Humans are charitable. We do for others on a large scale by donating money and things like that. I think this is more about “looking good” than anything else.
But kind on an individual basis? Not in my experience.
On a day to day basis, people are thoughtless, rude, and have little regard for others. It is only when there is a crisis that people seem to pull together and look out for their fellow man.
What’s my proof, you might ask?
I drive to the store, almost killed by a driver who is in such a damn hurry they must cut me off. Evidently, their life is more valuable than mine. When I get to the store, I proceed to leave my car, walking past a parked vehicle, brushing my hair out of my eyes because of the breeze, and again almost get killed as some lady backs up without looking, and then screams at me for being in her way.
I give her a small smile, with a sad look in my eyes, hoping she realizes that as a pedestrian in a parking lot, I had the right of way. It’s not even about the law. If you put yourself behind the wheel of a car, shouldn’t a person just realize that they need to be more careful, that they are in control of a potential deadly weapon? Anyway, she drove off in a huff.
A couple, standing just outside the front doors to the store, look at me and whisper amongst themselves, with not one single word spoken to me, not even a “Are you ok, miss?” Still, I smile at them. No smile back.
This is how people are on an average day. Rush, rush, rush, without a thought to how somebody else may be feeling.
shrugs I know it’s more thoughtlessness than anything else, but how hard is it just to be nice to somebody, or to admit your mistake and apologize.
So is this a personal commentary? Are you admitting that you are a rude selfish jerk? Because if you think that everybody is actually as negative as you think, I can tell you that you are the only one. Everybody has some goodness.
What about people saving the lives of people they don’t know? How many countless stories of heroes who put their own lives at stake to save others during the Tsunami? How about the firemen in the twin towers who ran UP the stairs to their DEATHS to save more lives when they KNEW they were falling down? Think THEY cared about how they looked??? Think how you look before you write.
Everybody has the DESIRE to be good. Not just to LOOK good! Unless they are evil. The desire to be good. That’s proof that mankind IS good.
Sorry if I got a bit irate, but I tend to get a tad testy when people cheapen the heroic actions of true humanitarians with their own pride.
Err… mankind has the potential to be good. At the same time it isn’t always.
Second, so what if doing good helps you, too? Eck, why wouldn’t doing good help you, in this life or the next? The whole point of good is helping each other out; everyone benefits. What goes around comes around.
#1 Christians aren’t measured on their works, but on their faith. #2 If you don’t belive in an afterlife, then why would you risk your life to save another’s life.
The point I’m making is that every (sane) person thinks he is good. Don’t we all endeavor to be good? Not just to look good, but also to feel good about ourselves. If we were evil, then we would think it was good to be evil. If we do evil things, do we take pride in it? No one likes to be evil.
So, since goodness is the yardstick we measure ourselves by, couldn’t you say that the nature of humanity to be good?
I say the bigger question is if it is possible to actually perform a selfless act. Even supposedly selfless act has some sort of reward. example- the man fell on the grenade, because he wanted his friends to be saved, which was his reward.
Likewise, I would say that only God would be capable of being selfless, and only then IF he is completely indifferent to what happens within the universe, because as soon as he takes interest, he is acting out of self interest on some level.
I think the point to be made here is that enlightened self interest can be a very good thing
Selflessness doesn’t mean to be taken to the extreme of absence of self. Surely someone can perfom a selfless act for someone(assuming that such is actually possible) without losing touch of themselves.
I will let you in on a little secret that not many people know about. First of all in order for me to make any sense one must realize, there’s two Immortal Souls that are called “God.” There’s the Hebrew God that one third of the world worships, and there is the “Other God” that is the one that was in “Jesus” at the time…which is why “Jesus” was executed for BLASPHEMY by the priests of Jehovah. Both Immortal Souls continue to reside on Earth. The “other God” that Jesus spoke of is a Spirit Master and has the ability to jump into any human at any time. So too, are those that work for the Hebrew God, there are three of them, just like the Agents in Matrix. (A divinely inspired literature for the times.) So although we were taught that “God” is an omnipotent, nebulous Creator of the Universe, it was just a lie. They have Spirit Master abilities, and back in the Ancient of Days they had spacecraft and a technology greater than we have today, but that’s about it for omnipotence and power.
Now, to discuss your quote we must realize that there are two kinds of Saints, depending on which God they serve. If they serve the “other God” that is continually killed by the Hebrew God, they are used to dying in this world for the past 3,400 years since the last dominion change. The Hebrew God then makes them a Saint in his Church to cover up the fact they serve another God. Like they did with Joan of Arc. The Hebrew God sends people to hell all the time and so did Paul. It’s right there in the Bible. The Other God does not, but tries to impart the Truth in the world so that People will not damn their Souls by hurting others.
Now, as regards would a Saint, be it Theresa or Mary or many of her other names, still be as selfless for her God, if he sent her to hell? Sweetie, it’s been Hell on EArth for 3,400 years and we’re all here that are here. And yes, she still would be selfless and still would serve her God. This God however would never say he didn’t love her, because he does love her, can’t find another like her. The Hebrew God on the other hand knows who she is and has her in an invisible cage of government surveillance wherein no one knows she still exists or where she is. She’s had computer crashes like hackers can’t even believe were possible.
Now here’s the little story I wanted to share with you. This Saint, who is also an Immortal Soul as we all are, has lived lifetime after lifetime, as we all do, and so is known by many names. You call her Theresa, others call her Mary, some call her John or Joan or Elizabeth, etc. About sixty years ago, this Soul which has always been a target of the Hebrew God and his priests, was given a choice, either be damned, or the world goes up in nuclear holocaust. That was the choice she was given in 1962, and of course the “other God” whom she has served for the past 3,400 years didn’t want nuclear war and the eternal death of all those hit by atomic bombs, so he asked her to make the right decision, which as we all can see, she did. A selfless decision. Her damnation.
So you could say, her God, and the popularly worshipped Hebrew God, both damned her. And to this day, she still loves and serves her God and still works to expose the Hebrew God and his Evil Priests that were going to blow EArth to nuclear smithereens. Clever gal that she is, and what with the help of her God, known by many as “Jesus” she climbed back up out of her damnation. She is a penniless prophet, has written books to reveal the Secret Code in the Bible that no one knows about and has been ridiculed every time she pops her head up on the internet or tries to expose conspiracies and lies that people unknowingly believe without even questioning if they are true or not. She was cast from her Christian family for telling them things they just could not believe for fear they would go to hell if they put any Knowledge in their heads. Or if they were told they could not continue lying, judging, and condemning others and still make it through the pearly gates.
So I for one do not doubt that this Immortal Saint would continue to serve and love her God that asked her to damn her soul. You wanted other’s thoughts on this, and these are mine.
I recall reading an article on The Onion suggesting that God suffers from a bi-polar disorder :).
Seriously though, I think it is hard to find a selfless act. That’s not to say that the selfish acts are necessarily bad. For instance, I think people give to charity largely because they feel better for having done so. The alternative is not giving, and knowing that you could’ve helped someone in need.
Similarly, a soldier diving on a grenade weighs up his options (quickly). He can dive on the grenade and die, or he can dive into the ditch and his friends die - he lives to remember that he could’ve saved them. He decides he would rather die - a selfish decision.
God felt bad, so he gave up his only son so humans could be happier, therefore God felt better. A big decision to make, and I’m not suggesting it should be dismissed, but ultimately it was selfish.
However, a lot of the selfish decisions made each day are also beneficial to others, and are what make up the good parts of the world. It is a shame that not everyone takes pleasure from helping other people or making others happy, so let’s not complain that when some people do, it’s for selfish reasons.
[QUOTE=MM12]
I will let you in on a little secret that not many people know about. First of all in order for me to make any sense one must realize, there’s two Immortal Souls that are called “God.” /QUOTE]
Umm, Wow. That’s a very interesting theory that you have laid out here and in several other posts this morning.
Well life in the time of Jesus was certainly not easy, but comparatively society was more formed, not as nomadic, and much farther along than at the times of most of the stories in the old testament.
As for social evolution, I guess it is a slow and painful process…maybe we will get there someday. (where ever “there” is)
I disagree that christianity teaches that christians are only measured on their faith. Jesuses life shows that he believed that actions are extremely important. He had little respect for spiritual religious leaders of his time that had much faith, and instead focused much of his time on the downtrodden. The story of the good samaritan specifically teaches this.
I certainly don’t believe that reward and punishment (aka heaven and hell) should be the major justification for christian actions, however surely an important part of being a good christian is leading a good life and their actions. I would certainly think that this is as (or possibly even more) important as the level of ones faith.
Which person would be mor worthy- the man that spent his life helping others, led a good life, however was not a devout christian, OR the man that spent hours praying daily, went to church, extremely devout, however was a ruthless business man that cheated on his wife, was a rude selfish person that treated others poorly most of his life, because he believed that he was above them?
As for your second question an atheist man may still throw himself on a bomb to save his friends for several the simple reason that he hopes that he can save his friends. I don’t know that a christian is any less afraid of death than an atheist, and I doubt that they simply thinking about heaven when they threw themselves on the bomb.