Perhaps belief in the biblical doctrine of depravity is making a comeback. Even before the September 11 attack on America, a Newsweek cover story focused on the human capacity for evil. Author Sharon Begley writes:

In their search for the nature and roots of evil, scholars from fields as diverse as sociology, psychology, philosophy and theology are reaching a…chilling conclusion. Most people do have the capacity for horrific evil, they say: the traits of temperament and character from which evil springs are as common as flies on carrion. Psychologist Robert I. Simon, director of the program of Psychiatry and Law at Georgetown University School of Medicine, says, "The capacity for evil is a human universal."