Are we treacherous?

I loved stories ever since I was a kid. My parents used to tell me that I would often bug my already exhausted father for a bedtime story. Whenever he drifted off to sleep, I would wake him up so he could continue the story. Then there were times when I would question the accuracy of his stories.

I never remembered any of those, but I’m really sure that my love for stories doubled when I learned how to read. I was 5 or 6 years old when I really started reading, but I was younger than that when I first held a book. From then on, the elementary library became my cafeteria, and the books became my recess snack. I would even beg to my mom to prepare only a sandwich so that I could eat my snack on my way to the library and stay there until the recess period ended. Each time I left the library, I borrowed the maximum number of allowed books. By the time I graduated from elementary, the librarian already knew me by name, I have read most of the books from the library and I have started building a library of my own at home.

I guess I have not read it all, though.

So far, one of the creepiest that I have read is the “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. The story is about children who were trapped in an uninhabited island after their aircraft crashed. Surprisingly no adults survived the crash. The children were led to fend for themselves. They tried to seek some sort of order as they cohabitate the island, until a power struggle erupted that led to children killing their fellow children. Somehow, the story insinuates that people are inherently evil based on how the children in the story killed each other for power and supremacy.

I really shudder at the thought that innocent kids could kill their fellow innocent kids. I shudder at the thought that kids when left alone on their own would struggle for power, leadership and supremacy. Is this the real condition of mankind?

Looking back at all the scenes of a war ravaged Poland and Philippines, one would think that such is man. Evil. Vile. Treacherous. Yet it directly contradicts the statement of the Most High Creator,  “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26)

I could not believe that a God who was so good as to create a beautiful universe could breed a race so evil and still say it is in His own image. It is hard to grasp. Then again, probably God had nothing to do with it. Man has.

When set in a position to choose between what is right and what is pleasing, man often times choose that which is pleasing. We tend to choose which would bring the most comfort instead of which would be most beneficial to our fellow man. I’ve heard that in the highest echelons of the corporate world, people would try to wreck other people so as to get the position they’ve long sought. CEO’s and businessmen oftentimes trample their competitors in the position or in business so as to be at top. But is the top, the best place there is? That is something to think about. Even the people from poverty stricken areas seemed happier though they lack a lot of things in life.

Man probably isn’t inherently evil. Man never was evil. I guess the evil part came from our choices, our decisions. In the end, the same principles apply when Joshua asked the Israelites:

“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:15