It’s one of the eternal questions, isn’t it? Hasn’t every philosopher, ever since history can recall, plagued the papers with questions to why.. why do people do good? why do people do bad? what compels people to take that mental step to do that? is it something built into the human psyche? are all people free to make their decision without the interference of a 3rd party? is it a 3rd party that makes people do what they do? for the purpose of this piece; i will only slightly touch on the latter option; that is, the option of a Satan/angel concept.

The first reason has become more obvious with the help of modern science — in the past, one would say the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree; today, its called genetic predisposition. As in, some people inherit certain traits or hormonal/mental characteristic that then mirror actions that the person takes during the course of his or her life – be it good or bad. The second aspect is a person’s upbringing; this part is integral to creating the sense of wrong and right in a human being; that sense is what ultimately guides that person to create his/her own basis of right and wrong (assuming that there is an effort to do so — please see Conviction for an expansion to this point). Added to the upbringing, is a person’s own experience; be it interactions with members of society or a person’s own perception and analysis of the things that happen in the surrounding environment. Of course, i will raise my hands and admit that this is a large generality; there are countless people that are the exact opposites of what they have been taught, there are those that create their own version of right and wrong, and of course sociopaths that have no sense of right and wrong.

The point that I’m trying to get to is that, our basis and foundation of right and wrong is very much constrained to some of these parameters; and in the case of a secluded society or individual lifestyle, some of these pertain simply to those surroundings; in a personal sense, my sense of right and wrong is a result of my genetics, the way that my parents/family has brought me up, the people that i have lived amongst, the society that i have interacted in, and the people that i have come in touch with.

Now, to ask, why do people do good and bad is assuming a certain criteria that creates a good and that creates a bad; but if far-ranging societies have two completely different sets of what’s right and what’s wrong, then how does that apply? Can a person from a completely opposite upbringing say that his or her counterpart in another is doing the wrong thing? Of course, there are always going to be some issues that all humanity can draw a line under and proclaim them ‘wrong’, to name a few would be to list murder, theft, rape/molestation, gender inequality, and discrimination.

Let’s assume that all people share the same sense of right and wrong, that every person on this planet has a list of ‘good-to-do’ and ‘bad-to-do’; what compels each person to do right, or wrong? Is it simply because he or she has gone through x & y experiences in his or her life, and the actions reflect that? In that sense, can we say that a thief is not a bad person because he or she simply has misfortunes, and needs to feed family members? Can we say that a murderer simply did it because of on-the-spur anger that he or she acted on? Can we say that a rapist is simply doing what he (well.. it is always a he, isnt it?!) thought would be a solution to the never-ending sexual tension building up in his body? Or do we say that NO, people have the choice to right and wrong, and they can tell what they do is either good or bad; and people should be personally directed for wrongdoings and punished for it; I’m not saying I’m against this, but simply to play the devil’s advocate; what if those people were brought up, all their life, to think that what they did was okay, that there was nothing wrong with it? would they be guilty? or would they surroundings be the one to blame?

Ancient philosophers, and many people of faith would say that wrongdoings are the work of the devil, of Satan, or of any metaphysical figure any dogma has; the reason why these metaphysical creatures exists, is simply to answer this exact question — why do people do good/bad?

To be perfectly honest, i don’t have the final answer to this – i do believe that there’s a reason why governments exist, and its for this very reason — to bring together a number of astounding minds that can come up with a baseline decision on what they perceive is right and wrong, put those ideals into place and prosecute those that go against it — but again, their sense of right and wrong is based on history, environment, and self-analysis..

I may have not come to a final answer on this, i do hope i will though – one day! But the beauty of this topic is that it has opened my eyes to so much more, it has helped me understand other cultures, other viewpoints; I don’t judge people because they don’t smile at me while i pass by, maybe they were not taught to do so; i don’t judge people because they dress in a way that is more liberal than the conservative-ness that i’ve been taught; i simply don’t judge… In the end of the day, they are all different versions of right and wrong