I think most people “just don’t get it”, or feign ignorance or play dumb as an avoidance tactic. But that would make them overly clever and deceitful. So then why are most people clever and not clean?
What about being a person of your word? Promises, contracts, estimates etc. have no sanctity for most people. They consider it perfectly acceptable to go back on their word, to suit what’s convenient for them. I consider them flakes. Or are they smart in doing what’s in their best interest?
Most people expect an apology for others’ legitimate mistakes, but don’t so much as own up to their own wrong doings, let alone apologize. What’s worse is that they meekly detract from the issue and shift the focus to their “feelings being hurt” due to the confrontation, rather than admit and apologize. Why such moral weakness?
So most people are either stupid or dishonest; and don’t so much as think twice about their actions – perhaps because when a large proportion of people do the same thing, it becomes “normal”.
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
The Bible is quite explicit about the fundamentally wicked nature of man. Jer.17:9 says that the heart of man is so desperately wicked and deceitful that we cannot actually appreciate the gross extent of its sinfulness. Jesus also branded human nature as fundamentally evil in Mt.7:11. Ecc.9:3 (Hebrew text) could not be plainer: “The heart of the sons of men is full of evil”. Eph.4:18 gives the reason for man’s natural alienation from God as being “through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart”. It is because of our spiritually blind and ignorant hearts, our way of thinking that is within us, that we are distanced from God. In line with this, Gal.5:19 speaks of our sins as “the works of the flesh”; it is our own flesh, our very being and nature, which causes us to commit sin. None of these passages explain the origin of sin within us as being because the devil put it there; sinful tendencies are something which we all naturally have from birth; it is a fundamental part of the human make-up.