Humans are born with the innate ability to define what is considered a sin and what is considered a deed. By this, it is necessitated upon by us,the humans, to find reason and rhyme for our sins, and reward ourselves because of our virtues. We avoid sins typically, except in some cases where our own existence or something perceived within the realm of equality to such is dependant on said sins. Typically, this is related to doing right and wrong.
The question of this, is if a human being is innately predisposed to what most would consider virtuous or sinful, whether people at a base level, are good or bad; And to that the answer is, by the value of having a moral system that defies the ability to harm others, and allows people to value others equally or above them without a reason of it being necessary of their sole survival, it is that humans are considered morally good at a base level.
The proof of such logic is by the fact that it is scientifically proven that the human race has to have been morally good until now, or it would not have evolved to the current state. In the book, Evolution and Ethics: Human Morality in Biological and Religious Perspective, it states that “the natural inclination to favor such emotions were favored by natural selection because they contributed to survival” (Clayton, Phillip, and Scholoss), being that morally directed emotions actually caused the human race to excel in survival because of the protection of others, and the concern and protection of other human life, thus leading to expanded survival chances. Thus By that it should be evident that humans are good in a moral sense, being that they not only possess the moral capacity and use of said capacity, but depend heavily on it.
Aside from this, the proof of people being good rather than evil is also made evident by people helping others on a massive scale without personally knowing them, for example, firemen, police, doctors, lawyers, philanthropists, altruists and humanitarians, and such, because there isn’t just a demand for help, there are people who legitimately want to help others, proving humans yet again are inherently good. In fact, there are people who are famous that actually have helped people even though they were not credited for it.
In an article in the New York Times, The Moral Instinct, One of the most infamous popular personas, “Gates, in deciding what to do with his fortune, crunched the numbers and determined that he could alleviate the most misery by fighting everyday scourges in the developing world like malaria, diarrhea and parasites”, someone very hated upon examination, actually did something to help people he didn’t even know (Pinker).
Many others have done the same, and it’s why there are organizations and businesses specifically for charity, philanthropy, and humanitarian reasons, such as Salvation Army, and the donations to St. Jude Children’s Hospital, Oxfam, and Amnesty International; it is because of people having a moral standard and initiative which defines selflessness as an overarching goal and virtue.
To add to the growing list of facts, in a recent scientific experiment it was shown that “more intuitive—decisions were associated with higher levels of cooperation, whereas slower—that is, more reflective—decisions were associated with higher levels of selfishness. These results suggest that our first impulse is to cooperate” (Ward), meaning that human beings actually have to make an effort to do selfish things, and by extension meaning that humans are, as previously stated, morally good by virtue of helping others, and they further added more experiments, changing up the time frame, but it remains conclusive that the hypothesis is correct.
An article in Psychology Today, discusses “Most altruism is reactive — that is, human beings respond compassionately when they see others in pain and in need of help… behaving compassionately toward others activates the reward centers in their brains, allowing them to feel good about themselves. Children in particular are likely to be altruistic: They begin sharing with others at a young age, and when they see that someone is distressed, they naturally employ comforting strategies.” (Sussex Publishers).
To conclude, Humans are Inherently good because of their moral inclination to help others and display empathy for those in need or in pain, whilst also refraining from things that harm other human
