LH, the human soul is not evil is perhaps a debatable one. There are areas in Christianity and perhaps in other religions (I've never looked at ant other) that suggest man is inherintly evil. I don't know - all I do know is that man can be capable of evil deeds and I suspect most of us have evil thoughts that we know to put down - I mean for example, have you never walked into a shop and been tempted to steal but said to yourself "no, I know I must not do something like that".

As I type this, I realise once again there a conflicts within myself - I would argue stealing is wrong but I have no concience over some software pirating. I wonder are we all some sort of conflict between right and wrong and trying to find our own balance between good and evil?

Forgetting whether a person may be good or evil, I think twice in my life I have met people that no-one seemed able to reach (and they weren't people I diliked and even amongst my enemies I can find some good quality if I am prepared to look). One was someone the garrage I worked for at the time had taken on to help. I had him for a while on the forecourt and tried my best... to cut it short he ended up getting sacked for nicking a few 5p pieces from the coffee machine when he got drinks for all... from there on he stole a car and got himself killed hitting a bus. The other was an old alcoholic (before my own drink problems). I'd visit him at night, sometimes stopping till 3am but that wasn't enough, Pip somtimes took a Sunday meal to him and the 1st comment would be "could have put more roasts on" or some other complaint.

What I'm trying to say here is I know this doesn't mean a good or evil person but I have known 1st hand conditions where no effort I was capable of was even able to raise a spark in any way. The feeling of personal failure is horrible but the belief there was nothing anyone could have done for them also exists. The human to me does seem able at least to reach hopeless states. Reading of Brady for example also leads me to think people can reach the state of evil beyond recall but I can't claim to have met anyone like that.