In a study released last month Universite de Montreal psychologist Richard Tremblay surveyed 511 toddlers under 18 months of age and discovered that they are more ornery than social engineers ever imagined. Children are born with an impulse to mayhem, the professor concluded. So the real child-rearing challenge is not helping kids to express themselves, but rather teaching them to suppress themselves. Dr. John Brooks, chief of forensic psychiatry at the Alberta Hospital, is not surprised by professor Tremblay's study. But this sort of evidence does show that there's something flawed in human nature.
Every child is born with an aggressive component.
The Christian term, original sin, refers to the rebelliousness mankind inherited from its first parents. Instead, their rebellion infected their nature with death and discord. Christians hold that in salvation original sin is overcome, but in this life, human inclinations remain prone to pride, anger, envy, jealousy, lust, gluttony and sloth. The 4th-century theologian Augustine of Hippo explained the Christian understanding of original sin. Thus it is not the infant's will that is harmless, but the weakness of infant limbs.