All Have Sinned

February 16, 2026

Dennis Prager, a talk show host and devout Jew, writes in the Jewish Journal that if you ask most Jews or Christians whether people are basically good, you will likely get a positive response. He points to Anne Frank’s famous diary entry from the Holocaust, “In spite of everything I still believe that people are basically good at heart.” Prager regrets this view, calling it wishful thinking common among young people. He argues that the notion of basic human goodness is a modern, post-Enlightenment idea that is neither Jewish, Christian, nor rational. The Bible offers no hint that people are basically good, except in the Garden of Eden before the fall, and in the New Jerusalem after evil’s final defeat.

The idea that human fallenness begins at birth is controversial. Consider any child in your life. They are not pure, innocent, or good. From birth, they are narcissists. They think only of themselves: Feed me, change me, entertain me, protect me, or I will ruin your life. Teachers witness this when disciplining students. In today’s world, educators often need backup for parent meetings, like a vice-principal, recorder, or some other school enforcer, just in case parents react violently to hearing their “good” child misbehaved.

Believing people are basically good harms children. If children are inherently good, we spend little time teaching goodness. Schools skip ethics. We blame anything but the child for misdeeds. Things like the environment, peers, or society are to blame. Children exploit this, growing into mediocre or bad adults. Adults’ key role is raising good kids. They do not just happen. When parents dedicate their children, they pledge to nurture their children in faith, which is essential, since natural human nature leads to rebellion against parents and God.

This belief also spawns terrible public policy trapping people in misery. America’s war on poverty assumes that people are basically good, and will make good decisions if we can make everything fair. In truth, poverty in America often stems from moral choices. A 1990 study by Elaine Ciulla Kamarck and William A. Galston, titled “Putting Children First,” shows over 90% of people in poverty broke one of three rules: 1) They didn’t graduate from high school, 2) They didn’t wait until age 20 to have children, 3) They didn’t wait to get married before having children. Their conclusion was that personal choices matter profoundly for escaping poverty.

Lord Acton warned, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Last century’s holocausts prove convincingly that humans are not basically good. Consider the Nazis exterminated 6 million Jews, Stalin killed 30 million Russians, Mao killed 70 million Chinese, and North Korea is a giant concentration camp. This lists only a fraction of the Communist atheist tyrannies rooted in the human goodness myth.

The only evidence that supports we are basically good is that we do good things sometimes. The evidence otherwise is insurmountable. Yet, such flawed philosophies are the birthplace of poor parenting methods, a flawed education system, crippling government policies, and evil regimes.

The greatest evil that this way of thinking causes is that it deceives us into thinking we don’t need God. Paul writes true wisdom of the human predicament in Romans 3:12, “All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” He goes on to write, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Does this way of thinking feel icky and depressing to you? Do you ever rationalize that you are surely better than most? Paul thinks about his sinfulness and concludes that he is in desperate need for a Savior, Christ the Lord, and so is everyone else. When we refuse to acknowledge sin’s universality, from birth’s narcissism to adulthood’s rebellions, we miss grace’s depth. Embracing truth frees us to seek forgiveness, grow ethically, understand human frailty and sinfulness, craft wise policies and laws, and establish checks and balances that limit power. Most importantly, it draws us to God, who can cleanse us of our sinfulness, and guide us to be the best version of ourselves more often.

Do you agree believing humans are basically good affect child-rearing negatively? Can you give examples? What do you think would be a Biblical way to address these moral choices? Can you think of historical times when power corrupted? Can you think of times that absolute power corrupted absolutely? What safeguards prevent the accumulation of power that can destroy people, communities, and nations?

I invite you to read all of Romans 3 with these questions in mind. May the power of God’s grace through Jesus Christ, move you to give all glory to God! (To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional. Check out my podcast on YouTube, called “My Faith Journey”).