Sojourner553

I would never claim that ALL Christians are motivated to choose power over goodness.

But brought up as a Baptist -- I can tell you the focus was on the "future rewards in heaven"
as opposed to doing good for goodness sake. Or else it was like this: sacrifice just a teeny bit for goodness, and you will be rewarded a zillion times over in heaven. The motivation was still greed.

This is the ploy the most successful con men use -- to promise a BIG payoff for a little sacrifice.

The point is that this does seem to motivate a "lot" of Christians I have known (definitely not all!)

My point is to question how noble is it to merely "believe" --since the promises of easy rewards makes the system based on selfserving idealism -- ie greed -- rather than inwardly driven goodness.

Sojourner

[ March 29, 2002: Message edited by: Sojourner553 ]</p>

ManM

Sojourner,

I too feel that greed tarnishes the nobility of the belief. I'm just curious, why do you feel the same way? Many people on this forum would argue that self-interest is in fact quite noble.

Sojourner553

Great question ManM! I am all for the "self-interest" philosophies where this is defined as feeling good about oneself, to have fun in this life, etc. However, this does NOT mean one may extend one's self interest past the boundaries of what is not in the public interest: One has a greater responsibilty to act in the best interests of other people-- both of this generation AND future generations!

Here is the way "I" classify religious philosophies. It is not according to Theism vs Atheism but between Humanists and Fundamentalists.

There are humanist Christians, Jews, Muslim, Buddhists, AND atheists! There are also fundamentalists Christians, Jews, Muslims, (ok maybe not too many Buddhists) AND atheists. Examples of fundamentalist atheists were Madalyn O'Hara and Ayn Rand.

I personally rate ALL groups of humanists with high marks and fundamentalists with low (even abysmal) marks.

I have the greatest of respect for humanist Christians and deists and atheists. I fight with fundamentalist atheists, but rarely with humanist Christians. Again, because it is the humanism that counts for me -- not the theism vs atheism!

By the way I am a Democrat, and NOT a Republican for the same reasons!

Best wishes. You are obviously a humanist and therefore a "good" guy in my book.

Sojourner

[ March 30, 2002: Message edited by: Sojourner553 ]</p>