Some children seem like they were born to be bad – are we born good or bad?
Bad behaviour seems to be inherited in some children and not caused by bad parenting, but are any humans born evil?
We think of babies being pure, but can a child be born evil?
Are humans inherently good or evil, has God decided what we turn out like?
Table of Contents:
1. Can a child be born evil?
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) in his famous 1651 work ‘Leviathan’ wrote that humans were bad right from the start:
According to Hobbes, because people are inherently evil and selfish, they can not be left to govern themselves.
‘Thomas Hobbes’ Stanford University. 1
For this reason, he supported the idea of a monarchy–a commonwealth run by a sovereign, whose job is to provide power and leadership in order to protect his subjects from themselves and their evil.”
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) believed the opposite was true:
Rousseau repeatedly claims that a single idea is at the centre of his world view, namely, that human beings are good by nature but are rendered corrupt by society”
‘Jean Jacques Rousseau’ 21st April 2023. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) believed that babies were born with a ‘blank state’ which was then formed by parents and other influences:
Tabula rasa is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception…
‘Tabula rasa’ Wikipedia. Last edited on 23 May 2023. 3
Sigmund Freud depicted personality traits as being formed by family dynamics…
So can a child be born evil? What is the most modern view and does that fit with what the Bible says?
Research by the ‘Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre’, at King’s College, London concluded that:
Antisocial behaviour is inherited in some children and not caused by bad parenting, psychiatrists claimed today.
‘Some children ‘born bad’ ‘ by Debbie Andalo and agencies 25th May 2005 The Guardian. Based on research by Dr Essi Viding, from the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, at King’s College, London. 4
They argued that children with psychopathic tendencies owed their antisocial behaviour to their genetic make-up.
But children without psychopathic tendencies who were also antisocial were more likely to be behaving badly because of their environment rather than their genes, they concluded.
The Bible does not disagree with that conclusion.
Perhaps Cain had a psychopathic tendency within his genes, but when he got jealous and angry with his brother Abel, God did not excuse that, He said to Cain:
Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?
Genesis 4:6-7 ESV
If you do well, will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
But Cain did not listen to the Lord and went on to kill his brother Abel.
In the genetic research above, their conclusion was that “However, strong heritability does not mean that nothing can be done. Children are open to protective environmental influences early in life, and these influences can buffer the effect of genetic vulnerability.”
This means that the genetic makeup is not a fait accompli, where there is no escape.
The story of Cain and Abel does prove that, even with Cain’s natural tendency to jealousy and anger, God still expected him to master the problem.
2. Are we born good or bad, what do modern experiments show?
This experiment with babies under two years old shows that they have an understanding of right and wrong at a very young age.
The research carried out by ‘Babies: Their Wonderful World’ looked at what age babies start judging right from wrong:
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All the babies picked the triangle that exhibited ‘helpful’ and ‘selfless’ behaviour, even down to babies as young as seven months.
Chief scientist, Felix Warneken at the Laboratory for Developmental Studies at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts has been conducting experiments:
In the following months, Warneken designed experiments for 18-month-olds, in which a hapless adult (often played by him) attempted to perform a variety of tasks, to no avail, as the toddlers looked on.
‘Are Babies Born Good?’ by Abigail Tucker January 2013. Smithsonian Magazine. 5
The toddlers gallantly rescued Warneken’s dropped teaspoons and clothespins, stacked his books and pried open stubborn cabinet doors so he could reach inside.
‘Eighteen-month-old children would help across these different situations, and do it very spontaneously,’ he says. ‘They are clever helpers. It is not something that’s been trained, and they readily come to help without prompting or without being rewarded.’ ”
Whereas some researchers disagree with the conclusions of these experiments, they say:
Babies may look like they’re endowed with robust social skills, these researchers argue, but actually they start from scratch with only senses and reflexes, and, largely through interaction with their mothers, learn about the social world in an astonishingly short period of time.
‘Are Babies Born Good?’ by Abigail Tucker January 2013. Smithsonian Magazine.
‘I don’t think they are born with knowledge,’ says Jeremy Carpendale, a psychologist at Simon Fraser University.
A toddler’s moral perspective, he says, is not a given.”
3. Does the Bible say that humans are inherently good or evil?
The Bible says that humanity was originally created in the image of God:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
Genesis 1:27-28 ESV
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them,
‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ “
We instinctively know right from wrong, and we know that human life shouldn’t be destroyed.
We are creative, we plan and design things.
We are valuable in God’s eyes.
But we are now corrupted since our ancestors, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God.
They chose to live separately and independently from the Lord, their creator and Father.
This rebellion the Bible calls ‘sin’ has infected everyone since then.
Our minds are hostile towards God:
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
Romans 8:7 ESV
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Even in people who look decent and law-abiding, evil is just below the surface and it only requires them to be shaken and all sorts of bad behaviour can be exhibited to survive in their situation.
This does not mean that humanity is utterly evil and incapable of good.
Even murderers and thieves can do good things.
It was the tree of the knowledge of good AND evil that our ancestors ate from (Genesis 2:17).
Evil means that we are tainted like muddied drinking water.
4. Do children and babies go to heaven?
The quick answer is yes and this is why:
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment”
Hebrews 9:27 NIV
To face judgment is to have all the charges brought against you, but if the only charge is that Adam, our ancestor, has rebelled against God how can the Judge of the world judge righteously if He says guilty?
Someone is guilty when they choose to do the wrong thing.
A baby, an infant, or anyone who is incapable of moral decisions, cannot be judged fairly.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
2 Corinthians 5:10 NIV
There has got to be a verdict that was “without excuse” that their actions were inexcusable:
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
Romans 1:18-20 NIV
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
When the Lord said to the Israelites that ‘No one from this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, except Caleb’ and Joshua and ‘your children who do not yet know good from bad‘. [Deuteronomy 1:35 & 39]
For more detail on this see ‘Do All Infants Go to Heaven?’ 6
5. Evil humanity resulted in God flooding the world
In the story of Noah ‘giants and mighty men’ are mentioned.
As far as national leaders go there isn’t enough room in the world for very many giants and mighty men because of their abuse of power.
In our everyday lives, we can come across many who have that mindset.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days … Giants and mighty men of renown”
Genesis 6:4 NIV
That statement makes me think of brave-hearted warriors, galloping away, to do the sort of stuff that legends are made of!
That appears to be a noble, and grand picture.
But to become the ‘mighty men of renown,’ they probably crushed and suppressed others in their abuse of power.
You may know someone who is a good businessman, businesswoman, leader, or supervisor with a reputation for being tough.
Perhaps you have a reputation?
The job gets done, but at what cost to others?
How many people bully others under the guise of ‘authority’ and ‘leadership’ and so abuse their position of power?
Almighty God sees the ‘mighty’ people of this world, the ones with a reputation, the ones that have got a name, and He knows how that was achieved.
Let’s return to Noah’s time.
The Lord didn’t just see the giants and mighty men of renown, those bullies who were getting a name for themselves.
In Genesis, it says:
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterwards – when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them.
Genesis 6:4-7 NIV
They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.
The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.
So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air – for I am grieved that I have made them.”
That paints a very sad picture of humanity, and it is so easy to push it aside and concentrate on all the nice bits of the Bible.
But it is in God’s Word, and it forms an important part of the foundation of our faith.
Without this teaching our faith will be distorted and not safe.
In the passage, it said:
Everyone’s wickedness was great.”
Genesis 6:5 NIV
We all need to have that revelation. Paul expresses this thought:
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.”
Romans 7:18 NIV
The danger is, if we don’t realise that each of us has a corrupt being within us, we will approach God with an attitude of: ‘I am pure, I keep all of Your Laws, look at me aren’t I doing well!’
Also, we will believe that God owes us something because we think we have been so good.
Perhaps when you hear God saying that everyone’s wickedness is great, the thought shocks you.
Let’s look further at this when Jesus says:
For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;
Matthew 24:37-39 NIV
and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came, and took them all away.
That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
What huge sins are recorded here to warrant such action?
eating and drinking, marrying..”
Matthew 24:37 NIV
Surely these are not classed as sins, are they?
The answer is yes if we don’t put God first in our lives.
Because if we don’t put Him first, then even eating and drinking becomes something to gratify our self-centred lives.
If we don’t believe in the Lord, and trust Him, then we have pushed God aside.
By our actions, we say: ‘I am going to do what I want, I don’t need You, God!’
What was God’s reaction? Did He say: ‘Oh well, never mind, I still love them?’ No, it was recorded that He was:
Sorry He had made them, and He was grieved in His heart.”
Genesis 6:7 NIV
Worldly people are like the raven which was released from Noah’s Ark.
How to please God which is a sweet fragrance for him.
In a materialist world, it is hard to wait for ‘stuff’.
Not even Noah was totally consistent.
6. Is humanity still evil according to the New Testament?
In many passages in the Bible, we read of God’s displeasure against people’s sin.
So you may say, ‘Well that is the Old Testament. We live in the New Testament now, and it isn’t like that any more.’
I believe there is a lot of confusion over this, so let’s see what the truth is.
In the first section, we were told that God is unchangeable.
So God didn’t spend the first part of history being grieved at sin, and then He became a God of love for the last two thousand years!
Both Testaments speak of God’s love and His displeasure.
He is the same God throughout the Bible.
Mark tells us that Jesus
…looked round at them in anger, and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts..”
Mark 3:5 NIV
Stubborn hearts make God angry.
Let’s get a balanced view of Almighty God.
He is a God of love, but He is also a God of justice, and of righteousness, and He is Holy.
If we don’t rely on Christ for our salvation, then God looks down and sees us trying to make a name for ourselves, He sees us eating, drinking, marrying, and living our lives for ourselves.
That is a very dangerous place to be.
But if we rely on Christ for our salvation, God replaces that stubborn heart with one that is willing to please and obey Him.
[1] Does God change His mind? An erratic and fickle God?
[3] Work can be boring but should not lack meaning. Toil and tedium, drudgery and hard work
[4] Working for God is different to working with God. Our hard work AND God’s miracles
References – open in new tabs:
Drawings: thanks to The Pictorial Dictionary published by The Educational Book Company, London.
‘Thomas Hobbes’ Stanford University. ↩
‘Jean Jacques Rousseau’ 21st April 2023. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ↩
‘Some children ‘born bad’ ‘ by Debbie Andalo and agencies 25th May 2005 The Guardian. Based on research by Dr Essi Viding, from the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, at King’s College, London ↩
‘Are Babies Born Good?’ by Abigail Tucker January 2013. Smithsonian Magazine. ↩
‘Do All Infants Go to Heaven?’ 20th August 2015 by Sam Storms The Gospel Coalition. ↩