Thesis: Growing up, a child will experience certain events to influence his decision on what is evil. Therefore, man is born good and learns evil. When a child is born, he has a sense of innocence, their sweet, kind, and good. Throughout their years of growing up children will experience what is right and what is wrong by parents, society, and experiences in life. Children learn evil at an early age, not how to be evil but what it is in general.
Children will develop to them what is good and what is evil as time goes on. The parent (s) have a great deal of influence in a child’s life. The parent will teach his kid (s) right from wrong by discipline them, whether it’s spanking them, taking privileges away, or sending them to their room for a while. A child will know that what he does is wrong and will try not to do it again.
Another way parents teach their kids what is evil or bad is just by telling them it’s bad. A parent may sometimes show his son or daughter what’s bad and tell them its evil. A child is born good but gradually learns what evil is by his or hers parents’ discipline methods and guidance. Society can have an effect on a child learning what evil is. Society can display an image to a child saying that killing someone is evil.
A child will recognize it as being bad and won’t do it. He will see the punishment and the consequences for his actions. Growing up in today’s society can teach a child what is evil, as parents can. Even though, a child is born good, society may influence a child’s decision on what evil is, because a child pays more attention to society growing up. The society can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on what the society says is “evil.” The society consists of friends, family, and church. Basically the whole world in which we live in is society.
To be born good and to then learn evil can sometimes be based on experiences in life. For example, growing up in an abusive home or community full drugs and violence will show a child the opposite of good, therefore learning what evil is. If a child experiences and is exposed to evil all his life then he will only know what is evil. That’s where choice comes in. Once a child learns what evil is from parents and society, then he will decide for himself what evil is and if it’s right for him. If that’s all a person is exposed to, then he may think doing or being evil is good for him.
Being born good doesn’t mean a child will stay good throughout the remainder of his life. It just means he hasn’t been taught evil. Everyone will eventually encounter evil one way or another. So a child will learn what evil is from all sorts of events that will happen in his life growing up. Going through life is how a person learns and grows individually. People make their own decisions on whether they want to be good or evil.
Television, Internet, and other sources of media in society are something that will persuade or influence a child’s decision on what evil is. The only thing in a child’s life that has a greater influence on him than society is the guidance and discipline from a parent. The only way a person can learn evil is through his childhood. A person is born good and learns to recognize evil but not to be evil.