Are we good because we are good, or are we good because temptation never tried us?
Earlier, my aunt called me again. She was furious with a cousin of mine,an attorney. She referred a client to him two years ago and the case was an annulment case. Now, this cousin of mine is actually a brilliant lawyer. So, I was quite shocked and understandably disappointed when I heard about what he has been doing.
Last year, he applied for a position in the Public Attorneys Office and he got the job. It is a rule that if you’re working for the PAO office, you will have to cease handling private cases. A violation of this rule amounts to mortal sin and could result to an eventual disbarment. My cousin apparently continued to handle this particular private case. Well, that would have been morally forgivable, if not administratively allowable, if that was only the case.
His screw up though is not because of his continued acceptance of this case. It appears that he kept asking for money without updating his client of the 2-year long case. Evidently, nothing was happening at all with the case! The client is understandably furious and so is my aunt who referred the client to my cousin. I was concerned because there were talks of reporting my cousin to the Department of Justice. Sadly though, I lost a lot of my respect for him. I’ve always thought of him as an upright and honest lawyer.
He has always been a good person and I believe he still is, but there are temptations that he just couldn’t resist.
So, are we good because we are good, or are we good because temptation never tried us?
I believe that we are good because we are. Or is this that simple? Killing a person, raping a little girl – those are not just responses to temptations. Those are acts that come from an internal source – an evil soul. However, there are things that we do that may be wrong but doing them does not necessarily mean that we are morally corrupt. Still, the bottom line is that no matter how much temptation tries to reel us in, goodness prevails if we are indeed good. This may be just an ignorant view but that’s how I see it. Goodness is tested by temptation but it does not mean that you are only good because you have never been tested. Goodness does not buckle.
A better question though is, “Are we innately good or do we only choose to be good?”
3 Gorgeous People Said --:
You posed a good question "Are we innately good...?"
I believe that there is that good within within us. It so happened that we are conditioned by society that we need evil in order for good to be distinguished.
We are conditioned by society that we are not good, and that good is a choice. But deep within us is the good that we imprisoned in the deepest of our being. I know a man condemned by society as criminal, that even how evil were his acts, he still desired good for his children.
PS You have great insight.
That's interesting, Kebelle.
i agree with you to a certain extent. I think that people are also innately good. There will always be a part of him that will hold him back when he's about to do something bad. It's only people who choose not to listen to this part of him.
In fact, if a person is without conscience, he is considered to be sick -- a sociopath.
Pursuing this line of thought, if people thinks that if someone does something without any regard to his or her conscience, then he is sick -- because if he is not sick, then he wouldn't be that bad because people believe that everyone is good.
My question is, "why did you say that society is conditioning us to think that we nre not good?"
I always have thought it's the opposite.
There was news on UK TV couple of years of ago but I'm not sure if this is implemented. Apparently they believed that children of convicts will be born with criminal tendencies and they should be tagged from birth. This world is getting too weird for my liking. I don't know who's right or wrong anymore. The lines seem blurred....
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