Saints Or Sinners - What makes one person good and another person bad

1. 82

   Martin-ddpposted 11 years ago

   Saints Or Sinners - What makes one person good and another person bad
   
   I know the upbringing a person gets can have a big effect on how you turn out in life.
   But this is not true in all cases. Plenty of people with good upbringings turn out bad and plenty of people with bad upbringings turn out good. So what is it that make a person go one way or the other.

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2. 0

   JThomp42posted 11 years ago

   Nothing. Some of us choose to be saved by the grace of God through his son Jesus Christ, Others don't. But, That by far does not make us saints. While in the flesh we will all remain to sin. It's impossible not to. We can strive not to, But we will still have hidden sin we are not aware of.

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3. 60

   xanzacowposted 11 years ago

   God-given free will. Plain and simple. Either extreme will often produce the exact opposite offspring. Maybe it is the 'grass greener on the other side' concept.

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      Eco_Aliposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      "free will" isnt all that free...it is still bound by limits of personality and values which have a multitude of orientations in and of themselves.  "Free will" is a misnomer.

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4. 61

   nightwork4posted 11 years ago

   their actions. it doesn't matter what your beliefs are, regardless of what JThomp42 says. it's what you do in life that matters. how you treat others and how you go about helping people. whomever believes that only those who believe in jesus and god are good, need to give their heads a really hard shake.really hard, wow.

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      JThomp42posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Why must you be so angry and rude? 
      For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
      
      9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.   Ephesians 2:8-9

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      nightwork4posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      i'm not angry in the least. i'm just sick of religious people claiming silly things so i comment on what they say.

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5. 69

   Eco_Aliposted 11 years ago

   I'm a little confused as to whether you are looking for a spiritual answer or one grounded in rational ethical thought?
   
   I am not completely comfortable talking religion in an "Ethics in Science" venue.  Yet, if the answer is to be a spiritual one, then I would have to take a wide perspective and base my answer on the duality of good versus evil, positive versus negative.  My leaning would be that you attract what you put out, you "reap what you sow" so to speak, the law of attractions, the law of karma and that would be the incentive for one's decisions for right versus wrong, the proverbial "conscience", the Jiminy Cricket on our shoulder.
   
   Following the simple life of early Christianity, those immediate followers in the first century after Jesus' birth led lives dedicated to nonviolence against neither man nor beast, which meant no animal sacrifice or slavery of any kind. Simple communal lives of voluntary poverty were led in confidence that God's kingdom would provide what was truly needed, that kingdom including the whole of nature, to the effect that nature becomes the Word of God.  When greed and lust are taken out of the equation and a devotion to the love of all life becomes an ethic of respect, it is not difficult to choose a moral path...the emphasis on "free choice."
   
   But my first gut reaction to this question was that it is important to discern those with empathy from those without empathy, for those without empathy are most likely to be of a somewhat psychopathic nature, having no remorse or depth of emotion to acknowledge right from wrong but capable of charming manipulations in seeking the fulfillment of their needs.  Those with empathy would be sensitive to the feelings of others and less likely to want to do harm lest they feel the pain of it themselves (figuratively).  So in this respect, it is the order or "disorder" of the personality that would determine if a person is going to behave in a good or bad way.

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6. 72

   Trish303posted 11 years ago

   I do not believe anyone is bad or good. we all have bad and good tendency. It is just rather or not you act on them that separates the two. Like that Indian story says that everyone has heard. A grandfather told a child a story about the wolfs that live in every man. one is good and one is evil the child ask grandfather who wins the grandfather replays the one you feed.

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      Eco_Aliposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Good story...we can always count on native wisdom.  Its true,  wolf that gets fed will surely win.  Good story...

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