Slimebeast said:
Relatively speaking helping others can have great meaning, but it has no (or little) inherent and ultimate value as I see it. It's not the end goal. I can't see it as a truly fullfilling purpose in life to work and suffer only for the benefit of the less fortunate. To me that's just a form of slavery. In the same way, in its essense, "guidance from the Bible" has no ultimate value. I would never be able to motivate it like that - a creator creates a bunch of individiduals only to be born into slaves for their even less fortunate brethren and then they also got guidance from a divine book. Mean Anyway, Christianity is far more than just helping the poor. I see it as a hope and motivation to be able to struggle though this hard life. Christianity is about the thirs for everlasting life. There's a selfish component to it. Christianity assumes every individual cares about himself at least to the extent that he wants to live forever. |
May I ask how willingly devoting a great part of your life into helping the less fortunate has any connection to slavery? Without that connection I can't make much sense out of your comment.
I presented the butterfly effect as an alternative reward to entering heaven after living a good life. A positive butterfly effect, to be precise. Meaning that even though you won't be living anymore, you can die happy knowing that you have made life better for upcoming generations thanks to the way you decided to live your life (possibly as a result of following the Bible's advice). As I see it, any humble Christian should ask for no more.
Demanding an eternal reward for your efforts in life seems quite selfish and greedy to me. Nothing that you've done or withstood could possibly we worth an infinite reward in return. Let alone living your "tough" life full of hardships in a first world country.
