Original Goodness (formerly Sin)

While listening to a sermon at the Unitarian Universalist (UU) church that I attend, I heard that one of the core UU beliefs is that people are inherently good.  This is the opposite of what some Christians and others believe that people are inherently evil or tarnished with original sin.  A third possibility is that people are capable of both good and evil, which is true even if it sounds too random. The questions is, with all things equal, will people choose to do go or bad?

I believe that people are inherently good and that they choose to do good things most of the time.  I have held this belief for most of my life.  If anything, I believed that everyone else was pretty good, while doubting my own goodness.  (There's that low self-esteem popping up).  Through a series of circumstances, I began to doubt humanities propensity to be good after watching people in my life do some really horrific stuff.  Does this throw my belief out the window?  It certainly makes me question the it heavily.  It stills holds true that most people that I encounter tend to be nice and do good things more often than not.

I'd rather live in a world where people strive to be good and kind versus greedy and mean.  When it comes down to it, people are going to be the way they are.  I can seek out and concentrate on the good, or I can seek out the negative.  I have control over two things, by perspective and my actions.  Life will be more enjoying by focusing on the heavenly aspects versus the hellish ones.  I'll become an optimist yet. =)

When people do bad things, it's perfectly alright to help get them on the right path.

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