Would you help a person who did not give you any pleasure? Like an angry homeless man who wished to gnaw your eyes out? Supposing that you knew he would never be able to repay you for helping him?
So what does this have to do with whether or not you believe in God? I'm not talking about playtoy religion and the afterlife reward-punishment system. I'm asking for your essential view of material reality. What good is "good" and what does justice mean to you? Our spiritual view of the universe DOES ,in fact, determine how we view each other. I'm just wondering how specifically.
2007-03-09 13:26:06 · 11 answers · asked by Zeek 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You want to help people to help society? Why?
2007-03-09 13:40:07 · update #1
You are all completely missing my point and you voluntarily ignored my bit about how I'm not refering to the afterlife reward-punishment system.
2007-03-09 13:52:30 · update #2
I feel a tremendous amount of empathy for others. I expect that many believers think that empathy comes from god or the "holy spirit". I disagree, and think empathy comes for how we evolved as social animals. I expect many believers find this thought repulsive, because they don't like being compared to animals. But I have empathy for animals, and find them fascinating, and have no shame in being one myself.
My morals/ethics are heavily based on my empathy. I don't want harm to come to me or others. I like to help other individuals when I can, though I admit I find it difficult to help homeless people one at a time. I'd rather work on societal solutions and address the root cause of homelessness.
Is any of this due to my "spiritual view of the universe"? I guess that depends on whether you'd consider evolved empathy to be a facet of spirituality. Do you?
---- edit
I forgot to mention Justice. I am a firm believer in the axiom "If you want peace, fight for justice." Justice is the way to ensure that people who lack empathy are not able to take advantage of people who do have empathy -- at least not without paying consequences for their actions. A huge part of the problem it the world today is due to the fact that nations do not have enough empathy for other nations, and that there is so little effort going into ensuring world-wide fairness & justice.
2007-03-09 14:04:27 · answer #1 · answered by Jim L 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What is a person to you?
Another human being trying to find his/her place in the world.
Would you help a person who did not give you any pleasure?
Not for very long. And depending on why I'm helping them. Did I feel sorry? Did I listen to them and tried to solve his/her problems? Did I bump into him and saw myself if I had taken a wrong step? The stronger my reason, the more I'd help.
What good is "good" and what does justice mean to you? Our spiritual view of the universe DOES ,in fact, determine how we view each other. I'm just wondering how specifically.
If you don't believe in punishment, rewards, fate, destiny, or redemption, look closely at your life and see how many "incidents" could be attributed to Karma- do good, good begets you; do bad, **** hits fan!
And how we view each other can be learnt more from home than media or culture. When spirituality kicks in we might be lucky enough to see a different perspective!
2007-03-09 21:39:58 · answer #2 · answered by canguroargentino 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A person is me. Whatever i value in myself, i also value in others. I can also admire attractive or enviable traits in others that i don't have for myself.
Good is whatever promotes human hapiness and well being. Evil is whatever causes human suffering.
I've given to homeless people plenty of times. Oddly enough, i've felt much freer about giving as an atheist than as a Christian. Why? My best guess is that i'm no longer uptight about Big Daddy in the sky keeping score on my giving.
As for an angry nutcase trying to gnaw my eyes out, kcuf him. Atheists don't glorify persecution or idolize martyrdom.
2007-03-09 23:07:07 · answer #3 · answered by RickySTT, EAC 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wonder about yourself and how your christian fairytales has any affect on other's needs. You go off in tangents and are unable to communicate very well. Your thoughts are disconcerted. I don't know of any person in history, even Jeffery Dahmer, that wants to gnaw on some eyes. You are not clear on your question, analogy, making your question clear, making yourself understood, dealing with any reality, non-specific and asking for something specific. You are a scatterbrain. Do you know of any religion that doesn't have their hand out for money and sashay around with flashy material items? Don't give people fish... teach them how to fish.<< Isn't this what you forgot the bible told you?
2007-03-09 21:48:00 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I will help any person I am capable of helping, regardless of their ability to repay me. I am not always capable of helping someone--for instance, if the person in question were a serious threat to my safety, I would not help him/her. However, I would and have helped anyone else in whatever way I can.
Justice means equality and fairness for all of us. Our world isn't perfect, though, so some of us have a better chance than others. It's our responsibility to help those who need it--not because they may pay us back and not because we may get in trouble if we don't, but because all humans are equal and deserve to be treated as such.
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If we are all completely missing your point, perhaps you could clarify what your point is? It seems to me as though you got some good answers to a very vague series of questions.
2007-03-09 21:33:22 · answer #5 · answered by N 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it would depend partly on how deserving they seemed to be. Someone who has by chance had a rough life would tend to attract more sympathy than someone who plenty of chances and managed to ruin a life that could just as easily have been good.
In general, we have a fairly sophisticated sense of right and wrong, of value, of what people deserve and so on. We can only really go by that and learn from experience.
2007-03-09 21:41:01 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I help people almost everyday including homeless near my office. I do that because they are humans beings like you and me. If you are doing this "generosity" to gain points to go to heaven, you have a big problem with your life.
2007-03-09 21:46:23 · answer #7 · answered by Lost. at. Sea. 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A person is just another person. Realistically we are all just animals, so we can't expect to behave completely unlike one.
Still I help people, and am a benefit to society.
I just don't need to be afraid of an invisible father figure to make me do it.
2007-03-09 21:30:10 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
You know...as I grow older..,I'm more and more inclined to consider not just all human beings, but all sentient beings and even, to some degree, all living things (even all things) persons.
I'm just your typical pacifist, pro-life, anti-death penalty vegetarian...FWIW.
Sometimes I want to apologize to the romaine lettuce for chewing it up (or thank it for sacrificing its life.)
2007-03-09 21:32:52 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Someone who has life. Like not including plants, and other animals.
2007-03-09 21:31:10 · answer #10 · answered by HoBo 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋