People

If you believe that each person is basically good, then you run through the following logical steps.

• There are always a few bad apples, but most people are good
• Treat everyone as an equal, with equal rights under the law
• Try to help each person overcome personal limits (ie, difficulty learning, addiction, failure to live a healthy life) but allow each person the honor of being responsible for his own outcome.
• Laws that control the few individuals who would take advantage of the many.
• Each person is a new opportunity to do good, but large masses of people may overrun the resources of the planet.

If you believe that each person is basically out for himself, that individuals are basically evil, then you run through the following logical steps.

• There may be a few good guys, but most people are bad
• We need an intricate legal system to control all the evil people out there
• A legal system should try to equalize groups, not individuals, as individuals will combine their evil to attack and oppress others. Justice for individuals is silly, as individuals themselves are not just. We just need to keep order among the thieves and murderers that make up mankind.
• Each person is a new opportunity to do evil and it is true that large masses of people may overrun the resources of the planet, but we cannot try to control populations until all groups are equal.

There is no way to absolutely prove either position. However, consider this. If you believe in the second position, you see the world teeming with evil, self-centered individuals, banding together in groups for the sole purpose of dominating others. This century's winner may be next century's loser. A constant clamor for wealth and power for evil purposes. Nothing noble about humans. Nothing "divine". Just living organisms rushing about like smarter ant colonies, breeding and fighting for limited morsels. If there is a God, he is in the governments and religions that control all these insects.

If you believe in the first position, you see a world of potential. A world of good people, sometimes misled by a few evil, power hungry individuals who seek to pervert humanity. These individuals come to power through, for example, government and religion. If there is a God, he is in the hearts and minds of individual men and women, in our best selves, to which each of us strives. You see government and religion as imperfect means to control limited evil, that themselves become corrupted by the very individuals who seek power and position, and produce even greater evil. Those who seek office and authority are most often those who believe in government and religion as the answer to the problem of people, when in fact people are the answer to the problems of government and religion by bringing good, common sense.