There seems to be a popular conception out there that humans are morally good. Yes, I know, I wrote about this about a week ago or so, but since I failed to pick up the ball afterward and continue the thought, I want to revisit it for a few moments.
Let's start off by thinking about what may seem to be good about thinking of ourselves as good by nature. That means that we can start off feeling good about ourselves, right? After all, if we're all good by nature, then everything is good in our world. We're going to do the right thing, treat each other nice, and everyone will simply get along. After all, we're all good by nature, right?
What happens, then, when this isn't want happens? As we go through life, we tend to experience the reality that people are not always good or nice. People can be downright mean sometimes. Who hasn't been the teenager that got mocked because you were different than your friends? Who hasn't had something of value taken from you, and the other person didn't give it back? Why did our parents have to teach us that it's not good to talk to strangers, since they might not be trustworthy people? And in the back of our minds, we should have been shouting, "BUT WE'RE GOOD BY NATURE, RIGHT?"
That's the problem with this thought. What happens to it when we see people that aren't good? What happens to us when we do something that isn't good, such as when we spread that message that hurts our friend, or when we are tempted to do something that ends up bringing hurt? The refrain "But we're good by nature" seems to be more of a cruel taunt than a reality.
That's when we start to suffer from the common malady of "low self esteem." We're good by nature, but something isn't right, and I don't feel good about it. The other thing this starts up within us is the desire to find out what is causing us to feel bad. But here's the rub. It can't be us. We're good by nature, after all. It simply cannot be our fault. So we have to find fault in others who we profess to also be good by nature. The only thing is, they're now the ones with the problem, not me.
There's another deadly side to this. If we're good by nature, but we start doing things that aren't good, the other thing we can do is give up our hope. We can't reconcile that we are good by nature and yet, we find it so easy to do bad things. We start to internalize the problem. We start to see ourselves as the problem, and this creates a huge dilemma within us. If we're good, but we do bad things, then we feel so bad that we may even think about ending this existence. The root of suicidal thoughts cannot be far behind if we find ourselves faced by this reality. Either suicide, or we seek to find our escape through addictive, harmful ways.
If you can't tell by now, I don't hold to this belief. It leaves way too many problems for what the real human situation is. However, I see that this belief continues to be held by so many in our world. In coming posts, I hope to present a better, more realistic approach. Oh, and please don't be surprised to find that this approach is one that comes from what God says in the Bible.
Let's start off by thinking about what may seem to be good about thinking of ourselves as good by nature. That means that we can start off feeling good about ourselves, right? After all, if we're all good by nature, then everything is good in our world. We're going to do the right thing, treat each other nice, and everyone will simply get along. After all, we're all good by nature, right?
What happens, then, when this isn't want happens? As we go through life, we tend to experience the reality that people are not always good or nice. People can be downright mean sometimes. Who hasn't been the teenager that got mocked because you were different than your friends? Who hasn't had something of value taken from you, and the other person didn't give it back? Why did our parents have to teach us that it's not good to talk to strangers, since they might not be trustworthy people? And in the back of our minds, we should have been shouting, "BUT WE'RE GOOD BY NATURE, RIGHT?"
That's the problem with this thought. What happens to it when we see people that aren't good? What happens to us when we do something that isn't good, such as when we spread that message that hurts our friend, or when we are tempted to do something that ends up bringing hurt? The refrain "But we're good by nature" seems to be more of a cruel taunt than a reality.
That's when we start to suffer from the common malady of "low self esteem." We're good by nature, but something isn't right, and I don't feel good about it. The other thing this starts up within us is the desire to find out what is causing us to feel bad. But here's the rub. It can't be us. We're good by nature, after all. It simply cannot be our fault. So we have to find fault in others who we profess to also be good by nature. The only thing is, they're now the ones with the problem, not me.
There's another deadly side to this. If we're good by nature, but we start doing things that aren't good, the other thing we can do is give up our hope. We can't reconcile that we are good by nature and yet, we find it so easy to do bad things. We start to internalize the problem. We start to see ourselves as the problem, and this creates a huge dilemma within us. If we're good, but we do bad things, then we feel so bad that we may even think about ending this existence. The root of suicidal thoughts cannot be far behind if we find ourselves faced by this reality. Either suicide, or we seek to find our escape through addictive, harmful ways.
If you can't tell by now, I don't hold to this belief. It leaves way too many problems for what the real human situation is. However, I see that this belief continues to be held by so many in our world. In coming posts, I hope to present a better, more realistic approach. Oh, and please don't be surprised to find that this approach is one that comes from what God says in the Bible.
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