I think people want to be good, unless you are a sociopath or psychopath. However, I think some people don’t have a clue as to how to be good.
What, again..?
No one is good but God alone.
> “Of course, he might be an outlier.”
Let’s pray it is so.
I do believe at some level, there is an inherent goodness in most people. But it’s not always easy to discern and can be risky to presume.
It’s best to be suspicious until the true character of a person emerges.
“By their fruits, you shall know them.”
“Made in the image of God”, yes. But then came sin, original sin; and the rest is history. And there is a future worth having.
I am forever grateful that God saw fit, from before the world began, to purchase us back to Himself. And, oh, the cost, the currency of redemption!
“Thanks be to God for His unspeakable Gift”!
Presumably, Prager is speaking of Pini Dunner. Beverley Hills Synagogue.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/12/31/being-good-is-in-our-nature/
It's so simple Yoda could parse it.
“Good” doesn’t apply to man before Gd raised him. Man was an animal - animals are neither good nor evil, but live and die according to the rules of Nature - as ordained by Gd, but that’s beyond the scope of this discussion. Once Gd got involved, Man became aware of good and evil, thereby becoming capable of both. Once that happens, there’s no putting it aside; you are “made” in the “image of Gd.”
When Man erred against Gd, he had to be put out of the Garden and the warning was “Now you’ll be an animal again, subject to the wayward whims of Nature. You’ll suffer mentally and physically. You wanted to be in charge? Now you are! Haaaaahahahaaaa!” *slams gate*
Adam: Can’t we talk about this?
Eve: I’m cold!
Adam & Eve’s kids: We’re hungry!
Whether it’s “okay” or not for the rabbi to suggest that we’re good - you never know, he might have just been messing. He’s out here with the rest of us miserable sinners, so what does that tell you?
People are basically good?
Too bad about that pesky original sin thing, thanks to Adam and Eve. People basically are sinners, and that ain’t good.
Joe lieberman traded Judaism for a shot at the democrat vice presidency.
“People are basically good” is the auto pilot we put our culture on after the horror of wwll. We’d faced down some bad actors. Belief in themselves and their culture was a hallmark. Post war we seemed to equate having deep seated or inviolable belief with fanaticism. It became a lot easier to cast anyone who loved America as a lurking Hitler. I was born in 1958 and I well remember the constant patriot as scoundrel drumbeat as well as the squishy ‘people are basically good” attitude that always seemed to me to be demonstrably untrue. People put their heads down and made believe it was a new and improved age. It wasn’t and it isn’t as we are seeing today.
In Genesis 1:27, Rashi, author of the most influential Jewish Bible commentary ever written, explains "in God's image" as "the power to comprehend and to discern."
In God's image and likeness: no two alike!
And a hell of a lot more people fought against the Nazis than fought for them.
The Bible spends a lot of time telling us how to be good. We seem to know how to be bad on our own.
I think people are basically good—and bad.
Interesting read.
This is where the left really loses it out of the gate. They believe, even if it’s unsaid, that people are basically good and want to do good and that is obviously, patently untrue.
The question so many people ask is that if God is good, why is there evil and suffering in this world.
Considering the way human beings have revealed themselves to be, the question shouldn’t be why there’s evil in the world, but why there is good in the world and where did THAT come from?
"So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" - Romans 7:21-25
That orthodox rabbi either doesn’t know his own scriptures or doesn’t believe them.
Two titles are better than one.
They may or may not be “good”, but they have all sinned and fallen short of the righteousness of God.
If this were not so, The Lamb of God would have given a Ted-talk to inspire them - instead of dying a horrific death on a cross to save souls of those who put their faith in Him alone.