The Roots Of Evil

Naturally Good, Selfishly Evil If people are born good what makes them become evil? Evil is grown in people's hearts over time and the more someone gives into temptation, the more evil their heart becomes. People are inherently good, however, some people succumb to evil because of the lack of self-restraint against temptation.
One reason people give in to temptations because of selfish desires. Eve was tempted by Satan to eat the apple because she wanted to gain knowledge. In Genesis: “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (King James Version, Genesis, 3:5). She was in paradise, but due to her self-serving motives, Eve gave …show more content…
An example of weak minds leading to evil is mob mentality, people just go along with the crowd not thinking for themselves. In “The Roots of Evil” Sharon Begley says: “In such horrors, the participants were what psychologists call “righteous conformists,” convinced of the justice of their cause and content to go along with the crowd” (Begley 9). It is common for people with weak minds to think that since everyone is doing some evil act it makes it ok, but it does not. People who have weak minds are more likely to commit evil acts because they have been taught to do so. As Sharon Bagley says in “The Roots of Evil”: “But hatred, violence and ideology exert powerful effects on weak minds” (Begley 12). People who have weak minds are more likely to commit evil acts and be tempted by evil because of their lack of …show more content…
As an example, children are not evil, they can learn to be evil, but they are not that way from birth. In “The Roots of Evil” Sharon Begley says “He nailed the explanation for evil committed by children: without intending to trivialize the enormity of their acts, one must conclude that in many cases they literally didn’t know any better” (Begley 14). Even when children do commit evil acts it is usually not intentional or they did not know any better as Begley stated. Although evil is learned over time, people’s natural reaction is still to do good not evil. In “The Man in the Water” the man gave up his life in order to save others, he was tempted by evil but still chose to do good. Rosenblatt states in “The Man in the Water”: “For its part, nature cared nothing about the five passengers. Our man, on the other hand, cared totally” (Rosenblatt 2). The man could have easily given in and saved himself, however he restrained himself and cared about the lives of the other people in the