Inherently Wrong!? :-S

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Posted by John Roberts | Posted on 28-08-2006

Category : Literature, Religion, Society

At the moment I am currently reading the book ââ?¬Å?Blue Like Jazzââ?¬Â by American writer Donald Miller, this is a book I bought a few years ago but it has nestled harmoniously in between all my other Christian books, until 3 days ago. I was packing, to get ready from my north to south move and I decided I would pack 3 books to go with me, I picked up the Bible, I picked up a copy of Twelfth Night which I am translating and for some reason I picked up Blue Like Jazz.

I have only read the 1st two chapters and already I could write 4 or 5 different posts on some of the things that have stood out at me, but this one thought has made me think for quite a while now are we born inherently wrong? What I mean is, are we born knowing how to be bad/naughty and not know what good is?

ââ?¬Å?some friends were over at the house, and they have a kid, about 4 or 5 years old or something, and they were telling me about child training. They said their kid had a slight problem telling them the truth about whether or not he had broken something or whether or not he had put away his toys, you know things like that. So later I started wondering why we have to train kids at all. I wondered, you know, if I ever had a couple of kids and I trained one of them, taught him right from wrong, and the other I didnââ?¬â?¢t train at all, I wonder which would be the better kid.ââ?¬Â
ââ?¬Å?The kid you teach right from wrong, of course.ââ?¬Â I told him
ââ?¬Å?Of course, but that really should tell us something about the Human condition. We have to be taught to be good. It doesnââ?¬â?¢t come completely natural. In my mind, thatââ?¬â?¢s the flaw in the human condition.ââ?¬Â
Extract from “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller, nelson 2003

Unfortunately this post is going to open up more questions than I can give answers too, I suppose it�s a post to find out what your thoughts are as much as what mine are.

So are we born inherently wrong?
Do we only know how to behave badly and we have to be taught what is right?
Is this a side effect of the Fall ââ?¬â?? after all we were created in Gods Perfect Image?
is this a problem caused by Satan, does he try and attack the young and innocent, when they still don�t know right from wrong?
Or do we know what Good is, but we just ignore it?

Comments (2)

Julia said on 29-08-2006

This is a tricky one….

but when does this kind of behaviour,knowing good, but choosing bad, become deliberate??

I don’t think we are born bad, I think our free will, our ability to choose from day one, makes us bad!!

but who knows….
Rob Borley said on 01-09-2006

What I find interesting is the idea that we have an inbuilt moral code.

Of course there are something�s which have are effected by society and the environment around us but others which, even without laws and the like, would be regarded as bad.

A rather extreme example is that murder pretty much universally accepted as wrong. You don’t need a law to tell you it is, everybody just knows.

C.S. Lewis discusses this in his timeless, must read, for both Christians or otherwise, book Mere Christianity.

Such behavior can also be observed in young Children. While we do not have to teach them to do wrong; it seems to come naturally to them, it is also obvious that they often know what they have done is wrong.

So, do we have an inbuilt moral code as human beings? I realize it’s another question but it’s kind of related.

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