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Interesting that you shoud ask such a question using this story as a backdrop. I could find stories of people doing enormous good for others, and ask if "goodness" is inherent, or get stories of people doing stupid things and asking if stupidity is inherent.

I often feel that all of these have some truth to them. So I would hazard a guess that human nature is at bottom a mix of all those things and more. Asking simplistic questions of such complex creatures is (IMO) counterproductive...

Doesn't it seem to take more time and effort to be evil? Don't you have to totally lose your soul to take your flesh and blood into an airplane and deliberately aim it at Grandma's house? I can imagine the hate for the man's wife was greater than the love he had for that child.

In response to your first question, it depends on the "evil" you're talking about. Are mothers who stand idly by while their children are abused "being evil"?

As to your second question, I agree, that father was about as wretched a sample of humanity as you're ever likely to encounter.

The question has not been fully addressed, however. The question is an obvious allusion to the Christian and biblical concept of original sin, and the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

I do, in fact, believe in this view of sin and evil. Evil is simply the inevitable outworking of sin. The biblical doctrine is not that all people are born robbers and rapists, etc. but that there is a principle at the center of human motivation that is responsible for all the evil and misery we see around us. The original state of man, Adam and Eve, was one of god-centeredness; the fall changed it to ME-centeredness (my choice, my call).

So, original sin is the free choice God gave to will counter to His command, which resulted in a primal and essential change in disposition, not merely a temporary lapse of will. So, while babies may appear (and be) sweet and innocent looking, they have within them the organic defect of ME-ness (rebellion), which is the well spring of all sin and evil. This does not imply that the natural me-centeredness of babies is sin. It is not. But the expression of sin becomes much more dangerous and antisocial as the child grows into adulthood, when the will is consciously engaged. The sin principle begins to express itself increasingly, unless countered by the new birth and biblical teaching - or social and familial restraints.

This is why the Bible enjoins god-fearers to act in accordance with God's will, revealed in Law and Word, and to cultivate an inward love of God, so that the old sin nature will be minimized, and blessings flow. Sin causes all kinds of misery and loss: war, hate, abuse, dastardly acts, ad nauseam!!

When a person is regenerated by the Holy Spirit through saving grace, the POWER of the old sin nature and original sin is replaced with the "new creation" - a heart of obedience and love - albeit not perfectly or absolutely in this life. For we, as St. Paul, states, we are "still in the body of this death." (Rom 7) Perfection awaits heaven after death and a new body at the Resurrection.

But there is the actuality of victory over the sin nature through the means of grace: faith, Word, Sacraments, prayer and fellowship - all dependent on the new birth. Otherwise, the sin nature has greater or lesser affect in people’s motivations and actions. Grandma may have sinned by gossiping; but she wasn't a serial killer. There are all kinds of things that either mitigate or amplify a person’s capacity to sin. Eric Johnson illustrates that the “wages (results) of sin is death.” God’s ways are life and peace. Sin breeds confusion, misery and death. As with Johnson’s murderous act, rape is simply the out-of-control outburst of lust and evil fantasies. Our society is a set-up for more of these sinful outbursts as we reject the Gospel and God’s life-giving truth - allowing the old sin nature free rein – and free death!

The answer seems pretty self-evident when you ask yourself how many people you've ever met who were perfect. Chesterton once said that original sin was the most empirically self-evident of all Christian doctrines.
How do those who don't believe the Bible explain human evil or propose to eliminate it? For that matter, how will they eliminate it when they don't always agree on what it is? Look at all the people who support the abortion holocaust; they think they're doing a good thing.