Goodness

I'm reading a story where the main character has a line where he says that most people are good except for a few who are just plain jerks. Is that true? I know there are jerks out there, but are the rest of us generally good? One of my political science professors put it this way: he raised his hand down the middle of his head and said in his Polish accent, "Man is half good and half bad." I can buy that, coming from a man who fought in World War II. We all have this dual nature, that in some ways we're kind and good-hearted, in others we're selfish and greedy. At different times, one or the other nature wins out, sort of like the angel and the demon sitting at each shoulder. In the Christian tradition, only God is good and we're all sinful and need to be redeemed. True or not? Can there be goodness apart from God? I suppose you have to define "good"--if "good" means that you are a law-abiding citizen and are reasonably nice to the people in your life, then I think most of us are good. If good means "not evil" then most of us are good. But if by "good" you mean living without sin, following all the laws in the Bible to the letter, and having complete purity of heart, then none of us are good.