Do you feel guilty not spending your time trying to help those who are starving?

Answer 1

i guess i would ask help how? do you mean that someone is not in africa volunteering? I don't think anybody needs to feel guilty about that. There are better ways of helping, and most people don't have the training to be useful. Do you mean not giving to charities that save lives? Yes, I think that we should feel guilty about that. I do feel guilty if i make a large unnecessary purchase, because i know that that money that i spent on a luxury could have saved lives. So i do give to unicef. I think that we can help out by working at our jobs, even by living our lives as normal. If only we gave to worthwhile causes instead of always spending it on luxuries.

I don't think that this would require us to volunteer every second of free time or every unnecessary dollar. We need to have time to relax and some material goods if we can be productive at all instead of being totally burnt out. A person thats burnt out does no good to anybody. But there is way too much emphasis on material luxuries in our culture. A person that gives money to provide cheap vaccines for children, for example, is regarded as being a little strange and at best going beyond the call of duty and at worst as self-righteously doing it for ultimately selfish reasons. A person that spends thousands of dollars on large screen TVs or extra cars is seen as normal and admired for being successful. Its a disgusting situation.

For everybody that says "no" i have a hypothetical situation: Imagine that you have just bought a new car. its worth $40,000. One day you park the car in a parking lot next to a railroad track and go for a walk. Coming back from your walk, you see that somebody has moved your car on to the train tracks. You aren't worried though, because you are next to the switching station and can see that the tracks are currently pointed away from your car; plus you have insurance. Then you notice that on the other set of tracks there is a baby. You can hear the train coming and are too far away to run and pick up the baby. Your only chance of saving the baby is to flip the switch and cause the train to hit your car. Since you would have voluntarily destroyed your car, you know that your insurance won't cover it. So you have the choice, let the baby get hit by the train (after all, you didn't put the baby there) or, take the action of flipping the switch, destroying your car and being out $40,000. What should you do? Very few people, I think, would do nothing and allow the baby to die. Of those people, even fewer would not feel any guilt. But this is the same situation we are in when we buy luxuries and people die from lack of cheap vaccines or food. If a baby dies because you did nothing and chose your luxuries instead, it doesn't matter if its killed by train or by starvation and disease. The only difference is that in one situation we see the consequences, in the other we do not. At the least its something to feel guilty about, i think. Instead we rationalize bad behavior away.

Answer 2

I am "starving" in effect, yet don't expect, ask, beg, or wonder why feeding me isn't a global issue.

I give so much of my time to others, and so little to me, I wonder what reward exists in that. Perhaps it's a non selfish, not ego centered, not self absorbed context of the species, that believes HELPING is natural, acceptable, not damndamabley sinful, and makes one feel better about ones own situation.

Example: If I had a dollar, and gave half to someone starving, would I be helping? Would I be chastised for not giving more? Would I be thanked, if the receiver believed I gave in good faith, consciense, and with a hope that to give half of what I had was more HUMAN than to ignore another of my species?

Rev. Steven

Answer 3

No, I don't feel guilty. You have to set your priorities and choose where you're going to spend your time and money. I have charities that I support. I'd feel guilty if I wasn't helping anyone in any way but there's nothing wrong with picking other worthy causes to support.

Answer 4

First, I do help.
Second, I would not say guilty-I feel impotent to help due to
insufficient resources to do so. I can barely feed myself.
Third, the U.S. government has all its priorities whacked and that is severely distressing.
Fourth, thank God for people like Angelina Jolie, Bono, etc.-who have the resources and uses them to help!!!!!!!

Answer 5

no because i try to do my best with does that God sands my way but i get relay mad just thinking that we leave in a world with super stars billioners and they all say they help Watt if they really did the world wouldn't be the way it is

Answer 6

I don't feel guilty, that is their government responsibility or (spiritually) it is god responsibility. I will help them when the time come ^_^

Answer 7

Only when I have to face them,so I usually avoid having to do that.

Answer 8

no