In the bible, God says, “There is none who is good, no, not even one.”
He compares our good works to filthy rags.
Why would that be?
Because a creature who naturally turns his back on his creator and declares himself to be god (the arbiter of what is right and what is wrong), is inherently evil.
I observe that every person is just good enough to assuage his or her guilt. What we think and do in the shadows is different from what we express publicly.
Is mankind naturally good or naturally evil and disobedient to God? One need only look at babies and toddlers to discover the answer. They have a natural inclination to disobey and decide right and wrong for themselves. We do not need to teach them to disobey. It is their natural inclination.
That doesn’t change as we grow up. In childhood and teen years, we stay just good enough to stay out of serious trouble.
Everything about mankind is “just good enough”. Just enough to avoid punishment or penalty. That is not the mark of people who are “good”.
Even someone who gives to the poor or performs some other act of kindness is getting a payoff, if only to the ego (I must be a good person).
In my view, which is biblical, the ultimate evil is keeping one’s back turned to one’s creator in order to avoid the repulsive thought of answering to a higher moral authority. That is our natural inclination.
Mankind is utterly helpless in this condition. He is not self-aware. He cannot be if he naturally avoids God and sacrificial, righteous living. In acknowledgement of that helpless condition, the bible says that God has provided the solution to this unwinable dilemma. However, the vast majority reject his solution because they see themselves as capable of being good enough to earn that righteousness.
There is far more evil in the world than good. As I said, each person maintains a status of “good enough”... just enough to appear good to himself and to the outside world.
