Two of my sisters from outside the state of Minnesota traveled to our lake cabin up north to help my family and me celebrate my 71st birthday, and that was very pleasant.
When we were eating a delicious dinner made by my wife, my sister from North Dakota reported that her parish priest, a native American, 73 years of age, had told her that he believes people are basically good, because they are made in God’s image.
That intrigued me that he argued that God is pure good and pure perfection. We are made in God’s image and likeness, so we may not be perfect or purely good, but we are basically good, otherwise we would not be made in God’s image and likeness. Not a bad argument.
My take is that we are partially made in God’s image and likeness, that part of us is innately good, but our original sin is biological and spiritual: we are mostly id, born beasts, filled with demons in our subconscious.
Children need moral training to civilize them, to individualize them (A moral person of free agency is a person who individuates and has learned to love herself, and through self-love and accompanying self-esteem, she is able to love others and love God, and thus esteem them too, and wish veridical self-esteem for them also.
We are not much made in God’s image and likeness, but if we apply ourselves and work hard, and become holy and virtuous, then we can grow much closer to being in God’s image and likeness. The similarity is created, not natural, and God orders us to make the effort or else.
My sister agreed that children are not born good; as a mother, grandmother, teacher, and speech pathologist, she has deep experience with toddlers. She described how selfish, violent and asocial 2-year olds are: they are born innocent, but not good, as Dennis Prager noted. They become good when trained with manners.
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