Good or Evil?

It seems to me that there are two ways one can view the world...and, in my humble opinion, it all stems from, or is heavily influenced by, the concept of human nature. Are we in fact good by nature or are we evil?

I sat in my Theology and the Christian Life class earlier this year and listened to my professor roll off multiple views of human nature within Christian doctrine. It got me thinking about our nature, our ability to change, and why it is so important to have an opinion on the matter.

This question has enormous repercussions on religion, politics, and society in general. If you take the majority of the philosophers which emerged from the Enlightenment, except Rousseau, their concept of human nature was negative; in the words of Hobbes, life was expected to be "nasty, brutish, and short" if we are left to our own devices. In fact, the entire American political system is based on the concept of human greed and our own selfish nature that is constantly striving for self-preservation above all else. If you are unsure about what I am referring to it is the Montesquieuian concept of checks and balances; a concept that is deeply rooted in Western political theory and has become language by which international relations exists. Essentially, we are not looking out for each other, we are only attempting to ensure that our interests are being fulfilled.

So it seems that in Western society the majority of our social institutions, laws, and political system are predicated on the idea that we are by nature evil. But this, this really bugged me. It did not leave much hope for this world. Although, it did seem to explain the misery of this world which one does not have to look hard for.

Well what then is the argument for humanity being by nature good. It can be found in Christian doctrine, which argues that God created us good but we were corrupted in some way from Adam or something called inherited sin. The most hopeful viewpoint in humanity comes from Buddhism...it truly believes that we are by nature good, that we can improve ourselves, that it is mainly a product of our mind which creates the obstacles that we face. The weight that social construction plays is much heavier and the GUILT is not placed upon us as it is in Western tradition (mainly due to Christianity). But have we not proven time and again that we can be horrendous, awful, heartbreaking. Just look at some of the stuff we  have done...genocide, mass murder, horrible world wars. On the other hand, how is there any hope in the world if we are not good. Maybe we would have less depression in this world if we were less compelled to think so negatively about ourselves.

But beyond attempting to create a hopeful and idealistic view of the world, what are we!? does it matter? I think it does....