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The bad really does always creep in. But honestly if there no bad and everything was all sunshine and daisies, would we be able to appreciate the good? I don't think so. We need the bad to creep in just like we need night after day.

we may be a product of our world, but it is us who have created the world that we live in. it seems to me that in order to fix the evils of the world we must fix the human tendencies toward war and violence, either that or remove ourselves from this world.
The Government in Divergent attempted to fix the human condition by instituting the factions. the idea being that those that strove for good would not be tempted to do evil. the only problem is that to every good thing there is a dark side. those that desire knowledge may be turned to greed. those that desire truth may be prone to criticism in the name of being truthful, those that seek courage may fall to cruelty and foolishness. even in selflessness there may be fault if your intentions are not true. I've heard that humans are actually wired toward negative tendencies. if this is true, then all seems lost if not for that little spark in us that tells us what thing are wrong and what is right. and we must choose. as in Divergent, we all have a choice and those choices define us. if we give up we are a coward. if we give in to our temptations then we are selfish, if we say we are good, then we lie and the truth does not reside with us. and if we let evil overtake us then we are without wisdom or knowledge.

Well, for me, that seems to be true. It's difficult to be nice for long, because it's not an inherent characteristic for me. Of course, that statement isn't just talking about what's on the surface.

However, while the bad (thoughts) might always creep back in, it's a choice between whether or not you act on it.

I completely agree with Tris's mom. It's because we're human. We can't do anything for good by ourselves for very long before our own humanity gets in the way again. It's sin. It's human nature. We will always crave something that is better for us not caring if it affects others or not.

This is a really powerful line in the book and actually one of my favorites.

“Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again”

I agree. It's very easy to let the bad creep in. It takes a lot of self control to stick to being good. Though, once achieved you tend to choose the good always but I haven't yet found out a way or made myself strong enough to not let the bad thoughts poison my mind.

I feel that it does. We try as society to form into a "perfect" society for all of us to live in. However there is nothing people can do to make things perfect for all. You will either have people unhappy about it and rise up against it or you will have people to take advantage of it and turn it evil.

I agree with this statement because it can just be one person who is causing problems or thinking negatively. Just as we saw in Divergent. There can be one person with the idea that then persuades "the strength" to do their bidding. People are greedy and always wanting more. I think the factions would have been fine without ambition from any leaders within those factions. We have seen this happen throughout history as well with wars started because of one person's need for more power than they were already given.

I do agree. I think it's in human nature to do things we shouldn't. Everyone has different ideas on every idea out there, and it causes conflict, and for some reason we can't handle that conflict well. It's these differences in opinion that cause wars, hate crimes, murders...all kinds of terrible things. It's always been this way. Any history book or old newspaper will tell you that, but nothing's changed. The bad always comes back because no one ever seems to learn from their mistakes.

Most definitely. Unless the human race were to be completely eradicated, 'bad' will always creep back up. It is an interesting question considering that the Divergent series is really set in a time, where what society is once again crumbling, because 'bad' crept back in. The government society in Divergent was set up in order for conflict to not occur. To create a safe environment for humanity. I believe that it would have worked initially, but over time, it's effect would've been lost, people become complacent, and that's where Divergent begins.

No one is born a bad person, but the world is made to have opposition. Without the bad there wouldn't be good. And so no matter how perfect or "good" a society may seem opposition or the "bad" will always occur.. It is unfortunately apart of human nature to give into the temptation of sin or bad tendencies, and apart of life to have to deal with opposition in all things. Therefore, the bad will always creep up in the world.

Evil never will leave this world. We live in a fallen, sinful world, and no matter how much you try to create a perfect society and government, you will never be able to achieve it. It just will never last.

I don't really think that I agree necessarily with this statement. I believe that humans are flawed and to try to suppress these flaws completely, 100% is only asking for flaws to pop back up. No human is prefect and when trying to be prefect, this is when you are most likely to notice the flaws because they will happen and when they do, you will just end up infatuating yourself with them.

I don't think humans are purely good or bad. I feel like there is a mixture of both in all of us. But the mostly good people will fight to keep the bad behavior down for the most part. Sometimes there is a need for justified bad behavior,especially if someone else is being bad to us. We should not have to "good" all the time even if someone is abusing or treating us badly.

Sadly I believe so... history has shown over and over that the human race will always have bad seeds. And within every one of us too! We are programmed to think of us before all else! I believe that even if we got a fresh start we would make the same mistakes again.

I completely agree with that statement. We can't be perfect at all times, and we shouldn't try to be perfect at all times. Otherwise we would all probably go insane.