Can someone be born evil?

[steve25805 126,156]

We all know of terribly evil people. In modernt times alone these range from terrible people in power, such as Hitler, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot, etc - the list is potentially endless - to individuals who just do highly evil individual things - eg serial killers like Rose and Fred West, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and so on.

Thing is, all of these people were cute little babies once. Or were they?

Are such people actually born evil? Or do they become evil as a result of the way they have been raised?

Personally, I tend to think that it is often a bit of both. Some people are born with the potential to become evil, but how they are then raised will determine whether this potential remains dormant or whether thay become an actively bad person.

[Admin 14,791]

I believe that the way someone turns out is based on the way they're brought up; so this is heavily dependant on their parents and environment. I agree with you that some people have more of a potential to become evil, but again I feel this is down to who their parents are. Then again, is anyone truly evil? Even though you listed the most extreme examples, each of them surely had some redeeming qualities. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend Hitler or anything, but a little good can be found in anyone (Hitler wanted what he felt was best for Germany and would stop at nothing to achieve it. Oh, and he loved animals...). I don't think it's as ever as simple as someone being evil or not (except a select few, maybe); the reality is that there's evil in all of us. Some of us choose to act on it more than others.

[steve25805 126,156]

I believe that the way someone turns out is based on the way they're brought up; so this is heavily dependant on their parents and environment. I agree with you that some people have more of a potential to become evil, but again I feel this is down to who their parents are. Then again, is anyone truly evil? Even though you listed the most extreme examples, each of them surely had some redeeming qualities. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to defend Hitler or anything, but a little good can be found in anyone (Hitler wanted what he felt was best for Germany and would stop at nothing to achieve it. Oh, and he loved animals...). I don't think it's as ever as simple as someone being evil or not (except a select few, maybe); the reality is that there's evil in all of us. Some of us choose to act on it more than others.

Mentioning Hitler, he was a bona fide animal lover, and one of the first things he got done when he came to power was to outlaw vivisection on animals. However, he kind of lost the moral high ground here when he later allowed it to be done to humans without anaesthetic!

But I am not so sure that how you are raised alone determines whether or not you become evil, though of course it is a massive factor. There must be a genetic or inherently biological component with which someone is born, something inherent in their personality as well, at least sometimes. Hitler, for example, had siblings - one of whom for a time lived in England where he worked as a barman! - who though in some cases were flawed characters (the barman showed an inability to really settle anywhere or stick to anything for very long and was frequently in financial difficulties) in no way manifested the same evil in spite of being raised in the same houshold by the same parents. Something intrinsic to Adolf Hitler's character itself must have set him apart.