helping a community thrive as a means to help one's self survive.

Historically it is said that the philosopher Zoroaster was the first to introduce to human culture the idea of "good and evil", that before this, religion was void of this sort of duality. But of course, ideas all come from somewhere - from past experiences, or perhaps some great untouchable ether full of new concepts that float down to us over time.

Wow, this is a long response. Anyway, I am not sure what the answer to your question is. I do know that we all are born with the capacity to be either good or evil, and it is up to us to be strong enough to do the right thing, whatever that may entail.