Do you believe that you and the way you live your life makes a difference?

Question

"The future depends on what we do....on what you do--on whether you do your tasks well or badly; with imaginative vision and analytic truth and constructive sensitivity, or with pedestrian shallowness." Wilfred Cantwell Smith

True or false, or in between? I think good humor should probably be added in there too...

Also, If you are willing to share, what is your religion or worldview and do you think that plays a role in whether or not you believe your life can make a positive (or negative) difference in the world?

Answer 1

This is difficult to aswer. My dad is a lawyer, so obviously is pretty well off. His work is very difficult and time-consuming, and he is working on major contracts all the time. However, from my perspective, all I see is that he is sustaining a place in the business world -he is not particularly making a difference, as someone else could have done what he is doing.

If you were to become an artist, your work might influence thousands of people to make them think in an entirely different way. If you were a writer, or a politician, you could spread your views, potentially, throughout the world....

And yet, if there were no lawyers, no industry, no engineering, manufacturing etc etc etc... then our civilisation would crumble away to ruins. One should try to do what one is perfectly suited for, and enjoys doing. Don't do something simply because you're trying to make a difference as, whatever you do, you will anyway.

Answer 2

As you can see, Christians are hard pressed to believe in the divinity of the soul. They've put all kinds of disclaimers on it. IF you accept Jesus, IF the Holy Spirit doesn't dirty its feet living in you, IF God can't find a speck of unholiness in you, then maybe. . . I'm more of the belief that the divinity of the soul is too deep a concept for most people you'll meet on this site. It's just purely beyond them. Sure, they'll mutter that the Bible says that we're all God's children and He loves us and He's everywhere, but they really can't see God, yet. They ALMOST see Him when they look upon the glory of the mountains or the smile of a child or the eyes of their beloved. They suspect that there's something right about the idea, but to them God is still a guy in Heaven and they are miserable sinners and the gulf between them is insurmountable. So don't ask the Christians.

Answer 3

We all make a difference to the world more than we realise. Just being kind and friendly makes a big difference. It's like throwing a stone into a pond see the ripples as they circle out wider and wider, that's how it is. Maybe you'll cheer someone up with a smile making them feeling happier to the people they next meet and onwards. So in small ways we can make a difference..A good intention goes a long way.

Answer 4

Yes, most definantly God gave us free-will, it is up to us to make the right decision, but i do think he intervenes when need be. I also believe that whatever you will come back to do, for example: if you have cheated on a spouse or left that spouse for the person you cheated, best believe that nothing good will come out of the situation on your part. Also, one more example that has happen to me. My mother, abandoned me and gave me to my great aunt. She, had no reasons not to take care of me at all, because she was taking care of my other sister at the time. But anyway, she nows has MS which is a disease that effects the nervous system, and her marriage to my stepdad is on the rocks. I'm not saying that it is a good thing, but you just do your kids or anyone wrong and think that your going to get away with it, it just won't work.

Answer 5

I believe the difference it makes to me. Yes I a spiritual, but I have to live with me. Being the best I can be makes me feel like a productive, happy person.

Answer 6

Yes I believe I make a diff in the world and a good impact and so do my kids...we are christians........and yes it plays a role

Answer 7

In my observations of Nature, I see how seeds scatter widely across the land on breezes. Most of the seeds are lost and wasted. Only a tiny percentage ever have a chance to germinate and live out their wonderous genetic instructions. And, that chance is apparently random, outside of chaos concepts. Ayn Rand, in her "Atlas Shrugged", made a proposition that some people of the world are natural "prime movers". In Rand's vision, humanity, as a phenomenon of nature, was not like a spawning of seeds, an ocean of "pedestrian shallowness" scattering in random unfoldings, but, instead, there rises among us a handful of individual spirits who have influence not only their own destinies but, by virtue of the energy of their free wills, also tug the rest of the pedestrians along. I don't like Rand, but her concept of non-random Will arising in our species intrigues me, especially how she chose to add the notion that the ABILITY to rise to such energetic free will is reserved for only a few among the "flock", as if human groupings naturally produce a specific proportion of mostly "pedestrians" and a handful of "prime movers". I reject that notion, although, science does not yet support me. For example, there are archetypes in our groupings, those who become leaders, those who become complainers, those who become consummate followers and so on. There are about 12 of these archetypes and research has shown recently that instead of the right proportion of archetypes being attracted to each other, they arise in any grouping. That suggests that we are connected in a way that predisposes our individual behaviors. That may be true, but, our cultural indoctrinations are all about hierachy patterns, and, people in such experiements are socialized to fall into such hieracrchy patterns and roles that balance out in a group. If research could be conducted without that predisposing enculturation, I believe that we would not mostly be "pedestrians", nor would we need leaders or prime movers. We would tug and pull each other in more natural chaos patterns and would be the stronger for it, much like how terns flock, each moving in mid-air this way and that way as a single entity, yet, each individual exercising free will and determining the course the flock makes. The terns, behaving as a single entity, are sensitive to and have the benefit of every individual's alertness and observations and warnings and suggestions. That same group survival behavior, and that connectiveness, is part of human society, too. What any one of us does certainly affects everyone else, good or bad. Notions among humans of a separate advantage, a separate accumulation of power or peace or safety, even at the cannabolism of others' power or saftey, is a diseased social concept in that, because we are all definately connected, to weaken others will eventually sicken ourselves. For example, those who live in gated communities and care not about the possible use of nuclear weapons elsewhere in the world will sicken, too, from the fallout and world disruption. On the otherside of that, "making a difference" in a positive way ripples throughout all of humanity, measureably, like electricity. Because our societies remain hierachical and do not support those who give more than they receive or, who devote more energy to empowering others than they do empowering themselves, it remains a decision for people about "taking care of themselves" first and then making a difference for the rest of us after we ourselves are secure. I, for example, write nature books for dying children and have been living off savings that are now nearly depleted. I know what I am doing is good, not just for the children I teach, but for their surviving families who deeply benefit and do better in society after they lose their children because they are themselves assisted to a "better" healthier state of mind knowing that their children died with their wishes and questions about nature and this world clearly answered. But, I must get "hierachal" here in a hurry and figure out how to secure my own safety and abandon my work for awhile. But, to conclude, ABSOLUTELY yes, we can EACH of us make a big difference in the world by showing compassion, by empowering others, by learning and remaining alert and objective and involved, and by staying healthy and pulling our own weight. We are all connected.

Answer 8

yes

Answer 9

yes

Answer 10

of course. for every action there is a reaction. it applies to everything in life not just science........