Come to the dark side, Luke- Caroline Totty

            I personally do not believe that people are either completely good or completely evil. I think people with good intentions will still have evil thoughts and actions at some point and people with evil intentions will have good thoughts and actions at times. I think John Locke’s tabula rasa theory is an interesting take on the subject. His theory is that everyone is born a blank slate with no knowledge of anything, and from there nurture takes over and people are shaped from their personal life experiences. This theory says you have no identity until after birth.

            However, in my opinion nature vs. nurture is a little more accurate. This says people were born knowing how to do simple things, having mental capacity, and born with some traits. However, the environment they grow up in shapes the kind of person they become. I believe in the goodness of mankind and believe everyone is born not knowing who he or she will be. Everyone sees how their parents and peers act and that shapes how they act. Where you grow up is also a contributing factor.

            So basically, I believe people are born knowing basic things but not having any intentions of being good or evil. All of that comes later. There is no such thing as absolute evil or absolute goodness though. I believe everyone has at least a little goodness in them somewhere.

Come to the dark side, Luke- Noah Welch

          I do not think anyone is completely good or evil. No one ever on the face of this earth has led a life of complete goodness or complete wickedness.  I believe that people’s actions can be defined as good or evil or neutral but that brings us to a problem. What is good and what is evil? How do we as a society determine who is evil or who is good? These questions can’t and won’t be easily answered but I will give my honest opinion of what I think.

        In my opinion history is written by the winners and our U.S history, obviously, has a western bias. However, I think, even people who are generally regarded as ultimate villains and the embodiment of pure evil were just people. People look at men like Hitler, Mussolini and Genghis Khan and talk about all the horrors they caused. I do not deny these men committed millions of atrocities and made millions of evil decisions. However, let us look at some of the good qualities of these men. Hitler, Mussolini and Genghis Khan were all heroes in their countries. They led their countries out of debt, shame, and failure. All of these men made their countries superpowers.  It was said in Italy, when Mussolini was in power, that for the first and only time ever, the trains ran on time. Hitler led his country out of a depression and gave some of his people hope. Genghis Khan helped revitalize trade and culture and connected the known world. It was said a man could walk from one end of the Mongol empire to another with a gold plate on his head without the fear of being robbed.

      Before we, as Americans, call someone completely evil, we need to look at ourselves. We, as Americans, have imperialistic tendencies. Look at all the islands in the Pacific we conquered. We, as Americans, committed genocide. Countless Native American tribes were slaughtered by land grubbing expansionists. We, as Americans, oppressed, restricted and held back many people who weren't rich white land owning males. We, as Americans, enslaved millions of Africans and committed untold atrocities towards them.

       Do these paragraphs sound extreme to you? This is what happens when people only look at one aspect of actions.  Characteristics become blown completely out of proportion. Who knows what people will say about the U.S or Nazi Germany in a thousand years?

      My point is what we regard as good and bad is completely subjective. It differs for different people.  History is written by the winners and the winners like to hide their dirty laundry. People generally want their good actions presented and want to hide their bad. Also people see what they want to see. It’s easy to call people pure evil or pure good but the reality is quite different. People commit evil, good, and gray actions and no one can really judge their actions fairly.  

I apology for my verbosity but I enjoy discussing this topic.

Come to the Dark Side, Luke- Anne Russell

What a wonderful question! I'm sure this will elicit lots of controversy.

As far as my views on the subject, my faith in a perfect God allows me to believe that there is absolute good in this world. But what about mankind? We humans are not God, nor perfect-or even close for that matter. I believe every human is capable of good, but every human also has a capacity to sin and do evil things.

I believe absolute evil manifests itself through temptations and sin, but as yet, I have not met a truly evil person. I just don't think it's possible. The only purely evil being is Satan and the only purely good being is God. The true battle between good and evil is evident every day, whether we give in to Satan's temptations to do the things we know to be wrong, or whether we let God fill us instead of seeking fulfillment in worldly things. So what I'm saying is the battle for good and evil is not certain people or groups of people on opposite sides, but is rather an internal battle that we fight every day.

The battle is not always clear-cut however. Temptations are very real and very hard to resist, especially if you are struggling to see what's good and bad. But if you believe in a perfect God, then you believe in his perfect Word that greatly helps you uncover what is right and wrong.

I don't say this to sound preachy, I'm not saying that anyone else's views are wrong, it is simply that my views on this are based entirely on faith and cannot be discussed without involving Faith. Thanks for reading:)

Come to the dark side, Luke - Julia Wilson

I believe that all people are born good. It's the actions after birth that determine whether a person is good or evil. Good vs. evil isn't white and black. Nobody is completely good and nobody is completely evil, though categorizing people as such can be based on which category most of their actions fall under.

Goodness: - Seeing someone eating alone at lunch and sitting next to them

                  - Embracing a heartbroken friend

                  - Standing up for the kid who can't stand up for his/her self

                  - Not allowing hurtful thoughts to turn into words

Evil: - Seeing someone eating alone at lunch and ridiculing them about it

         - Shutting out a friend in need

         - Being the one putting down the kid who can't stand up for his/her self

         - Consistently allowing hurtful thoughts to turn into words

         - TJ Lane. A high school boy who shot and killed 3 students at Chardon High School in 2012.    At his trial, Lane showed up wearing a white T-Shirt with the word "Killer" scrawled across it and proceeded to laugh at and ridicule the families whose children he murdered saying he cherished the memory of killing them. Completely unapologetic for what he'd done.

I believe that actions such as those of TJ Lane can cast out a lifetime of good. Though I would still refrain from categorizing him as totally evil, he certainly doesn't fit the definition of a "good person".

Come to the dark side, Luke- Zachary Whitehouse

In everyone there is good and there is evil. The decisions they make are what defines them self as either a good person or bad person. Good and evil aren't as cut and dry as black and white, we all sit in a grey area. We all make bad or evil choices and we all make good choices, making one bad choice doesn't make you evil, and making one good choice doesn't make you good. Just because I called Scott and idiot last week doesn't mean I'm an evil person. I don't believe any one is evil, but through a collection of ones decisions, someone may not be as good or kind as another person. Someone may do sething wrong, but that happens, they shouldn't be judged for that. We all sit in this neutral grey zone between good and evil trying to make it to one side or the other, but as humans we are kept in the Grey area whether we lean towards good, are perfectly neutral, or lean towards the dark side.

Come to the dark side, Luke- Emily Chavez

I do not think there is or has ever been a person who is good with no evil, or evil with no good. While the good in people may be more prominent than the evil, that doesn't mean they do not occasionally have malicious intentions, and visa versa. The idea of complete evil and complete good leave no room for everyday people. Day-to-day people are not completely either. Someone could seemingly be the kindest, most selfless and loving person in the world, but that doesn't mean they cannot have moments of evil. Same goes for evil-some have times of compassion.

I believe people fall in a large grey area, some more close to either side than others. But the idea that a single person could be solely evil is something out of a Disney movie. Common people of our society cannot simply be labeled as "good" or "evil".  

I do think at some times it seems easier to divide people into either good or evil, but the reality of that is not exactly logical. We have our "evil" moments, amidst our good ones. Movies and books can pull that concept off because after two hours or 400 pages, the story ends and the reality of the characters and plot are not questioned.

Come to the dark side, Luke-Leah Noble

I believe that there is both absolute good and absolute evil, with very little gray area in between the two. I think that when it comes to our decisions and actions, what we do is either absolutely good or evil. If something is not good, then it is evil; if something is not evil, then it is good. There is not a gray area of an action being not so good but certainly not evil. I find it very difficult to come up with an example of something we do that is neither good or evil or is without good or evil intent. This idea of the intent behind an action is what really qualifies something as good or evil. For example, if one volunteers at some sort of charity event, but is only doing it to get something out of it for themselves, then that would qualify as evil because their intent was not to help others, but only to help themselves.

My belief of people being absolutely good or evil is a little different, however. I believe that everyone is inherently evil, that it is our nature to do evil things. We are naturally evil people who sometimes do good things. Some people do more good things than others, but that doesn't make them any less evil. If actions are either good or evil and there is not something that is more evil than another, then the evil things of "good people" make them just as evil as "bad people".