Can Children Be Born Evil?


25 Answers

Zaphod  Beeblebrox Profile
I believe that everyone is born with a great capacity for good, but a great proclivity for evil.
John Profile
John answered
As cain and abel could tell you no, but they can decide to be.that or they are not as they appear/a "human baby",even though some people don't believe it the anti- christ will be or has been born pure evil.but,then he would not be a "human child" from the start.
The Instigator Profile
The Instigator answered
Every child born is virtually a clean slate and void of evil. However, they are an amalgam of their own personality and the influence their parents genes have endowed them with. What will happen to them as they mature will contain a plethora of experiences which will eventually reveal itself in their fully developed persona.
thanked the writer.
Merlin Paine
Merlin Paine commented
Very well said.....The story of how any mind develops is a very complex thing......
Deemarcas Day
Deemarcas Day commented
Very well stated, what I was trying to show in my answer
Julia Profile
Julia answered
There are some babies that are born with "asymmetrical hippocampus" as well as "faulty brain wiring that causes them to lack empathy and consideration for other people" The text was taken from,
So, while these people weren't born evil, they have no mechanism to stop malevolent behaviour. The show I recently watched stated that these phycopaths aren't necessarily violent, they can also be sales persons or even scam artists becuse the can't feel sorry for what they did.
yarnlady Profile
yarnlady answered
The word 'evil' implies a value judgement. It is possible for a child to be born with no concept of empathy. There is a disorder called Alexithymia, where the individual has trouble identifying feelings within, or recognizing it in others. They do not understand or process emotions. This often leads to what appears a callous disregard for the welfare of others.

Recent advances in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the brain have actually shown the area of the brain that does not function the same in people who exhibit the conduct disorders as that found in most people.

To call this behavior 'evil' is a mistake. They are incapable of responding to the cues that teach us to respect the rights and feelings of others.
face book Profile
face book answered
I personally believe its the parents who make their child who they are.
Mary Ann Cassidy Profile
I think children can be born with a chemical imbalance that can cause them to act in evil ways.  Other that that I think it comes from lousy parenting!
William Harkin Profile
William Harkin answered
People have been mulling over that for years.I doubt very much if children are BORN evil.I think it's nurture not nature that makes people evil
walter jedyk Profile
walter jedyk answered
No, not really.
I think that the mom probably did drugs or not properly took take of herself as a pregnant
Annie Devore Profile
Annie Devore answered
Not Really.. But If They Are Raised In A House With A Crack Addict And Drunk; What Else Can You Expect?
Gene wright Profile
Gene wright answered
Every child is born with original sin that adam caused, but they are not accountable for that until they reach the age of account ably....see Deut. 1.19.
Jewelly A. Shetka Profile
Unfortunately, many times the children
are just paying for their parents' failures.
Failing to teach them proper manners
and courtesy...a kid screaming in the
grocery storeor slapping a parent when mad.  
Failing to provide a healthy home environment...
Drugs, abuse, booze.  Failing to give any
indication of any interest in what the kids do and or
what they look like...lots of times, that is what
happens to 'latch key' kids.
Kids learn that the world doesn't give a d---
about them, then they'll return the sentiment.
The conditions of upbringing play a good part
in how things go.  Though, not all of the time.
There can be something in the child that causes
ill-behavior and even open rebellion.
My brother is a good example of that.  He was in
trouble since the time he was old enough to walk
into a store and steal candy.  No surprise that booze
and drugs came into his life soon after.  His mother
was always there for him and did what she could to
teach him, but he just wouldn't straighten up.
He spent most of his teen years in juvenile centers.
Finally, after a number of years being told that going
and picking up his welfare check didn't constitute him
supporting his wife and kids, he upped and left.
He and his family are now as far from the rest of
the family as he can get and still be in the US.
Deemarcas Day Profile
Deemarcas Day answered
I think they can be born a bad seed.  Have seen this with 2 different friends.  One, I knew her son since he was 2 or 3, and she brought him by work one day and threw is soda bottle in the warehouse floor, and one of the guys politely asked him to put the trash in the can and he refused and pitched a tantrum I will never forget. Mom did not interfere, she suggested he put the trash in the can, but did not do the motherly thing and insist. That child grew up and did some extremely evil things, but I think if Mom had corrected some of the earlier behavior, it might not have been that way.  Another adopted a young girl who had accused men of molesting her, the records were sealed, and didn't get unsealed until she accused Dad of it. By this time, she'd accused 5 men, and she wasn't even 10.  I said she if liked a boy and he wouldn't give her some, she cry rape, and if she didn't get the grades she wanted in school, she would make up something about the teacher.  She was seen several years later looking like a slut. Again, her some of her childhood was screwed up.  We had friends, all with girls about her age, and we later learned that if they didn't do what she wanted, she would threaten to tell on them for something she would make up.  Both these kids are now adults and last I heard, both were still messed up.  

I think if the child is born with the propensity to be bad and lives in a bad situation, you got a problem. I also know good kids from lousy homes.  It goes both ways.
Merlin Paine Profile
Merlin Paine answered
It is highly unlikely....One's psychological disposition is most likely the product of one's enviornment and experiences. That being said there are children who are from the same family and brought up at the same time and in the same enviornment and five of them can be really good people while one of them goes on to be a serial killer. Case in point Ted Kacynski was turned in by his own brother. Although with him he seems to have been a good man for much of his life and thus wasn't born that way. I have a sister in prison who has always seemed to embrace evil. She has always seemed to enjoy doing mean things to people. As a young child and later as a teenager she would get people in trouble and then lay back and laugh about it. Yet she was raised in the same rigidly Christian enviornment as all the rest of us. She was taught to embrace virtue. So just what caused her to turn south early on is anybodies guess. But it begs the question was she just born that way. We will never know.....
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Yes, I had to watch this awful girl that I didn't raise and she harassed and bulled everyone she met.  Her name was Kayla and when I took her to our friends house, she told their daughter that she was an ugly loser and everyone hates her. The little girl cried so much.  I've seen her do this 55+ times and when you look in her eyes there is nothing behind them; no soul at all so yes, will Mr. Mathurin please take his kid away from the awful single mom that is raising her before she kills someone.
Carla Vaught Profile
Carla Vaught answered
We are ALL born sinners. From the day Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden we were cursed with death as a payment for sin. God gave man free will and they used it to sin against God instead of Glorifying Him. We as God's Creation brought sin into the picture which in turn makes us ALL born as sinners.
Sarah Profile
Sarah answered
The parents make them be born good or evil
thanked the writer.
Carla Vaught
Carla Vaught commented
No we are ALL born sinners. Children are not accountable until the age of reason. Sin came into the picture when Adam and Eve sinned against God. So we are all born sinners. But Praise God those who confess their sins and ask for forgivness and ask Jesus to come into their lives are born again!
Mike McCarthy Profile
Mike McCarthy answered
Maybe. Take Hitler for example. He most definately was born a bad seed. It just took time for his evil to surface in his later years.
Soumaya Mahdy Profile
Soumaya Mahdy answered
No, kids are innocent, this all depends in wat kind of environment they live in and also the people they live with eg the parents or there guardian.
Kilaeys Profile
Kilaeys answered
Good and evil are conditioned into us. We are born pure, but with good and evil tendencies. Also take note that 'good' and 'evil' are generally subjective.

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