Are We Born Good or Bad? What Three Brilliant Minds Said About Human Nature
According to the Scriptures, we were all born with sin and with a sinful nature. The Bible also makes it clear that we have a depraved mind; therefore, no one is good (Romans 3:10-12). When Jesus was told he was a “good teacher,” He replied, “Only God is good,” which is most terrifying because who then deserves heaven? [Born this way]
1. What Brilliant Psychoanalysts Think
Freud’s Theory
Atheist Sigmund Freud defines neurosis as a coping strategy caused by unsuccessfully repressed emotions from past experiences. According to Jordan Peterson, he delved deeply into the latent, implicit content of dreams and the expression of some improper wish.
Jung’s Pairs of Opposing Forces
For Carl Jung, the mind has pairs of opposing forces. For example, each person has a persona —a mask we use with others. He believed that every act of social propriety had its evil twin, its unconscious shadow. He said, “We are the origin of all coming evil.” The point is, Freud, Jung, and even their precursor Friedrich Nietzsche postulate that everyone has a dark side, whether that’s in the form of ‘anxiety disorder‘ or plain moral evil.
We are Born Selfish – Richard Dawkins
Although atheist Richard Dawkins said, “We are born selfish” in terms of genetic survival (not moral evil), selfishness is innate. As infants, we cry when hungry, demand to be fed, and expect attention, justified because we’re helpless. But this self-centered pattern continues throughout life, only managed by cultural norms. Left to ourselves, we think only of survival, which is why Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
Jordan Peterson on Human Nature
Jordan Peterson, labeled a “right extremist” by demonic far-left liberals, is a brilliant clinical psychologist. He is changing the way men and women think of themselves—in a highly positive way. Peterson has a lengthy discussion of good vs. evil. But it’s best to quote him.
“No one likes to think they’re a Nazi, but everyone is one. Granted the opportunity, how many of us would not be Hitlers?” – Jordan Peterson
Everyone has a dark side.
2. Paul: The Nature of Man in The Bible
Apostle Paul, highly educated under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), taught that every person is born with a sinful nature that seeks self above God. He wrote, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature” (Romans 7:18), and “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Many turn to evil and align themselves with Satan; that’s why there is hell (Ephesians 2:1–3).
- The Bible says no one is good. Jesus said, “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19).
- The heart is deceitful and out of the heart of me come evil thoughts. (Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 5:18)
- Our mind, governed by the flesh, is hostile to God and cannot submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
- No one is righteous before God, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
Romans 3:10-12
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together, they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
Every person born is enslaved to sin as a consequence of man’s fall
By one man, Adam, sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned (Romans 5:12). Perhaps one of the greatest apostles, Paul, admits, “I know that nothing good dwells in me.” (Romans 7:18)
Romans 8:7
For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.
Ephesians 2:1-7
“We are dead in trespasses and sins, sons of disobedience, and by nature children of wrath.
But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
And God raised us with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages, He might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
3. John MacArthur: Hope for the Sinful “Inner Man”
Though we are born sinners, those who have the mind of Christ are regenerated to do God’s will. The Spirit takes over our sinful nature. Although we are wasting away outside, our inner selves are renewed daily (2 Corinthians 4:16). Therefore, even if you think you are born this way, we can overcome and refrain from completely giving in to our selfish desires. MacArthur testifies:
“When I was young in the faith, I thought the impulses were strong enough that maybe I would never conquer them, that some spiritual goals would never be reached. I yielded a little each day and was refreshed in the Word day by day; the inner man was being revitalized and strengthened. I was building spiritual muscle until there was spiritual strength, even amid physical weakness.“
Daily Sanctification: Indwelling Christ
We are what we are on the inside, and what’s outside is a cloak built out of our conscious effort. Sanctification changes us from the inside to make us Christlike on the outside.
The word “dwell” (katoikēsai; κατοικῆσαι) is made up of two words: Oikeō, to live in a home, and Kata, meaning to “settle down in a home.” In other words, to have a victorious Christian life, Christ must remain in us so we may be sanctified continuously through His grace.
Ephesians 3:17
So that Christ may dwell (katoikēsai) in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
Apologist R.C. Sproul reiterates our total depravity—we are born bad. However, a Believer who repents is a new creation. The sinful man dies in Christ and is born again. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. (John 15:5)
The sinful man dies in Christ and becomes born again.
