So babies are born evil?

Or are they born innocent and pure and learn evil?

Kids do not learn to get what they want. They do, however, have to develop the ability to understand the needs of others.

Ah, that's the least of it. Evil is sin and sin is an offense against God and His laws.

What is sin? My dictionary has it that sin is a breaking of the law of God on purpose. St.Thomas Aquinas describes sin in Latin, aversio a Deo ---a turning away from God. What makes this turning away from God sinful is the fact that the one who makes that tragic move is himself responsible for it. It's not something that just happens to him...he makes it happen. He knows what he's doing and he wills what he is doing. He is, then, in the aftermath, guilty.


Sin may be Original or Actual(personal)and Actual Sin may be mortal or venial.
The sin Adam commmitted was the deliberate sin of pride Gen. 3:22 which consisted in a formal disobedience and the express law of probation.

Although set by God in a state of rectitide, first Eve, enticed by the evil one, then Adam, abused their freedom. They lifted themselves up against God and sought to attain their goal apart from Him...and into this world entered sin. When Adam sinned, as the father of the human race, he plunged us into a state of guilt. The point is simple and tragic---that man's guilt has distorted all his relationships, with God, with each other and with the earth.

Genesis 4-11 depicts the escalation of sin in the world, rippling out from Adam's OS. Cain murders his brother Abel, and sin reaches such proportion that God floods the earth---a symbol of chaos and destruction that sin brought to Creation. Genesis 11 tells us how human folly reaches it's peak, and man tries once again to become God's equal by building a tower reaching up to the Heavens. The rejection of God spills over into man's rejection of his fellow man. There is now division and complete lack of communication between nations.

You said humans are born evil....are babies evil?

There is no sin that has ever been that has not increased suffering in the world. Thus, sin is that which creates unnecessary suffering.

well, i don't think that can be said of a baby before the baby actually performs an evil act. but i guarantee that it will, given the time.

come on. don't play games. babies are evil because the innate human nature that must be overcome through understanding leads them to do selfish things

Okay, now this is more like it.

Saying humans are born evil is incorrect because God does not create evil humans. They do in fact become sinners, some sooner rather than later. Usually with children, they are held responsible for their sins at what we call "the age of reason" that's when their conscience is formed and they can acknowledge their free will actions.

Yes, babies are born evil.

The real deal here is, God is good. God created everything good. Evil is not a thing of itself that was created, but the lack of good.

Babies are born with a lack of good, just like the rest of us. They have to learn good.

So you noticed?   

Fine, whatever. So nit-picky.

Yep!

It's better to say that babies are born neuteral.

There is no neutral.

A lot of people think there is a neutral. They're wrong. Every second they're either good, or not good. There is no middle ground. There is no partially good. That's why you can't work your way into heaven - people are not good by nature.

Oi...sometimes I don't get you moral absolutists. *sighs* It's hard enough to try and point out that gray, or neutral does exist...in the real world.

Night all.

gray? nah. unless you mean an action that has no consequences for the world, good or bad. i just meant that babies hadn't done anything, so whose to judge? i guess you could call them good by the "innocent until proven guilty" rule. but to be good you have to do something good just like to be evil you must act it.