The document explores the contrasting views on human nature, discussing pessimistic perspectives like Hobbes' notion of humans as inherently selfish and in constant conflict, and optimistic views from thinkers like Rousseau and Mencius who argue for innate goodness and altruism. It suggests that moral evils arise from failures in moral maturity and highlights the importance of cooperation and moral development in human interactions. Ultimately, it argues that human nature encompasses both self-interest and altruism, and that conflicts are a result of collective moral failings rather than inherent selfishness.

1. Values and Norms: The Search for Happiness

2. 1. Pessimistic views of human nature
2. Optimistic visions of human nature
3. Psychological explanation of the internal
contradiction
4. Moral evil
5. Social evils
CHAPTER 5 HUMAN NATURE AND MORAL EVIL

3. In this chapter, we will try to give an answer
to the classic question about the innate
goodness or evil of human nature, as well as
attempt to offer an explanation to the problem
of moral evil.
Jumping to the conclusion, we could say that
human beings have the capacity or potentiality
to achieve moral maturity and behave in a
human way.
So moral evil and subsequent social evils can
be considered as a moral failure, individually or
collectively, in fulfilling this responsibility to
mature morally and behave in a human way.
INTRODUCTION

4.  “Man is a wolf for man”
of Hobbes
 “The struggle for
survival” of Darwin
 “Homo æconomicus”
 There are altruistic
behaviors in humans
 The aim pursued by
human beings is not
only survival
 Satisfying individual needs,
caring for oneself and seeking
one's own interest are natural
and good impulses
 Individualism and competition
do not have to provoke
conflicts and wars
 Wars are the result of an
individual and collective human
failure to attain moral maturity
and to behave in a human way
PESSIMISTIC VIEWS OF HUMAN NATURE

5. The most pessimistic classic view of human nature, or if
you want, the most realistic is represented by Hobbes.
Humans by nature are mainly looking for their own
conservation, and since all are equal and desire the same
things, they will always be in a continuous struggle with each
other.
The only way out of this state of constant war towards
relative peace is to establish an authority and laws that are
respected for fear of death and self-interest.This is the only
way for a social order to exist.
This view may be a correct description of the unfortunate
human history, but also is partial and narrow.According to
Kohlberg and Piaget, this type of morality would correspond
to the heteronomous morality of the infantile stage, in which
the child obeys the rules by the fear of punishment.
“Man is a wolf for man” of Hobbes

6. «This equality of ability produces equality of hope for the
attaining of our goals. So if any two men want a single thing
which they can’t both enjoy, they become enemies; and each
of them on the way to his goal (which is principally his own
survival, though sometimes merely his delight) tries to
destroy or subdue the other. (...)
And, worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent
death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and
short. (...)
The passions that incline men to peace are fear of death,
desire for things that are necessary for comfortable living, and
a hope to obtain these by hard work.»
Thomas Hobbes, Leviatán, Alianza Universidad, Madrid, 1989, pp. 106,
108, 109.
“Man is a wolf for man” of Hobbes

7. Another classical view similar to this is the one
popularized by the belief in Darwin's theory of
evolution.
The only goal of man, like any other animal, is
survival. But because resources are limited, life is a
continuous competition or struggle for sustenance,
in which the fittest or strong survive and the most
inept and weak become extinct.
This type of morality is similar to Nietzsche’s
“moral of the lords,” which justifies that the strong
subdue or eliminate the weak. In Kohlberg's model
this type of morality does not even fit with the
heteronomous morality of children, but should be
put on a lower pre-moral level.
“The struggle for survival” of Darwin

8. In this same line, another popular view within
the social sciences is that of the famous homo
æconomicus, namely, those small individual
calculating machines that are always trying to
maximize their profits, and that are grouped,
cooperate and establish relations of exchange
between them by means of pacts or contracts, as
long as it gives them a benefit.
The morality of this homo æconomicus —
although self-interested— seems somewhat
higher than the previous ones, because this
homo comes to understand that it is not
beneficial in the long term to deceive others or
not fulfill their promises, so that according to
Kohlberg, this morality could be placed between
the stage of childhood and adolescence.
“Homo æconomicus”

9. If all human beings acted solely for selfish and
self-interested reasons, we might conclude that
human nature is basically selfish.
But, noting that there are cases of truly
altruistic human conduct, even if they are
minority, we must admit that —given that
human nature seems homogenous in its
capacities— not only a few but all human beings
also have the capacity to act in a selfless or
altruistic way.
In fact, those who believe that the human
being is essentially selfish —in order to
overcome this obstacle— strive to demonstrate
that people who sacrifice for others do so with
the hidden motive of waiting for a future reward
in heaven.
There are altruistic behaviors in humans
However, it is very difficult to reduce all kind
of altruistic and sacrificial behavior to a pure
egoism, no matter how hard they may try.

10. In men, animals and other beings of
nature, an innate impulse can be
observed to satisfy their individual
needs and to preserve their own
existence. But, is this the only impulse
that moves them? Is this the only aim
they pursue in life?
The whole universe is formed by small
individual entities that are united to
each other by reciprocal interactions
and form increasingly large units.The
particles interact with each other and
form atoms; these in turn bind together
and form increasingly complicated
molecules.
The aim pursued by human beings is not only survival
The planets revolve around the stars forming
planetary systems; and these are grouped
constituting galaxies.Cells interact with each
other to form living organisms.And human
beings form families, tribes, societies and
nations.
If the only end of all beings and things were
their own individual survival, how could they
interact with each other and become part of ever
larger units?
It is far more reasonable to suppose that all
beings and things have two ends; one is their own
conservation and the other interacting with
others and forming ever larger units.

11. Satisfying individual needs, caring for
oneself and seeking one's own interest are
not selfish desires, but natural and good
impulses, which pursue the goal of
preserving one's own existence and are not
contrary to the desires that pursue the
benefit of the whole.
For example, cells serve the purpose of
preserving their individual existence while
contributing to maintaining the life of the
body as a whole. If the individual cells
deteriorate, the organism will deteriorate,
and if the organism dies, the cells will perish
as well.
Satisfying individual needs, caring for oneself and seeking one's own interest are natural
and good impulses
However, the individual end is dependent
upon the end of the whole.A cell cannot pretend
that the entire organism is at its service.
This absurd pretense or egocentric attitude is
selfishness. It is to put individual interest,
satisfaction or happiness above all, as if it were
the main and most important end of life,
relegating to a secondary plane the general
welfare or happiness.
First I and then the others. If I do something
for others it is always to get something back.This
attitude may be normal in an infant or young
child, but not in an adult.

12. Conflicts between families, tribes, and
social groups, civil and racial wars, and
nation-wide strife are nothing more than an
expansion of individual conflict, which
occurs when individuals project selfish
attitudes at the group level, when they put
the interests of their family, social group,
race or nation above the general interest.
If, on the other hand, individuals adopt a
mature attitude and place the individual end
in function of the purpose of serving the
whole, then —instead of conflict— harmony
and cooperation arise between individuals,
as well as between families, social groups
and nations.
Individualism and competition do not
necessarily have to provoke conflicts.
Whether individuals or groups compete in
diverse fields, whether sports, economic,
academic, artistic or political, is a positive
thing because it encourages them to rise
above themselves, develop and perfect
their talents.
In this way, individuals can contribute
better to society as a whole. But a selfish
individualism whose sole purpose is to
benefit oneself, leads to a destructive
competition that ends up ruining society
and the individuals themselves.
Individualism and competition do not have to provoke conflicts and wars

13. The fact that there has always been wars
and conflicts is not an inevitable
consequence of an essentially selfish or evil
human nature, but is rather the result of a
continued individual and collective failure of
human beings to fulfill their responsibility
for reaching a moral maturity and behave in
a human way.
Believing that the human being is selfish
by nature and that conflicts or wars are
inevitable leads to a pessimistic, resigned,
passive and conformist attitude, contrary to
one of the most universal human
aspirations, which is to live in a world in
peace.
Wars are the result of an individual and collective human failure to attain moral
maturity and to behave in a human way

14.  The “natural piety” of Rousseau
 The “good heart” of Mencius
 The visions of human nature in
ancient philosophical and
religious traditions
 The naturalistic and psycho-
pedagogical “bonisme”
Rossinian
OPTIMISTIC VISIONS OF HUMAN NATURE

15. Rousseau, famous for affirming that man is
good by nature, maintained that in the human
soul two innate principles operated, “one of
which interests us earnestly for our well-being
and for the conservation of ourselves, and the
other inspires us a natural repugnance to see
perish or suffer any sentient being, and
especially our fellow men.”
To illustrate this feeling of natural piety,
Rousseau put the following example:
«[A locked-up man]... sees a ferocious beast
tearing a child from his mother's lap,
destroying under his murderous teeth the
feeble limbs and ripping with his nails the
pounding entrails of that child.
What a horrible agitation will not feel that
witness of an event in which no personal
interest has!What anguish will not suffer at the
sight of not being able to bring any relief to the
vanished mother or the dying son!
Such is the pure movement of nature, prior
to all reflection: Such the force of natural
piety.»
J. J. Rousseau, Del contrato social, Discursos, Alianza
Editorial, Madrid, 1986, p. 198, p. 237.
The “natural piety” of Rousseau

16. Mencius, in almost identical
terms to Rousseau, also defended
that man has a good innate heart
that drives him to compassion, to
be ashamed of himself when he
does something bad, and to be
indignant at injustices. He
believed that humanity must
recover that good heart that had
somehow lost.
«All men have a [good] heart unable to bear the sufferings of
others.»
«When I have affirmed that all men have ever experienced
compassion for others, I have wanted to express the following:
Suppose someone sees a child who is about to fall into a well;
however wicked the man may be, he cannot avoid a hidden
feeling of fear and compassion within him; he will experience
these feelings in a spontaneous way, without thinking of obtaining
the gratitude of the parents of the child, nor in the congratulations
and compliments of his friends and fellow citizens, nor in avoiding
the repulsion of public opinion.
From this it can be deduced that whoever has never felt
compassion towards others is not really a man.»
Confucio, Mencio, II,VI, 1, Los cuatro libros, Alfaguara, Madrid, 1981.
Confucio, Meng-Tsé, III, 6, Los cuatro libros clásicos, Ediciones B, Barcelona, 1997.
The “good heart” of Mencius

17. The optimistic view of human nature is kinder and
more hopeful, but it is forced to explain why most
human beings lost that original goodness and gave
rise to a history full of selfishness, conflict and wars.
Almost all mythologies and religious scriptures
speak of an original paradise or a golden age in which
human beings were good, which was followed by a
fall into error, ignorance, sin or evil.
In Greek classical culture evil was considered as an
act of force, impiety, an ambition beyond measure
that violated the natural order, and was punished
with calamity or bad fortune.
Socrates is famous for his confidence and
optimism in the human being. For him,
misbehavior was only a mistake caused by
ignorance.According to Aristotle, the
problem was in the bad habits or vices
acquired due to ignorance, incontinence or
weakness of will.
Optimistic visions
The visions of human nature in ancient philosophical and religious traditions

18. The Chinese and Semitic cultures
shared a vision very similar to the Greeks.
They believed in a basically good human
nature and explained moral evil as an
error, ignorance, infidelity or
disobedience that could be repaired by
acquiring knowledge, keeping the
measure or moderation, following the
right path or obeying divine precepts.
They warned, however, that there is a
contradiction within the human being
between the dictates of his reason and
the sensitive passions of the body; or
between a good heart or conscience and
greed or selfish desires.
But, they believed that this contradiction was
not irresolvable.Through self-control reason could
dominate the passions, just as a rider controls his
horse, and so live in peace with oneself.
Optimistic visions

19. In contrast, religions of Hindu culture and part
of the Greek and Persian domain, such as
Zoroastrianism,Orphism, Pythagoreanism,
Neoplatonism,Gnosticism and Manichaeism,
had a more pessimistic view of human nature,
for they thought moral evil was rooted in human
body as something essential or innate.
They had a dualistic conception of human
nature, within which there was an irremediable
struggle between two elements, one good or
divine that nested in the soul, and another evil
or titanic rooted in the body.This inner struggle
was only resolved when the soul managed to
free from the prison of the body or matter.
Pessimistic visions

20. In Christianity, the basic belief is that human beings
were created by God with a good original nature, but
that after the fall of the first fathers of humanity, it was
degraded causing all the ills of the world. Even so in
Christianity there have been two tendencies; One more
optimistic and one more pessimistic.
The optimist one thinks that the degradation caused
by the fall is like a disease that can be cured by
practicing the theological virtues of faith, hope and love,
and moral virtues, and thus attain a moral perfection.
In some Protestant circles, there has been another
more pessimistic view based on believing that human
nature was irremediably corrupted, at least in this
earthly life, in such a way that human selfishness and
the desires of the flesh are in continuous struggle with
the inclinations of the spirit.
Christian visions
Thus, the only thing that can be done while
living in this world is to suppress or resist the
temptations of the body with the hope that
after death the spirit, already released from
the body, can go to heaven.

21. At the opposite extreme, there is a
trend popularized in the sixties of the
last century by American naturalists,
psychologists, and educators, due in
part to a rejection of a previous strict
Puritan education, imparted through
corporal punishment, which taught
that sexual desires were impure and
sinful, and that one should be
ashamed of them, and in which
almost everything was forbidden.
These social scientists started from
Rousseau's assumption that the
human being is good by nature, and
that all human desires and inclinations
are also good and natural.
Therefore, for this human nature to develop
completely, one has to let it express itself freely, as
animals do, giving free rein to all desires, without
prohibitions, taboos, or punishments, which are the
things that in reality deform human nature, causing
complexes, neuroses and feelings of guilt.
If a child feels a sexual desire for his mother, and if his
mother consents, why is not going to be okay?We
already know from Freud that the prohibition of incest
was imposed by the father to sexually monopolize the
mother. If a father is attracted sexually to his daughter
and she likes it, it is not bad either.
Irony aside, if we look at ourselves in the mirror of
animals, we run the risk of justifying not only incest but
cannibalism, infanticide, rape, and many other
barbarities from the human point of view.
The naturalistic and psycho-pedagogical “bonisme” Rouseaunian

22. Although some animal behavior
seems to us cruel and immoral, in reality,
they are not, because they are strongly
conditioned by instincts.
If the owner of a circus does not feed
his lions, it is quite possible that, if they
have the occasion, they will eat some
children, but it cannot be said that these
lions are psychopaths murderers of
children.
Unlike animals, humans have very few
innate instincts.
In other words, their desires lack a strong
instinctive control because they are made
to be controlled by a conscious mind in a
free and responsible way.
For this reason, children need external
control in the form of education and rules,
at least until they have a conscious self-
control that is achieved when a certain
degree of moral maturity is reached
through a voluntary and responsible effort
of the person himself.
The error consists in wanting at all costs to homologate the human
being with the animals

23. When man —whether by
ignorance, selfishness, infantile
traumas or mental problems— loses
that responsible or conscious control
of his desires, he can commit
unimaginable acts of cruelty, sadism
or torture that are unparalleled in the
animal world.
There is also no alcoholic, drug
addicts, smokers, sexual maniacs
animals or with any other compulsive
behavior, so common today, that
humans show.
That human nature is good does not mean
that man can grow, mature and be happy in a
spontaneous and easy way, without
education, without learning, without making
any effort, simply satisfying the desires that
arise.
As we have seen before, it is necessary to
reach a moral maturity that consists in moving
from a childlike egocentric attitude to a
mature altruistic attitude through learning
first to receive and then to develop the
capability to give and love others in a selfless
way, which requires a voluntary and
responsible effort.
When man loses the responsible control of his inmature or selfish desires
he can commit unimaginable acts of cruelty

24. Assuming that human nature is essentially good and
potentially capable of reaching moral maturity, we will
try to offer in this section a psychological explanation
to the phenomenon of internal contradiction.
Let's take a few simple examples. Children want to
play, have fun. Instead, studying and learning things
seems boring and heavy. For them, happiness would
consist of spending all day playing. But their parents,
who think about their future happiness, force them to
study or do their homework before playing.
It would be naïve to believe that, without
intervening, children will spontaneously want to study.
Also, as they are accustomed to receiving things
without making any effort, children continually ask for
things and even think that the toys of other children
are theirs.
Then, their parents put limits on their
desires, reprimand them when they take
things away or hit their brothers and friends,
and encourage them to treat others well and
share their toys with friends.
What happens is that, because of the
child's immature and egocentric attitude,
his natural and good desire to be happy
sometimes goes in the wrong direction,
seeking immediate satisfaction.Therefore,
they need education and some outside
control until they can control themselves.
This happens when the child grows and
understands that he has to earn things by
his own effort, that if he wants to receive, he
has to give first.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATION OF THE INTERNAL CONTRADICTION

25. In this sense, the moral control
exercised by parents over their children,
through imposing certain limits, duties
and rules, are intended to prevent
children to harm to themselves and
others, at the same time as it serve as
preparation and training for later
achieve self-control and autonomy.
For this reason, it is absurd to believe
that it is best not to intervene, educate,
or put any limit, rule or obligation on
children, hoping that children
spontaneously act correctly in a natural
way.
In fact, if children are educated permissively,
indulging all their desires, and placing no limits or
norms on them, the daily experience of our days shows
us that when they grow up they tend to exacerbate
their egocentrism, becoming capricious and selfish, and
incapable to control themselves, falling into all kinds of
compulsive behaviors.
Of course, an oppressive education based on the fear
of punishment, which teaches children that they must
repress all the desires of the body and be ashamed of
them, so preventing them from taking responsibility for
themselves and developing their own judgment or
conscience, the only thing that produces in the long run
is a rebellion and contrary reaction radically opposite.
Both permissive education and oppressive education lead to unwanted
outcomes

26. Thus, young people should achieve a moral
maturity that means surmounting the egocentric
childlike attitude by adopting an altruistic or
selfless attitude.This is achieved when they
understand things by themselves, acts according
to own conscience and develop the capacity to
give.
The goal to achieve would be to attain an
internal balance or harmony between the desires
of the mind or conscience and the desires of the
body, which does not mean suppressing the
desires that seek self-satisfaction, but put them in
a second term, in function of the desires to help
and serve others. In this way, both desires can be
fulfilled at the same time and in harmony.
However, if a young person or adult
persists in maintaining an egocentric
attitude or even accentuates it even more,
by placing individual satisfaction as the
sole or most important end, there will
inevitably be an inner contradiction or
conflict between mind’s desires body’s
desires.
For, however much they try to silence
the voice of conscience by justifying their
own selfish actions, their consciences will
always push them in the opposite
direction. Conscience and body will be like
two positive poles of a magnet that repel
each other.
The goal to achieve would be to attain an inner balance between the desires of
the mind or conscience and the desires of the body

27. Due to immaturity, it is normal for children to have a
tension between what they want to do and what they
have to do. Also, in adolescence, when, on the one
hand, the body is maturing and in full boiling and, on
the other hand, one's own conscience or judgment is
waking up, it is normal that there are tensions or
conflicts between the desires of the body and what the
conscience tells them, since it is the stage at which a
more cooperative and altruistic attitude must be
developed.
If they fulfill this responsibility they can reach a moral
maturity or inner balance. But if they fail in this
responsibility to change their attitude, and they
accentuate the egocentric childlike attitude until
becoming a selfish attitude, inner conflict turns into a
chronic illness.
In today's culture, where there is a
strong tendency to venerate the body,
physical beauty, pleasure and individual
satisfaction, there are those who think
that maximum happiness is found when
the mind becomes a slave to the physical
body and its wishes.
Apart from being an absurd, unnatural
and irrational pretension, the only thing
that is achieved in the long run is to live in
a situation of permanent conflict with
oneself and with others, or to end up —
like many adolescents who are influenced
by this culture of body cult— with all kinds
of addictions or compulsive behaviors.
The success or failure to achieve an inner harmony depends on whether or not
the person does his own responsibility

28. MORAL EVIL
 Evil as a moral failure of
the human being
 The origin of moral evil
goes back to the fall of
the first human
ancestors
 The human fall consisted
in a degradation or
distortion of human
nature caused by a
misuse of love
 The root of evil is not in human
desires and passions, but in the
deviation of those desires motivated
by an immature and selfish attitude
 The four types of basic desires of
human beings and their deviations
 The four prohibitions common to all
religions which were intended to put
a limit to the four types of deviant or
illicit desires

29. The situation of conflicts or wars
against each other and internal
contradiction, is not a normal or healthy
situation, it is not what it should be.You
cannot think superficially saying that
this is what happens in reality and what
has happened in most of history, and
that, therefore, is the normal and the
inevitable.
These so-called realistic visions are
actually pessimistic and conformist. It is
like a doctor trying to convince his sick
and aching patient that, in reality,
nothing happens to him, that it is
normal and what is happening to
everyone.
However, humans have never been content with
illness or pain, but they try tirelessly to regain
health. Similarly, they have never conformed to a
situation of continuous wars and conflicts.They
have always tried to end misery and injustice in
the hope of living happily in a peaceful world, even
though they have failed one and a thousand times.
It is like a fish that, being on the sand of the
beach, makes great leaps trying desperately to
return again to the water in spite of that he is
suffocating. Just as the fish is not made to live
outside the water, the human being is not made to
live in a situation of contradiction and suffering,
and therefore we anxiously try to return to our
home, to a natural environment where harmony
and peace reign.
MORAL EVIL

30. Basically, moral development consists in
progressing gradually from an immature
infantile stage, in which the self-centered
attitude and the desire to receive love and to
be happy oneself predominates, towards a
mature adult stage, in which the altruistic
attitude and the desire to give love and make
others happy should prevail.
Nonetheless, moral development does not
occur automatically —as is the case with
physiological growth— but consists in
cultivating an innate potential or capacity until
its full development, for which conscious,
responsible, voluntary, and creative efforts are
needed.
«Man has the power to love, and if he cannot
make use of his power, if he is incapable of
loving, he suffers from this misfortune even
though he may try to ignore his suffering by all
kinds of rationalizations or by using the
culturally patterned avenues of escape from the
pain caused by his failure.»
Erich Fromm, Man for Himself, Routledge & Kegan Paul
Ltd., London, 1949, pp. 219-220.
As Fromm rightly points out, the human failure
to cultivate his capacity to love is what makes
man unhappy.
Evil as a moral failure of the human being

31. Thus, the human being is born with the innate
potentiality or capacity to reach a moral perfection or
maturity, but it depends on his own responsible, free and
creative efforts that he or she can achieve it.
The human being has the responsibility to cultivate this
innate potentiality by his own efforts, so it could be said that
men have to build or create themselves, and therefore the
maturity or perfection they acquire is very valuable and
meritorious. Fromm writes:
Therefore, even if the historical
experience shows us the cruel reality
of moral evil, it does not necessarily
imply that human nature is essentially
evil or selfish.
Both individual moral evil and
subsequent social evils can be
explained by defining them as the
consequence of an individual or
collective failure to fulfill this
responsibility of morally maturing and
behaving in a human way.«Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to
become what he potentially is.The most important
product of his effort in his own personality.»
Erich Fromm, Man for Himself, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.,
London, 1949, p. 237.
Failure to fulfill the responsibility to mature morally

32. The UnificationThought
affirms that the origin of this
error and human failure to
fulfill his responsibility, and of
the subsequent human history
full of conflicts, wars and
miseries, is in the fall of the first
human ancestors.
According to Sun Myung
Moon, with the fall, an
erroneous selfish attitude was
introduced in the human heart
that led to a misuse of love, as
can be seen in the following
quotes:
«Then, what is evil? Evil is the emergence of selfishness into this
world. God’s principle of unselfish giving was twisted into an
ungodly principle of selfish taking.The ungodly position of desiring
to be served, rather than to serve, was thereby established.»
«What is the reality of our world today? Disorder and sickness of
every kind, including war, violence and drug abuse, have infected
humankind.
More important, the rapid collapse of sexual morality among the
young, the increasing divorce rate, the problem of young unmarried
mothers and the breakdown of the family are all destroying the
foundation of human society.
All these things originate from the Fall.This is because Adam and
Eve defiled the ideal of true love during their growing period.»
Sun Myung Moon, God’s Hope for Humanity, Washington, USA, (20 de Octubre de
1973). Religion and the Ideal World, Seúl, Corea, (21 de agosto de 1995).
The origin of moral evil goes back to the fall of the first human ancestors

33. The Divine Principle, which collects
the religious teachings of
Unificationism, teaches that the
human fall occurred when the
archangel motivated by jealousy and
envy seduced Eve, with whom he had
an unlawful sexual intercourse, and
latter Eve seduced Adam with whom
she had a premature sexual
intercourse.
In this way, the first human
ancestors, through a misuse of love
caused by excessive and selfish desires,
corrupted their original state of purity
and innocence, and transmitted to
their descendants the evil tradition of a
false selfish love.
However, the human fall was not an irreparable mistake. In
fact, the Divine Principle explains that the goal of salvation is
to restore precisely that state of original purity and innocence
that humans lost with the fall.
Thus, according to this vision, which fits with the Christian
tradition, the evil originated in the fall consisted in a
degradation or distortion of human nature —which is
essentially good— caused by a misuse of love. It was like
acquiring a disease, perfectly curable, but that had disastrous
consequences for humanity.
Therefore, it can be said that the cause of moral evil is not
found in human desires or passions, as has traditionally been
believed in many religions and cultures, but in a deviation of
those desires caused by an erroneous immature and selfish
attitude.
The Divine Principle, Part I, Chapter II.
The human fall consisted in a degradation or distortion of human nature caused
by a misuse of love

34. It could be said that desires are neutral,
and depending on the direction they take
may become bad or selfish desires, or good
or altruistic desires.
The body's desire to experience sexual
pleasure and other sensitive pleasures are
not intrinsically bad.The bad thing is that
these desires are headed in the wrong
direction due to selfish motivations that put
the end of individual satisfaction as the main
and priority goal, above the end of loving
others and seeking the happiness of others.
The root of evil is not in human desires and passions, but in the deviation of those
desires motivated by an immature and selfish attitude
Therefore, rather than trying to suppress
these desires, the important thing is to
change the inner motivations, attitudes and
priorities that make those same desires go in
the right direction, which is achieved by
reaching a moral perfection or maturity.
Desires are the forces that move human
beings to fulfill their life’s goals. If desires are
suppressed, it may be possible to prevent
men from acting wrong, but it will also
prevent them from fulfilling their aims and
doing good things for the benefit of others.

35. Need for a radical change of attitude and motivation
Human nature is essentially good. Evil is
not something inevitable or irremediable.
We are not eternally doomed to be in
conflict with ourselves and with others.
All that is needed is a radical change of
attitude and motivation, a change of
direction.This seems simple and easy to say
but, unfortunately, it is not so easy to do.
It is very difficult to change because when
desires and emotions drift in the wrong
direction, neither reason nor willpower nor
own conscience can stop them.
Being self-centered is an immature, ignorant and
short-sighted attitude that induces people to desire
things ahead of time, seeking quick, immediate, easy
and cheap satisfaction or happiness, without
responsibilities and without thinking about future
consequences.This attitude makes our original
desires deviate.
Then it happens that when we repeatedly satisfy
these deviant desires, the joy or satisfaction that is
felt becomes a strong stimulus, something similar to
the stimulating effect of a drug, which impels us to
continue repeating evil acts.This makes evil desires
end up being compulsive despite being contrary to
our reason or conscience.

36. Because desires and emotions are the most
powerful forces that move human beings, although
the happiness that one feels when fulfilling a
deviant desire is relatively poor, since it is
something exciting and not knowing another better
happiness, the person feels compelled to satisfy the
desire compulsively despite knowing it will bring
him bad consequences.
The only solution is to reorient the desires in the
right direction by adopting a mature, wise and
forward-thinking attitude that induces us to wait
and enjoy things in due time —after having earned
or deserved it— seeking a stable and durable shared
happiness with others, even though sacrifices must
first be made.
If one perseveres in this attitude and acts
according to the good desires, in the end it is
possible to experience a true love and a
happiness far superior to the one that is
experienced satisfying the evil desires. As
Spinoza said, «a passion can only be
overcome by a stronger passion.»
Espinosa, Ética, Aguilar, Madrid, 1978, p. 266.
“A passion can only be overcome by a stronger passion”

37. The desires to eat, dress, have a shelter
and possess material things are natural and
good, and are there so that we can fulfill the
purpose of maintaining our individual
existence.
However, when these desires, due to
selfish motivation, are headed in the wrong
direction by putting them as the main goal
in life, then men begin to want to
appropriate things that are not theirs,
commit robberies, and enslave and exploit
others to work for their own profit or
personal enrichment.
Desires to possess material things
The four types of basic desires of human beings and their deviations
If, on the contrary, a person who has the
ambition to be rich not only for himself but
primarily for the welfare of all, by doing business,
by creating industries or by developing and sharing
new technologies with other less developed
nations, could help people of many countries to
enjoy the same standard of living.

38. Another universal craving is the desire to love
and be loved or, in other words, the desire to
experience intense emotions, excitement,
enthusiasm or full happiness.
This well-led desire by an altruistic attitude of
service and unconditional love for others is what
drives human beings to experience the greatest
possible happiness in life.
However, this same desire to love and to be
loved, due to lack of self-control, infidelities,
jealousies or resentments that usually take place in
the family, can lead in extreme cases to the hate
and the murder of the spouse.
In other cases they produce a distortion of sex
that causes all kinds of perversions and sexual
crimes that threaten human life and dignity.
Desires to love and be loved
Dissatisfaction and lack of love also leads to
multiple types of addictions, such as abusive
use of alcohol or drugs, seeking an artificial
substitute for happiness that should be felt
through pure and sincere love relationships.

39. Desires to seek beauty and truth are always
accompanied in ambitious people for the desire
to be a great artist, scientist, inventor, teacher or
thinker who contributes with his works,
discoveries, inventions or ideas to the happiness
and progress of the world.
However, when people have a selfish attitude,
these desires are diverted by first aiming for
fame, recognition and glory before doing
something valuable for others.They also do not
hesitate to lie, deceive and try to pretend to be
better than they really are, or sell their
inventions and knowledge simply to get rich, no
matter what use is made of them.
Desires to seek beauty and truth

40. The desire to do good is usually stimulated by
the desire to become worthy or useful people to
others.
However, this desire to do good, stimulated
by the desire to be someone important, can be
diverted because of a selfish attitude towards
the desire to seek power, and achieve it not by
serving others but through violence, lies or false
promises.
This ambition of holding power, becoming
the center of the universe and having the
destiny of the world in the hands, is what has
led many kings, emperors or dictators to want
to conquer the world by force, to start wars and
to massacre many people.
Desires to be important and valuable
people
However, a person who has the same ambition —
but motivated by a sincere and unconditional love
for all mankind— can become a great man or
woman, or a saint, who, despite leading a miserable
life, is later worshiped and revered as an example
by millions of people around the world.

41. The four prohibitions common to all religions which were intended to put a limit
to the four types of deviant or illicit desires
The ambition for money, sex,
image or fame and power —which
correspond to the four basic desires
just mentioned— leads to theft,
exploitation and corruption; to all
kinds of sexual abuse; to lying and
deceit; to violence and murder.
For this reason, most religions
considered these illicit desires as the
source of all evils and all share the
same four prohibitions of not
stealing, not committing unlawful
sexual acts, not lying and not killing.
Some Eastern societies tried to suppress these passions
by limiting freedom through rigid rites and customs, or by
very strict education, or by ascetic practices. Other
cultures such as the Semites opted for the implantation of
law and the penal punishments.

42. SOCIAL EVILS
 Social evils are the consequence of
individual moral evil
 The solution of modern liberalism
 Social utopias
 The failure of the communist utopia
 Current democracies leave much to
be desired
 Need for a spiritual revolution

43. Religions, in general, were more interested in
curing the moral evil of individuals. But, individual
moral evil also has bad social consequences, the
so-called social evils.
If a person mistreats his wife, abuses his children
and steals the neighbor, it becomes a social
problem.The same, but with more serious
consequences, happens when the ruling class of a
country abuses of its power, deceives and exploits
citizens.
Something similar, but with even more serious
consequences, occurs when a race or nation
abuses of the force to enslave, conquer or spoils
other races or peoples.
All these social evils have their cause in
human moral failure, whether individual or
collective, in fulfilling their responsibility to
mature morally and behave in a human
way.
In order to avoid conflicts between
individuals and to try to prevent selfish and
irresponsible persons from doing harm to
others, laws were established in every
society, based essentially on the four
religious prohibitions of not lying, not
killing, not stealing and not having Illicit
sex.
Social evils are the consequence of individual moral evil

44. In order to avoid the serious
consequences of the corruption and abuses
of power of kings and aristocrats, the
English and European Enlightened men of
the eighteenth century elaborated the
theoretical principles of modern democratic
systems whose main points are:
The solution of modern liberalism
 Separation of powers to avoid the
concentration of all the power of the State in
a single person.
 Election of leaders and limitation of mandate
to avoid having to initiate a rebellion and kill
the tyrant every time a ruler becomes
corrupted.
 Promulgate a Constitution that respects the
natural rights of man, and put the authority
of the Constitution and the law above the
authority of the persons, forcing the rulers to
respect the law and ensure equality of all
citizens before the law.

45. Although this democratic system was
better than the previous ones in the sense
of preventing the appearance of tyrants, it
could not avoid the corruption of the ruling
classes.
In fact, when the new capitalist
bourgeois classes made the same mistakes
as the old classes of aristocrats exploiting
and abusing the working classes, numerous
social reform movements emerged, the so-
called social utopias. Inspired by Jewish
prophets and Christian millenarians, these
socialist reformers and revolutionaries
called for a radical change in society in
order to solve social ills and realize a
utopia.
Social utopias
They all shared the belief that the unbridled
ambition for riches was the cause of all social ills.
Inspired by the ancient monastic ideals and the
classic utopias of Plato and Moro, they naively
thought that by forbidding private property and
forcing people to possess everything in common,
selfish desire for riches would disappear and
everybody would live happily together.

46. The communist utopia was the most successful,
attracting many young people with the promise of
building an earthly paradise of egalitarian
abundance and material prosperity.
Its initial success was because this ideal of a just
and peaceful world, in which all men were equal
and enjoyed the same things living as brothers and
sisters, is a universal desire pursued by all men.
Its posterior failure lies precisely in the attempt
to deny and suppress all the other human desires,
trying to put all the people in a big monastery or
military barracks, suppressing freedom, forcing
everyone to make vows of poverty and blind
obedience to the party, and sacrifice them by force
for the common good.
The failure of the communist utopia
The failure of the planned economy was
for the same reason.To totally neglect
human desires.

47. On the one hand, in today's
democracies people speak of high values
such as respect for human rights,
solidarity, tolerance, dialogue and
consensus, but on the other hand,
corruption prevails in all areas and levels,
and all kinds of violence, crimes and
compulsive behaviors are multiplied.
It seems that we fall prey to the same
ancient and old selfish desires like sexual
corruption, misinformation and lying,
abuse of power and material ambition.
Democratic procedures, with all their
power control mechanisms, do not prevent
human corruption.
Just as criminal law cannot prevent further
crimes, even though police surveillance
increases and penalties are aggravated.
Although the law is necessary to protect
the victims of their aggressors and
democracy is the least bad of the systems, it
is clear that they are not the panacea to
solve the problem of moral evil and its
consequences, the so-called social evils.
Current democracies leave much to be desired

48. Today, after testing all kinds of methods of external
control over men and seeing that they do not work, the
only thing to think is that the solution of the problem of
moral evil and social evil is in a spiritual revolution that
succeeds that human beings reach a moral maturity and
a self-control of their own desires.
It is only people's own conscience, once there has
been a conversion of attitudes and motivations, the
only force capable of curbing their desires and directing
them in a good direction.
In fact, the human being does not wish to live under
the control of a social system or external laws, the only
controls he willingly admits is the inner control of his
own conscience and that which derives from their love
relationships with their loved ones.
Need for a spiritual revolution