Are Humans Inherently Evil?
3. No: Oxytocin - The Love Potion
Whilst we're arguing about this, what the hell do we mean by "inherently" anyway? Do we have to then discuss the existence of the soul, or are we talking about simple biology?
Because if it's the latter then it makes sense to discuss the chemicals in our bodies that irresistibly govern our behaviour: Hormones.
Adrenaline puts us on the alert, dopamine makes us happy, serotonin relaxes us and oxytocin makes us love.
This last chemical, oxytocin, is also thought to be the biological driver behind what makes us moral. The idea of "morals" is generally the domain of philosophers and theologians, but scientists are now proving that the ideas of morality, fairness, honesty and empathy are literally written into our biology.
The release of oxytocin makes us feel happy and connected to other people, it is what makes us want to love and protect others. It is released (amongst other times), when we doing something nice for someone else, giving us a chemical reward for being a decent human being.
This puts the idea that we only help others to help ourselves on some rocky ground - it actually seems that the reason we help others is simply because it makes us happy in a basic, biological way.
That sounds pretty "inherent" to us.