Does guilt serve any purpose? If so, what?

Answer 1

hey mithra. I don't see where guilt serves any purpose
at all in this human drama. We believe that guilt is our conscience and that it serves to guide us from doing wrong or being "bad." This thinking is just the general conditioning of our(mostly) christian society. We're taught not to trust ourselves, that we're inherently "evil" or a sinner. We're taught to feel guilty for having certain emotions, or for acting a certain way. This kind of thinking has been going on for thousands and thousands of years. We think we need the voice of guilt to keep us from behaving like savages or hurting others. This is (mis)perception. When there is a knowing and understanding of yourself a certain trust and right action always follows. It has to. We are goodness, it's just covered up by wrong thinking. You see this and you simply don't hurt anyone or anything for this would be hurting yourself. You don't need a guilty conscience telling you you did wrong. When you're in touch with who you are underneath all the beliefs and ideals that we're taught to believe you always do "right." When you realize that there is no separation; that we're all(all of life) is connected than how could you deliberately hurt someone? You'd be hurting yourself. All that's needed is to drop guilt and start living by our own light.
Ps) by saying you i don't mean "you" but all of us.

Answer 2

Without guilt, we wouldn't know what was right or wrong. If there were no right or wrong, we wouldn't have 'evolved' a conscience; after all, it would just be survival of the fittest, and a conscience gets in the way of you serving your own needs. As a species, a conscience is a good thing; it would allow people to cooperate, and sacrifice for the greater good. But, how does DNA know anything about a greater good? Anyway, like I said, guilt lets us know when we've sinned.

Answer 3

Pop psychology has done much to make us resent our own guilt and seek to "release it." The end result is that many of us -- such as you yourself wonder about the value of guilt -- maybe even feeling guilty over the times that you may feel guilty.

Consider fear for a moment though. Pop psychology and our pop culture would also instruct you to release all your fears, but what will keep you from acting in a foolish, self-destructive manner? While phobic fear is certainly unhealthy, fear of falling saves people every day from mountain climbing without ropes, from smoking at the gas pump, from having unprotected sex.

Guilt is similar, but it does more to keep us from harming others than from harming ourselves. This is not to say that guilt is part of some evolved survival instinct; I very much believe that God gave it to us. Guilt though is centered around what seems to be relatively common moral principles and those who act against their own guilt -- those who do those things for which most of us would feel guilty, they end up wishing they had not.

Even when you meet people who deny such theistic ideas, such as atheists, what are they usually trying to do? They are trying to justify themselves to you in some way, put down religion, undermine the evidence of God, etc. in order to release their own guilt!

In short, the purpose guilt serves is that it allows us to choose between right and wrong from an informed perspective. You cannot do wrong without guilt -- even if you seek to deny your own guilt. Guilt in general is a very good thing -- as long as it does not take on phobic proportions.

Hope this helps. You asked a very nice, sincere question.

Daniel Blasco
iPowerGRFX
http://www.ipowergrfx.com
Public Adjusters
http://www.publicadjuster.com

Answer 4

The funny thing about guilt is, if we didn't have an preconceived idea of what was right and wrong, we wouldn't feel it. It's kind of like an alarm system that was installed very early in our development. Our teachers (parents included) have set us down with boundaries and said "YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS!" From that moment on we realize that every time we step outside these boundaries we are being deviant. We are alone in our socially unacceptable behaviors and that loneliness eats away at us. Humans are social creatures and we hate feeling unaccepted.

Guilt is an emotional mechanism just like fear, hate, or love. It is intended to protect us in one way or another.

Answer 5

Very simple. It's a guideline, if you will, to tell you that if you feel guilt it's because you shouldn't go where you've been, and if you're thinking about going somewhere, maybe you ought to reconsider. It's not a big boogie-man or such nonsense as atheists like to put forth. It's a very good guideline, meant for your welfare and promotion or improvement through life. Don't turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to it as I did, and still sometimes do. You can hurt severely if you do, and I promise you, you don't want that. God Bless you.

Answer 6

Guilt is your conscience telling you that you're doing something you know you shouldn't be doing. It's that uneasy feeling in your stomach when you're doing something wrong, about to do something wrong, or thinking about doing something wrong. You should listen to your guilt - it can keep you from hurting yourself or others - but you should not be ruled by your guilt. If you're sorry for something you've done and tried to fix things between yourself, God, and anyone you may have hurt then let it go. People that don't experience guilt are often referred to a sociopaths - that is why they can rape and murder and not feel bad about it - something inside them is "broken" and we don't know how to "fix" it yet...

Answer 7

Guilt and consience are inseparably connected. Some believe that conscience is the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Without a consience you wouldn't have much reason to not do wrong.

Answer 8

Guilt is EXTREMELY useful. It serves to protect us from acting on our more basic impulses such as rage, lust, greed. The function of guild is to protect you from societal distress. It builds a moral framework for people to control their basic impulses so that they can conform to societal norms. The reason that conforming to society is useful is based in the fact that in ancient times it was far more beneficial to live in a group than not. Those that didn't conform to the group got removed and left alone, often to perish. Guilt is a mechanism to keep you safe from yourself essentially.

Answer 9

I believe that guilt and fear are unhealthy. As a Christian, you should feel bad before you sin (and hopefully not do it, but we're only human). After you sin, if you have asked forgiveness it will be granted, so feeling guilty is unnecessary. If you're still feeling guilty maybe it's due to not truly being repentant. Or maybe you need to forgive yourself also.

Answer 10

Yes, if it inspires us to stop doing wrong and impels us to make restitution for the wrong we have done. No, if we just wallow in guilt without making an effort to change anything. Yes, if it comes from our own conscience. No, if someone else just tries to make us feel guilty.