{"id":25344,"date":"2010-11-03T16:57:30","date_gmt":"2010-11-04T00:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=25344"},"modified":"2010-11-03T16:57:30","modified_gmt":"2010-11-04T00:57:30","slug":"are-people-basically-good-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=25344","title":{"rendered":"Are People Basically Good?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

If my mail is any indication, I suspect I aroused considerably more anger among Jews by arguing that man is not basically good (and that the belief in man\u2019s innate goodness is neither rational nor Jewish) than I would have had I argued that there is no God.<\/p>\n

If my suspicion is true, it supports my contention that many Jews have substituted faith in humanity for faith in God. Otherwise, why all the anger? Only one letter actually argues that people are basically good. The rest raise unrelated issues or just attack me. (To read the letters referred to here, see Page 4.)<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin with Michael Tolkin, a self-described \u201csocialist liberal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reading Mr. Tolkin\u2019s comments, one would think I had defamed the universally loved Anne Frank. Yet all I did was differ with one line in Anne Frank\u2019s diary because it is the most frequently cited example of the belief among Jews that people are basically good.<\/p>\n

Yet, Mr. Tolkin describes my respectful philosophical difference with one line in Anne Frank\u2019s diary this way: I have \u201clectured to\u201d Anne Frank, I have \u201crobbed her particular soul of her particular experience,\u201d I have \u201cthrown [her] into the ash heap generalization of \u2018young people,\u2019 \u201d I have caused Mr. Tolkin to \u201cwant to scream at this desecration,\u201d and I have engaged in \u201crobbing\u201d and \u201cerasing\u201d Anne Frank\u2019s name because I referred to her as a \u201cteenage girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

After excoriating me for differing with Anne Frank, Mr. Tolkin proceeds to the issue itself. He writes that in spite of all of Anne Frank\u2019s suffering, \u201cshe believed in goodness.\u201d But belief in goodness was not the subject of my column, nor of the Anne Frank remark I quoted. The subject of my column (and Anne Frank\u2019s comment) was belief in man being basically good. It\u2019s tough to see how Mr. Tolkin missed that. In any event, I passionately believe in goodness. If I didn\u2019t, I wouldn\u2019t have written my article, because I believe that we can only increase goodness in the world if we first acknowledge how morally flawed human nature is.<\/p>\n

Mr. Tolkin counters my argument that Anne Frank engaged in wishful thinking with this: \u201cShe didn\u2019t engage in \u2018wishful thinking,\u2019 she engaged in the hardest work of all, finding good where there\u2019s no reason for anything but bitterness. This is the real meaning of the Jewish admonition to choose life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, every normal human being wants to find good wherever possible. That is not the same, however, as claiming that people are basically good. I don\u2019t understand why this distinction eludes Mr. Tolkin. It is, in fact, quite possible to find good wherever one can and at the same time understand that people are not basically good. I do it every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dennis Prager writes: If my mail is any indication, I suspect I aroused considerably more anger among Jews by arguing that man is not basically good (and that the belief in man\u2019s innate goodness is neither rational nor Jewish) than … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24242],"tags":[24243,29761,21970,24244,37652,24245],"class_list":["post-25344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dennis-prager","category-michael-tolkin","tag-ash-heap","tag-dennis-prager","tag-faith-in-god","tag-innate-goodness","tag-michael-tolkin","tag-philosophical-difference"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t