Hello, Arc,
I think the only diffrence between your take on the evolution of star stuff and mine is that I see it as the being and doing of God and you do not. Neither opinion changes what has been done.
On innate goodness,I agree with Dan that it is within us . If empathy and compassion are innate, we need only to be reminded that they exist in this world and that they start with us.
Anne Frank, after all she had to witness, concluded in her diary that humans are basically good.
Well, while i understand how people use the word “God” I don’t and can’t see it that way. But, I don’t know, the more I begin to step out on that limb to even ponder it all, or to just even look up at the sky and let my mind wander wherever it wants to go, the more I come to realize that, even though I cannot believe in a Judaic/christian god, well, there has to be SOMETHING there which is the cause of it all. But i cannot fathom what it is. To think that it was all simply some kind of an accident - kaboom - that began it all ~~ boggles my mind as equally as does thinking about what did begin it all. Somehow for me that is the most important question of my existence and only after that, Who Am I?, is.
I tend to agree but based on individual natures. But I may be wrong on both counts.
I don’t know, Ierrellus. She was a very young girl and perhaps she felt the need to believe this. The ones who sheltered her were good. She felt their basic goodness. But about us humans being basically good - we can also be basically bad too. or at least have many gray areas to us.
I will admit though, that at times, when evil seems to be overtaking the world, people will hang together to fight it. Perhaps that’s inherent because of the instinct for the species to survive and also because of evolved consciousness and conscience. But what do I know.
Sometimes to me all it is is a great jigsaw puzzles and often the pieces do not fit.
I’m into holism. Yin and Yang comprise one thing!
Little reptile, if there IS something and that something designed evolution, even randomly, wouldn’t you have to say that human nature can be good? Think of the ways in which human nature has gone beyond itself?
Perhaps it is more our, at times, unevolved, animal nature …though I hate to even say that as I love animals…but wouldn’t even that be from Something? Human nature is neither really good nor bad, I don’t think. It is the individual and his awareness or lack of that which guides and conducts his behavior.
arc—as I listen about evolutionary theory it is not talking about design…it is talking random variation and natural selection…
That’s why I said “even randomly”.
But doesn’t planning and purpose sometimes go awry (though I don’t really advocate divine design)?
That would destroy the perfection of imperfection for me, in a sense.
I kind of like the mystery and suspense of where we’re going and the organism’s autonomy and randomness. If any of that made any sense to you - it did to me. 
I think the word divine can be a problem…are you talking about a god or not…