The Inherent Evil in Inherent Goodness

One of Christianity’s most unpopular doctrines is its belief in sin. If only we could do without believing in sin, then it wouldn’t be so hard for people to accept us.

This is because, lets face it, no-one likes to be thought of as a rotten lousy sinner. I’m sure even Hitler would have objected if he had been called one. It’s not in our nature to allow people to think badly of us, even if we are plainly bad!

Because of this, in fact, many people have snubbed the idea of sin, claiming instead that human nature is inherently good. Given the right social factors, upbringing, and conditioning, they argue, people will choose the right path, and the world will become a utopian (perfect) society.

This belief has gradually been introduced more and more into society as it becomes less popular to believe in sin. To this end, the education system and laws (among other things) are adapting methods to produce these ‘right social factors, upbringing, and conditioning.’ People are told that sin does not exist, and this leads people to the eventual assumption that they have no real choice in life. If they have done wrong, then it is obviously not their fault, but rather the result of wrong social factors, upbringing, or conditioning. A thief is a thief because his father ignored him, or his family taught him to steal… he never really had a chance. A murderer is a murderer because of similar things. We shouldn’t condemn these people for doing wrong, we should pity them because of their bad upbringing.

Because these beliefs undermine an individual’s choice in life (well, you couldn’t help it), over time they erode the very concept of right and wrong. We now see things such as homosexuality, abortion, and adultery becoming more and more acceptable in society, not because they are necessarily seen as right choices, but because the ones who act them out “never had a choice in the matter”. The idea that a person is responsible for their own actions is an idea fast becoming extinct.

Another problem with the theory of human goodness is the next logical step in progressing it. If humans will inherently choose good when given the right environment, then it makes sense to try and produce that environment. But how is that possible?

People such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao all took this idea to the logical conclusion: if the right factors are to be produced, then the wrong factors must be eliminated. Anyone who does not agree with the social conditions necessary is obviously unable to be a part of such a society. To this end, if we truly believe in the inherent goodness of mankind, then we should praise Hitler and his counterparts as trailblazers, for trying their best to produce a perfect world for our descendants.

Its strange how the belief in inherent goodness produces such evil when left to its own end.

Its almost as if human nature was bent towards evil…