Bennick 1

Kenzi Bennick
Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1102-021
27 September 2015
Reflection #1: Writing this draft has been very difficult, least to say. I have written and
then erased more times than I can count. In this proposal I attempted to just let my thoughts pour
out. It will need much work I am sure of that. My challenges were mostly how to word my
thoughts and get them onto paper and how to sequence them within the paper. I feel like
everything is just thrown together. How can I better put my ideas into order, and flow? My plan
to make this paper better is to research more and to find others who have inquired about this
same question as well. I also feel like maybe this paper is too opinionated. How am I supposed
to write 8 pages on this topic?
Reflection # 2: So far I feel confident in my Inquiry Proposal draft. I think it still needs
some touching up and work done to it, but overall a strong structure. The things that I think I
need to add are more of how I will produce this paper rather than just what it will be about. I
also think I need to find more historical and statistical information. A lot of changes made were
grammar issues and sentence structure. I also had some good feedback on how to make my
paragraphs flow better by putting some of them together. I would like some critical feedback on
how to make this proposal stronger as well as anything I need to include for my audience to
know. I do not feel like I am a strong writer so I always hesitate when it comes to writing
assignments. I want to do well on this and the thesis paper as well, so all feedback is welcome;
good and bad.

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Inquiry Proposal Draft Number Two

Are we basically good or evil?
Most of the time I like to give people the benefit-of-the-doubt approach. I would like to
believe that everyone is good or possesses goodness, but in reality people arent basically good.
People are self-centered, they get mad, they pop their lid, and they all do things that are not
morally correct. We are human beings. We sin, we make mistakes, and we do things that even we
as individuals are not proud of. We are not good. We just do good things.
Some people might say already, Im a good person, youre completely wrong. Did
someone ever take something from you without your permission? Did you go along with it with
a smile and simply say Oh its fine. No, you got mad, or you cried when little Tommy from the
second grade stole your crayons. I know, Ive been there. If everyone were basically good then
we wouldnt need to teach children to be good. Why would we need to teach goodness if you
were already born good? Babies are solely self-centered; they have to be in order to survive. I
want mommy, Im hungry. It is about them and what they need and want. That would imply
that they are not good. Selfishness does not possess the qualities of goodness. Is it something
we can help? No, its how things work. Therefore, you are already born not good. I know this
is a deep subject and sometimes difficult to migrate through but bear with me as this one
question poses many others.
Now, Im not saying people are evil. People are born with the potential to do well or be
good. Some take that opportunity and others do not. It is based on what we are taught. In the time
of the Holocaust people were taught or told that the Jews were the problem. Evil was embedded

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and rooted. If we were born good, we would have no desire to conform to evil ways. Why do you
think there are laws? If people were born good, why would we need laws to control human
behavior? There are many questions that rise within this over all proposal. I hope that questions
rise within you as well. I stumbled across this question because, while reading The Book Thief, I
wondered why and how the Nazi soldiers could act the way they did. What caused them to
become such an evil up rise? Why did most of the people in Germany at that time turn and agree
with Hitler and hate the Jews as well? Were they born that way, or more importantly, were they
taught? The environment you are raised in is what you become. That is why the children were
put into Nazi Youth Camps. This is also why one of the most important things when raising
children is teaching them goodness and distinguishing between right and wrong.
Thomas Hobbes, a philosopher from the 1500-1600s, believed that all human beings were
selfish people and obtained the qualities of being evil. This philosophy backs up the many
events in history that show records of huge evils. If you examine the atrocities perpetrated by
people within the last century, you find a large number of murders. Adolf Hitler killed 6 million
Jews prior to and during the Second World War. Joseph Stalin killed 20 million Soviet citizens
between 1929 and 1939 because they were not politically correct.
(http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/peoplegood.html) There has been a history of known
evils. How would you even begin to explain why these times in history occurred? There may be
no true explanation. Either they were born evil, or taught evil, or choose evil. Maybe they even
thought it was reasonable or justifiable. Still believe we are basically good?
Now on the other hand, what if all humans were born good? How would society look
then? Everyone would open the door for each other, use manners when necessary, and simply be
kind to one another. Is that how all of society is? Not quite. Not everyone is kind, or good

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hearted. Parents would no longer have to worry about teaching their new born child to grow up
and not bully their classmates. If we were truly good, we would have no criminals to cause
crime. The Holocaust would have never occurred because Hitler would have been a good
person and believed that the Jews were good people. Everyone has some good and some evil
within them. Its finding the balance and letting the good outweigh the bad.