Everything that God created was good. It says so in Genesis. At the close of each day of creation, God looked on it and "saw that is was good."

All things created are good because God Himself is all good. He could not create anything that is bad; that would mean that God Himself would be imperfect.

So man, created in the image and likeness of God, cannot be intrinsically evil. That pesky thing called "free will" has been what has gotten the world into trouble.

A non-religious person can still make choices that are either good or bad. That is free will. An atheist can as well. I think the atheist chooses to believe that these choices come from themselves alone or from the society which structures human behavior to keep order among the people.

Thanks for the read and the insights.