My Initial Beliefs - Part 1

Note that these are my first beliefs, the beliefs that got me thinking about this topic in the first place they are rough and unpolished and have a lot of holes in them, but I think they portray the position i'm taking.

First of all, I have to convey how I feel about human nature. I believe that humans are born good. We are born with a natural sense of good and wrong. The origin of which can be either evolution or God (depending on you'r religous orientation). Humans can, however, be corrupted by society. This has been written by other philosophers and thinkers, and I believe it to be true.

I have recently come across some of Hume's writings. They make a lot of sense to me, and they kind of go against what I believe. He basically says that humans are born self interested. Not necessarily selfish or greedy, but self interested. He basically says that every action we do is benevolent, in other words, everything we do, is such that will either help us later (as in an investment), or to protect ourselves.

You might be thinking, what about charity. Well, people usually do charity to help themselves. The way this works out is, the people might eventually need charity themselves, and the people that were helped, might help out. I don't know if this is enough explanation, but it should serve it's purpose for now.

I don't know how much I believe this, because, according to Hume this all happens instinctively, it does not happen consiously, that is an assumption I am not willing to accept, as of yet.