About evil...?
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About evil...?
| Sat, 07-16-2005 - 7:28am |
the discussion about evil got me wondering... do you think people are born predisposed to being kind, or evil, or generous, or selfish? Or does it come along later (I guess the nature vs. nurture question, lol)

Yes, I absolutely think so. I think people come into this world with evil or good tendencies, and life can influence them in either direction. I also believe that people come into this world in all shapes and sizes, and that their minds and emotions come in all shapes and sizes too.
One of my sister's is a very dominant personality, and she's always had a huge inferiority complex, and I think it's just something she was absolutely born with.
On the other hand, I'm convinced my Grandmother was an angel in disguise. She was absolutely the sweetest and generous person, and I hear about people who were born with "pure souls", she was one of them.
One of my brother's and myself came into this world with very negative and fearful personalities. I'm working on being more positive, but I feel like I was born with a negative personality and that my parents encouraged that. I always got the 'why are you fat? thing or 'why are you so cold?' from my mother. So yes, I do believe that people can be born with certain tendencies.
Sarah
I think when we are born, we are continuing on a journey of spiritual growth.
I'm a middle of the road person on this one. It was something we studied in some detail in psychology and both views seemed rather extreme to me. I think that we all have tendencies towards certain personality traits and behaviours but that what occurs during our lifetime also has an influence on how we think and behave.
~Carol~
The studies that have been done on identical twins separated at birth are a remarkable vote for genetics playing a larger part in personality development than environment.
I don't like the duality of good and evil. Too judgmental and limiting. It's much more complicated than that... I think it's more of light and dark. We need both. In balance. The wrongness, evil BEHAVIOR comes not from innate "evil," but choices that smother the light within us and given full uncontrolled and unbalanced rein to the darker qualities. For example, we should have integrity, honor, compassion, etc. Yet, we also need the strength from the "darker side," of warrior spirit to fight the wrongs and give us stamina. We need a competitive spirit at times. We even need the quality of aggression as in the characteristic of assertiveness Self-defense. The selfish drive needed to focus and develop gifts and talents. Many of those "darker" qualities can turn into harmful behavior, destructive, even violent behaviors. But without the basic elements, we wouldn't be able to move or accomplish anything. We need to embrace, rather than label or fear, both the light and the dark. In balance, they give us strength and and stamina to pursue our potential and purpose. Karma and reincarnation are also tools to help us learn how to keep this balance, so that all qualities become strengths.
In different lifetimes, people do better and worse in regard to seeking this balance and moving forward in their personal spiritual evolution. Like another poster said, we'll keep getting the "lessons" and opportunities through reincarnation, and Karma, until we "get it." Newer incarnated souls, with fewer incarnations behind them already, may be more "raw" and unable to find balance within themselves. Each lifetime will teach them more... Each person that appears in one's life, is interacting as both teacher and student to the other, on this journey of evolution. Some we have closer and more involved "work" to do together, than we do with others who may come & go in our life briefly.
Edited 7/17/2005 11:00 am ET ET by merlins_own
Merlins_Own
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW!
This makes a lot of sense to me....life is about balance of dark and light...and everyone has both in their personalities...I agree with what you're saying about self defense, of course, how could we defend ourselves or our children without agressive tendencies? The sex act has a violent element to it as well...a double-edged sword.
I once saw the Warrens speak at my college...a husband and wife team...they are/were ghost hunters/exorcists from NE...I don't truly believe in evil for its own sake but these folks said they visited Amityville twice...and they left without exorcising the place of evil...they said the place was so truly evil that it was best to leave it alone...
Kind of scared me...jeez, if these experienced ghost hunters couldn't deal with it, how are the rest of us muggles going to cope?
Merlins_Own
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW!
Agree...jeez, if there were evil beings out to get us, we'd be no better off than the latest Chucky movie, LOL.
Speaking of giving off energy, I think houses are repositories for such energy...ever go in a very old house and you can feel something, either happiness or sadness, etc.? I think you're right, things and people give off energy...sometimes we aren't even aware of it...