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There are two important, indeed,
fundamental questions

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you have to answer in life.

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The first is, is there a God? Specifically a moral and
judging creator.

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The second is, are people

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basically good? Your answer to the second
question

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will shape just about all of your moral
social and political views

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even more than whether you believe in
God.

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That's why a believer and an atheist who
have the same views about human nature

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almost always have the same social

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and political views. Let me give you some
examples.

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You've probably heard the phrase "poverty
causes crime."

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If you believe that people are basically
good, you are likely to believe that

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poverty

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or bigotry or some other outside force

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causes people to commit violent crime.
That's the only way you can make sense

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of the fact that some people commit
crimes

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despite their basically good nature.
Something drove them to it.

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But if you don't believe people are
basically good, you're far more likely to

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blame the criminals themselves

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not outside forces for their actions.

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One more example. In a society where it is
believed that people are basically good

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parents and society don't devote great
efforts

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toward making good people. After all, 
if we're born good

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why do you have to teach goodness? On the other hand

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those who don't believe we are born all
that good understand that parents and

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society

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have to undertake major efforts to make
children

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into good adults.

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Okay then, are people basically good? As I will show
given humanities history

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the answer should be obvious. Of course
human nature

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isn't basically good. Now this doesn't
mean that people are basically bad,

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we are born with real potential to do
good, but we are not

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basically good. Take babies. Babies are
lovable

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and innocent but they're not good,
they're entirely self-centered

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as they have to be in order to survive. "I
want mommy,"

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"I want milk," "I want to be held," "I want to
be comforted,"

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and if you do not do all these things
immediately I will ruin your life.

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That's not goodness, that's narcissism.

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We are born narcissists.

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preoccupied with number one, ourselves.

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And if you've ever worked with kids you
know how cruel, how bullying they can be.

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And don't parents have to
tell their child tens of thousands of times

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"Say thank you."

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Now why is that?  If we're naturally good wouldn't feeling and expressing gratitude come naturally?

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And then there is the historical record.

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Evils, huge evils,

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affecting much of the human race have
been the norm.

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Here goes, just a few examples.

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The Ottoman Turks
targeted millions of Armenian Christians

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for death during World War I.

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The German Nazi regime murdered 6
million Jews, two out of every three European Jews

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including more than a million children
and babies.

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The Soviet Communist regime slaughtered
about 5 million Ukrainians

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and about 25 million other innocents. The
Chinese Communists killed about 70 million Chinese

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and enslaved the rest of the Chinese people.

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The North Korean Communist regime has
built what one can only call

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the world's largest concentration camp.
Most of North Korea.

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in postcolonial Congo in the decade
between 1998 and 2008

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over five million people were murdered

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and tens if not hundreds of thousands of
women raped.

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Of course before that,

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about 10 million Africans were kidnapped
and made slaves in the European slave trade

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and another 10 to 18 million Africans
were enslaved

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by Arab slave traders.  

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And let me ask you
this, if people are basically good why does
every civilization have so many laws

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to control human behavior?

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Knowing all this, those who believe that
people are basically good have simply

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made a decision to believe that

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and ignore all the evidence.

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Why do people commit evil? Because it's easy to,

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because it's tempting to, and yes

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because it often accords with human
nature.

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That is why figuring out how to make
good people

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is the single most important project in
all of human life.

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But first you have to believe it's
necessary.

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I'm Dennis Prager.

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