One of my favorite descriptions of the nature of man comes from the Jewish Talmud. There it is written that wherever any man or woman walks, he is preceeded by choirs of angels shouting "Make way! Make way for the image of God!
This very positive view of human nature is also accepted by Islam, in which it is said that every child enters the world a muslim (the word means "submitted to God"). In fact, according to the Qur'an, Satan fell because He refused to obey God's command to bow before man, the crowning glory of creation.
This view, however, is not shared by the other world religions. The darkest view, of course, is found in Christianity: Man may have been created in the image of God, but because Adam sinned, all mankind is tainted with Original Sin from birth. That corrupted and fallen nature cannot really be changed by an individual's own efforts. The only hope is the acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice, so that we can have both forgiveness and a way for us to escape from the sinful nature that binds us.
The Eastern religions propose that Man is not born sinful so much as he is born ignorant. In Hinduism, he is unaware of his own real Self - which is really identical with Divinity. The Buddha taught that human beings are unaware of the cause of our own suffering, and therefore blindly continue to be the helpless victims of our own desires.
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