Innate or learned?

In my work of street evangelism I sometimes have conversations with people who reject the Biblical teaching that we are born with a sinful nature.  Their assertion goes something like this - "we are not born with a sinful nature at all, people do wrong things to others because they are simply copying behaviour that they see".  Is this correct?

To an extent, it is true that often people are following the bad examples of others; we see this when a youth "gets into a bad crowd" and starts doing stupid things, like acts of vandalism, or violence.  Indeed , the book of proverbs warns us against being enticed into evil by other people - Proverbs 1 v 10.

However, if wrong deeds are purely carried out because of following bad examples how do the Bible deniers cope with the following example?

In the mid-1980s my eldest son, who was 3 at the time, had a playmate called Rachel.  One day, while playing together, he accidentally broke a cup, took it into the kitchen and said "Rachel done it!".

We had never taught him to lie, but he did so - why?  No doubt he thought he might get into some kind of trouble and was lying his way out of it; but if wrong is only done because the perpetrator is simply following another person's example, why did my son lie when he had never witnessed others do so? 

The answer is found in the Bible.  In Psalm 51 v 5 we read that David was in sin even when in his mother's womb.   When the Bible says that sin is in our nature it is absolutely correct, despite the protestations to the contrary from humanistic atheists who attempt to brush aside the clear teaching of God's infallible word.

Having proved, once again, that the Bible is true, I now come to the question  "what is the answer to our sin problem?"  - the glorious Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  His atoning death on the cross and subsequent resurrection present to us the only way we can get right with God and have a new nature, as the Bible says: "If any one be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold all things are become new"  2nd Cor.. 5 v 17.

We should never be intimidated by opponents of the Bible, as we have all the evidence on our side! 

Let us declare the truth of God's perfect word, and trust the Holy Spirit to draw people to Himself, as it pleases Him to do so.