Do you believe that people can be born innately evil or is evilness something that is learned? By evil, I mean any act that is mean-natured, cruel, and/or intentionally harmful either physically or mentally.
People definitely learn evilness through interactions with others. It's an endless cycle of life. We learn it from older people who learned it from even older people to be mean and nasty. And someday, if that day has not already come, we will unknowingly teach some little kid to be cruel and heartless as well. Children learn through imitation. If you watch little kids walking with their parents, you will often find them walking the same way. If the dad has his hands in his pocket, so will the little boy. If the mom walks with her arms crossed, more than likely, so will the daughter.
This copying is especially apparent in siblings. I remember when I was in about second grade, my older sister invited a friend over to spend the night. They went into the basement to play dress-up, and, naturally, I wanted to tag along seeings as I was friendless and sisterless for the night. So I come down stairs to play with them only to be shot down by a horrifying "NO, YOU CANNOT PLAY WITH US!!!" In response to me not leaving the room immediately, my sister's friend took a plastic, yellow pot from our play area and threw it at my head. Of course, I got hit and went crying to mom. Besides receiving a bruised head that night, I walked away having learned two new things: 1. I really did not like that particular friend of my sister's, and 2. always result to hitting when someone is bugging you. Needless to say, my mom corrected my disillusionment after I attempted the same thing on some other unsuspecting kid... My point, however, is that children only learn from seeing and doing. Seeing being the most dominant of the two.
I have, however, heard of some people literally being born without the ability to have emotion. It's a medical condition and could possibly result in an innately evil person. I'm not sure, but it could happen.
People definitely learn evilness through interactions with others. It's an endless cycle of life. We learn it from older people who learned it from even older people to be mean and nasty. And someday, if that day has not already come, we will unknowingly teach some little kid to be cruel and heartless as well. Children learn through imitation. If you watch little kids walking with their parents, you will often find them walking the same way. If the dad has his hands in his pocket, so will the little boy. If the mom walks with her arms crossed, more than likely, so will the daughter.
This copying is especially apparent in siblings. I remember when I was in about second grade, my older sister invited a friend over to spend the night. They went into the basement to play dress-up, and, naturally, I wanted to tag along seeings as I was friendless and sisterless for the night. So I come down stairs to play with them only to be shot down by a horrifying "NO, YOU CANNOT PLAY WITH US!!!" In response to me not leaving the room immediately, my sister's friend took a plastic, yellow pot from our play area and threw it at my head. Of course, I got hit and went crying to mom. Besides receiving a bruised head that night, I walked away having learned two new things: 1. I really did not like that particular friend of my sister's, and 2. always result to hitting when someone is bugging you. Needless to say, my mom corrected my disillusionment after I attempted the same thing on some other unsuspecting kid... My point, however, is that children only learn from seeing and doing. Seeing being the most dominant of the two.
I have, however, heard of some people literally being born without the ability to have emotion. It's a medical condition and could possibly result in an innately evil person. I'm not sure, but it could happen.
