Good or Evil

Confucius said man is kind by nature, 人之初 性本善.

What is the nature of human kind? Good or bad?
Some believe we are born good, then become bad under environmental influences. Others believe otherwise, saying that the human soul is evil by nature.

Theoretically, one who is born good will not turn bad if he or she is not exposed to bad. For example, Tom would not steal as long as he does not see anybody stealing, and as long as no one teaches him to. However, there is contradiction is believing that man is born good. Which parent would tell a child to lie? But we see that children start telling little lies long before they even start preschool!

It is undeniable that there is good in people. Social work, charity, helping one another, friendships, etc. can testify that man is not totally bad though the imperfection. So, man is partially good and partially bad. But the question still lies, were we born good or born evil? What is the nature of mankind?
人之初 性本善? 人之初 性本恶?

Did human learn good or learn bad? What was the original state of the human soul?

In my opinion, Confucius might have made a mistake here. Man is evil and sinful by nature.  人之初 性本恶.
But here's the good news, there is still a chance of Redemption.


Whichever belief you choose, here's a fundamental truth, "There is no one righteous, not even one."
No matter what nature were we born into, there will still be evil in us anyway. The evil either comes with us during birth or comes into us thereafter. We cannot be fully good anyhow, apparently nobody can.

On the other hand, I don't(refuse to) believe any human being can have totally no good in him or her at all.

In conclusion, there is both good and evil in all of us. And we get to make decisions between good and evil, so try to choose good as much and often as possible!