Debate How do you perceive humanity?

Oooh, this is a good one. I say humans are naturally bad because that's what our instincts tell us. If we have to kill to survive, we will. And I know someone is going to reply saying "WELL ITS NOT BAD IF THEY START SHOOTING AT YOU AND YOU HAVE TO KILL THEM" but that's not what I mean at all. Some people even enjoy killing, like hunting(probably going to start soon). So I say humans are naturally bad because, in all honesty, we are

 

Put some more info up top, so that we actually have some facts to debate on. Not just I think we are bad because we destroy our planet.
But humans are strange, we are incredibly hipocritical and undecisive and easily persuaded.
Some believe that we are bad, but those people contribute to the earth's destruction just as much as those who they believe are the main problem... hm I'm not sure if that reads write.

 

I tend to lean towards Locke (tabula rasa I think it is-people are ruined by society but are not inherently evil).

The evil people from the previous century all sprang up from desperate times in the place they lived. Hitler came from the devastation after WWI, Communism with Lenin and then Stalin from the general anarchy in Russia...

edit: It would probably be best if in the OP you had a rough definition of the theories of Locke/good and Hobbes/bad.

 

I'm not sure this counts exactly as a debate, but I'm going to answer anyway seeing as how your topic has already perked my interest.

I'm constantly changing my opinion on the general public, based on decisions that we make. I know for a fact that the United States (labeled 'American') social way of life is terrible and much to self concerned, but I very much like to believe that there is good in all of us at heart and we're too afraid to show it based upon how people will view us, which leads me back to the former opinion I've stated.

People have to step up and set a standard higher than what we have already, as the bar for what is considered okay is far too low based upon what most societies used to have; we're a nation based upon cynical attributes, which is far different than the freedom that out Forefathers had in mind.

 

I think humans suck. I think that our suckyness runs way way WAY deeper than "we are ruining the enviroment"

I also think that you didnt think very much at all before making this thread.

 

Okay, not good or bad.


LOL I just remembered that this site was created because of a map editor feature in halo 3 and now we have this whole section of the board. Absurd.

 

Forgehub has become much more than just map making.

 

I don't think we're either. We are the earth, everything we do is of the earth. Pollution was created on this planet from our planet. Our minds are made of the planet. We do neither good, nor bad. We have made our own concepts of something the earth and the universe is indifferent too.

 

We humans are very bad and dumb people. Even a Monkey on Weed could make better decisions than us.

 

Yeah well this is just ridiculous. I can see it expanding to map making in all video games and every forum needs some sections not relating to the main focus of the board, but this makes this makes the board lose focus entirely, and expands it into something that I don't think it (especially due to where members are attracted from) are capable of handling.

 

I think pretty much every website with a board, no matter the main topic of the site, has a religous/political/debate area. I belong to 2 other forums and they have the same thing.

 

Back on topic please.

Anyway, I'd say we aren't really bad, just mostly confused. Confused as to how to act, what to do and if what we do will end up badly. This leads people to make horrible choices and this leads to horrible things. Someone mentioned how some people enjoy killing others, this isn't really something I'd say you can be born with. Hatred is something that you must be influenced into doing. So really, I say it all comes from our confusion.

Also, when you think about, we are a very young race on Earth. The Earth itself has been around for nearly 4.6 Billion years, and yet we as a race have existed for only a few thousand. Other races such as Dinosaurs lasted millions of years, as I think we will (hopefully) too. Most of those races died out though from their inability to think clearly and uniquely on their own. Our brains are much more developed than those of a T-Rex. That is why each human is so individual. It is this complexity in our brains that makes us so undependable on whether good or bad comes from us. So far, it seems we, being as I said confused, have gone "bad". But who's to say we in hundreds or so years to come, can come to fully understand both ourselves and all around us, and then be able to really do some good. In a way we are like a huge experiment for the earth. Is it possible for a race to sustain such individuality and independence that all goes well? So far, in our few thousand years, a lot has been thrown at us. War, diseases, storms, natural disasters, space disasters such as meteors, and such. As well as our own doings like nuclear weapons and hatred and killings. Yet we have been able to take what was thrown at us and turn it around, most of the time managing to get rid of it. Like medications, disarming nucs, creating inventions that can sustain storms and disasters, and being able to learn to predict a disaster in order to evacuate.

However, it can be argued that although it would seem humans have been able to control nature, we have a very weak hold over it, and necessarily, a storm or disaster big enough will surely completely extend past our control and wipe us out. Only time will tell.


Lol sorry, some of that went off topic, but I think I made some good points. :]

 

Jerry Seinfeld said it best. "People... they're the worst!"
For every truly nice person I meet, there's probably 100 douchebags to replace him. Just watch the news. Also look at the fact that so many people on this planet need an ancient book (whichever one, pick your poison) to tell them its wrong to kill. Even then, its not that they don't want to do what's bad, but fear of an everlasting hellfire that keeps them from doing it.

 

Okay first of all for debates as far as a forum debates goes you need to present background information...

Anyways I believe that humans are evil. We do evil things, for instance crime is an evidet way to show how evil we are. We murder each other for numerous amount of reasons for simple break-ups one of the pair gets revenge. In one case just for stealing a bike one child lit the other on fire. We experience child abuse, discrimination, war, crime, child molesters, rape, and many other things wrong with us. Even animals are more harmless than us, even when competing for a mate the males will only aim to injure the other male but never kill. Animals tend to not kill each other.
Yet we are not all evil along with all of the bad we have good. We experience emotions that make us unique such as grief, love(where as animals only get together out of the drive of sex), sadness, happiness, and many others.

We have both good and evil in us and we all have the ability to numb those emotions of grief and guilt which would ultimately make us moreover evil. As such, humans have both good and evil within us.

 

Yes. ^This is the answer to your question.^ we get these ideas of how things should be that don't mean anything. Good and bad are such general and subjective terms anyway. Good for what? When a lion hunts a zebra, kills, and eats it, the situation is most definitely "good" for the lion because it is not hungry any more and will continue living, however, the same situation is very "bad" for the zebra. So to are all questions of "good" and "bad".

 

From an ecosystem observatory stand point the human race in many ways can be compared to an infectious tumor, which grows and spreads without control amongst its host, and ultimately, kills the host. Just like the tumor, we as a human race continue to grow and spread amongst the host we inhabit, and will most likely, ultimately destroy it. But that is only opinion and the fact still remains settle, that from a Universal frame of reference all problems we face become insignificant.

 

I think humanity is a mistake that flourished. Sort of like killer bees in America. We are imbalanced and overpowered. Mother nature should nerf us and eventually I think it will happen. We will get taken down a peg and something scarier and hairier will run **** for a while. Thats just how it is.
We are earths version of a 'pop quiz' weeding out the weak and leaving only the strong. I have mad respect for any species that takes serious amounts of **** and adapts in the face of adversity

We have also succesfully produced a large quantity of non biodegradeables. I believe eventually this will benefit something... maybe some organism will eventually eat styrofoam who the **** knows.

 

Evil to the max. Well, most people are evil with a few good examples of decency. We would all probably fall into chaos without what rules we have.

I'm currently studying the Lord of the Flies. It portrays exactly that situation. I follow William Goldings' train of thought.

We are inherently selfish and this is being added to by current media. 20 or 30 years ago little kids were saying "I want to be a doctor/nurse/fireman/policeman." Nowadays kids are saying "I want to be famous/rich or a singer/actress."

There are a few shining examples, who quite luckily for everyone take it upon themselves to help the world and people (and I'm not talking about politicians)

 

Yes, yes, yes… you took the train of thought right out of my head. This statement is illustrated in exact truth. Took the train of thought right out of my head, and I can tell you are quite educated already on the topic. I personally thought I was kind of alone in my current state of understandings, guess not.

What you said about how society would most likely fall into chaos without what current system of rules and laws we have already currently in place, is exactly correct. It’s not even a matter of likely hood, it’s a matter of fact, I mean let’s face it man has been trying to kill off each other for thousands of years. It is just this natural instinct we have, or stream of thoughts we exhibit that make us the way we are. It is this instinct that causes us to be violent, and causes us to think the way we do. And it is this whole system of laws we have set in place that essentially is trying to control our instinct, or stream of thoughts we exhibit. When you start to look at circumstances from this perspective you can kind of get this broadening of understandings in essentially, what our world is really like.

But not to go too off-topic… also, what you mention about on the topic of our ignorance, and essentially just the concern for one another individually rather than as an entirety, this to is also true. Many people wouldn’t really understand the difference between kids saying “I want to be a doctor/nurse/fireman/policeman” and saying “I want to be famous/rich/powerful”. Well, let’s reconcile… when a kid says “I want to be a doctor, or nurse, whatever” this is usually in many cases implying, “I want to help people, and I want to help society as an entirety”, while on the other hand when a kid is saying “I want to be get rich, become famous, and salvage glory” what this is usually implying is “I want to aid society individually, I only want to be there for those few select few”. Maybe other rich guys just like me, or in many cases just my own individual self only.

So you can kind of see this difference in how we have people that contribute to their species from a selfish stand point, and then we have people that contribute to their species from a selfless stand point. Well, I’m sure it isn’t very difficult for many of us to imagine that the majority of people, a very large majority of people, in reality play their ‘role’ selfish. This is one of the biggest problems with modern society as we know it, and it is the reason to countless numbers of significant current problems we face today, countless… too many for me to get a whole lot into in this already long post.

And by the way bro, I like your perspective… not many people in today’s society posses your understandings. God be with you.