The past two weeks, I have not done much writing, but I have been researching , thinking, and planning. Ok..and maybe a little procrastination..but give me a break: this is a hard thing to put down in writing. So, I will start out by saying this: I do not like calling myself a religious person, or even a spiritual person, because there are so many stereotypes behind both of those terms; I do, however, hold tightly to my beliefs and those beliefs, as well as many personal experiences, shape my view of the world and human nature. With that said, I will try to do my best to explain my views and beliefs on human nature.
According to Romans 3:10 of the King James Bible, “. . . there is none righteous, no, not one.” If righteous means good, then that must mean that all humans are bad. This statement is also supported by the Christian belief in the fall of mankind in Genesis chapter 3 and the subsequent beliefs that because of the fall, all humans are born with a sin nature. Even Stenmark (2009) admits that “human nature [is] the range of human traits and behavior patterns that are inborn rather than learned” (p.898) in his idea of a social constructivist’s point of view. Stenmark (2009) also discusses what he calls his “free will thesis, that [. . .] human beings are created by God with a free will” (p. 910). This is the Christian (and my own personal belief) that we, as humans, were created in order to follow and serve God, but that he wanted us to serve him voluntarily. He made the angels without free will to serve him involuntarily, but that’s a discussion for another time. Having free will made the fall of human kind possible, and again, proves that we are all born with a sin nature since we are all descendants of the first two humans. My personal philosophy, rooted deeply in my beliefs, is that everyone is born with a sin nature and a free will. I feel that I have adequately explained my basic beliefs on human nature, so I feel more comfortable moving on, as most of my other responses will stem from this basic belief.
People are motivated by different things; however, I believe that the basic motivation is pleasure or satisfaction. I believe that people do the things they do for pleasure. In some cases, such as drug and/or sex addictions, the pleasure may be more temporary than the pleasure you might get from helping at a food pantry or homeless shelter. Both good and bad deeds can bring a person pleasure, and we experience pleasure then we are more likely to repeat the action. This belief can be proven through behavioral theories as tested by B. F. Skinner with his birds. The birds were getting pleasure from their reward of food and so repeated the process.
Personal problems can be caused by any number of things. I believe, however, that stress is a large factor in personal problems. Yes, problems can be tests from God, or they can just be the messes that our sinful human nature has gotten us into, which would also explain some of the large amounts of stress that we are under. I also believe that stress is large reason for problems being maintained and even worsened. When we stress and worry over something, we sometimes tend to make the problem larger than it was to begin with. One simple example is when you stress over a test or homework assignment so much that you may put off studying, but then you realize that if you don’t at least look over the notes a couple hours, that you really will fail.
These problems can be fixed easily with stress or time management. However, mental problems that I may encounter in my future career will not be so easy to resolve and I understand that. Humans are complex. Some psychological problems can be resolved using medication, but medication will be a last resort when it comes to how I try to help my clients in the future.
According to Romans 3:10 of the King James Bible, “. . . there is none righteous, no, not one.” If righteous means good, then that must mean that all humans are bad. This statement is also supported by the Christian belief in the fall of mankind in Genesis chapter 3 and the subsequent beliefs that because of the fall, all humans are born with a sin nature. Even Stenmark (2009) admits that “human nature [is] the range of human traits and behavior patterns that are inborn rather than learned” (p.898) in his idea of a social constructivist’s point of view. Stenmark (2009) also discusses what he calls his “free will thesis, that [. . .] human beings are created by God with a free will” (p. 910). This is the Christian (and my own personal belief) that we, as humans, were created in order to follow and serve God, but that he wanted us to serve him voluntarily. He made the angels without free will to serve him involuntarily, but that’s a discussion for another time. Having free will made the fall of human kind possible, and again, proves that we are all born with a sin nature since we are all descendants of the first two humans. My personal philosophy, rooted deeply in my beliefs, is that everyone is born with a sin nature and a free will. I feel that I have adequately explained my basic beliefs on human nature, so I feel more comfortable moving on, as most of my other responses will stem from this basic belief.
People are motivated by different things; however, I believe that the basic motivation is pleasure or satisfaction. I believe that people do the things they do for pleasure. In some cases, such as drug and/or sex addictions, the pleasure may be more temporary than the pleasure you might get from helping at a food pantry or homeless shelter. Both good and bad deeds can bring a person pleasure, and we experience pleasure then we are more likely to repeat the action. This belief can be proven through behavioral theories as tested by B. F. Skinner with his birds. The birds were getting pleasure from their reward of food and so repeated the process.
Personal problems can be caused by any number of things. I believe, however, that stress is a large factor in personal problems. Yes, problems can be tests from God, or they can just be the messes that our sinful human nature has gotten us into, which would also explain some of the large amounts of stress that we are under. I also believe that stress is large reason for problems being maintained and even worsened. When we stress and worry over something, we sometimes tend to make the problem larger than it was to begin with. One simple example is when you stress over a test or homework assignment so much that you may put off studying, but then you realize that if you don’t at least look over the notes a couple hours, that you really will fail.
These problems can be fixed easily with stress or time management. However, mental problems that I may encounter in my future career will not be so easy to resolve and I understand that. Humans are complex. Some psychological problems can be resolved using medication, but medication will be a last resort when it comes to how I try to help my clients in the future.
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