Conversing with a fundamentalist Christian friend the other day I was struck by his statement that if it wasn’t for his God calling him to be other-centered, he would be very self-centered. But isn’t it far better, far more authentic, to be other-centered because one genuinely cares about others—has true empathy for others—than to be motivated by a “divine calling?”
“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. ... For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition.”
~ Albert Einstein
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11 comments:
This thought of the day sounds familiar. :) same quote as #113!
Kelsie, You are a sharp one! I can’t remember what I posted last week let alone many months ago. Would you be interested in an unpaid internship running the church of reason? :) Bet we would never have another duplicate!
Guess I better think of something to replace it...
I just happened to stumble upon 113, actually. I was re-reading old blog posts on here and their comments. :)
And sorry, but I have my hands full running my own 2 blogs!
I think maybe what your friend was getting at - correct me if I'm wrong, because I was obviously not there and do not know the whole conversation - was that we as humans, not only Christians, are born selfish. It's innate, no matter who we are, our interests are for ourselves only until we are taught that it is better to care about others. Even then, you'll have a hard time convincing a 4 year old that it's better to give his toy to a friend than keep it for himself ;-) But Christians, as they grow older and more mature, are motivated to care about others by the fact that God asks us to care about others, and because we want to do what He asks. If it weren't for this calling, some people would never have learned or bothered to learn to be unselfish in the first place.
You nailed it. My point is that though the resulting other-centered behavior is beneficial to society, the motivation is tainted.
For example, this friend has spent years helping serve food at a homeless shelter. If his actions are not motivated by compassion for those he serves but only because of a belief about a third party (his God) than a loss of belief would result in him abandoning the hungry.
I would rather be surrounded by people that have true empathy for others than Christians who are other-centered only because of beliefs about an invisible being.
My point was that something has to actually influence you to want to do something for others. If selfishness is innate, then it takes an outside influence to convince you that really, keeping others' interests in mind before yourself is better than the other way around.
It's like a morals thing. And Christians draw their morals from God and the Bible. God is our ultimate moral code. You say that you would rather be around those with a true empathy for others, but I would guess that your friend does have a true empathy for the people that he's helping - it just all began when he realized at some point in his life that helping others was God's command and thus he should follow it. That doesn't mean he doesn't care about the people. In fact the reason he is helping them is because he cares about them!
I'm curious - why does an atheist/naturalist care about other people?
Selfishness is innate but so is selflessness. Both impulses have evolved over millions of years. These impulses are survival mechanisms that help both the individual and the group.
My friend admitted that he would not care about people nearly as much if not for his God calling him to. Not sure if this is false modesty or if he really believes what he is saying.
As to why I care about people...simply because I know what it is like to be lonely, scared, hungry, depressed or whatever. It makes me feel good to make others feel good in even the smallest way. Likely due to endorphins released as a product of evolutionary traits that helped us survive as a social species.
Selfishness is innate but also selflessness? Aren't the two mutually exclusive? You can't be both innately selfish and innately selfless at the same time. It violates the law of non-contradiction.
You do both both selfish and selfless things. We all do. We are born that way. We learn to be more selfless and less selfish as we mature and are taught how to get along with others but we are born with both tendencies and live out our lives struggling to balance them. There is no contradiction whatsoever.
See, now, I would say that humans are born entirely selfish until someone teaches them how to be selfless. Little kids automatically know how to grab a toy away from their friend, but they have to be told/taught to share. Babies automatically know to cry for attention, food and comfort. They have to be taught later on in life to be selfless.
Kelsie,
I would highly recommend a book called The Science of Good and Evil by Michael Shermer. Excellent book that talks about the origins of morality, why we behave the way we do.
I also would suggest Richard Dawkins’ wonderful new book on evolution called The Greatest Show on Earth.
Finally, I would suggest making Truth your God and following it wherever it leads. There’s no better journey...
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