Meaning of Christian Life.

Modena wrote: We live for Gods Selfishness.


is that right?

No, because God doesn’t exist.

Well this is a complete cycle lol every argument ends up coming back to the same debate does god exist it goes through all these arguments and comes back to here..... y do we keep doing this? lol

A genius isnt someone with a massive amount of intellegence, a genius is someone who shoots at something no one else can see and hits it.

Astro wrote: Well this is a complete cycle lol every argument ends up coming back to the same debate does god exist it goes through all these arguments and comes back to here..... y do we keep doing this? lol

The fact that the argument is debated over and over again does not mean both sides have equally valid positions.

Astro wrote:

Modena wrote: can someone please answer my question.

What was ur question supra

read.

Shaun of the Living wrote:

Modena wrote: We live for Gods Selfishness.


is that right?

No, because God doesn’t exist.

why do you even bother posting troll comments like that.

its offtopic.

dont post spam.

Modena wrote:

Shaun of the Living wrote:

Modena wrote: We live for Gods Selfishness.


is that right?

No, because God doesn’t exist.

why do you even bother posting troll comments like that.

its offtopic.

dont post spam.

I wasn’t trolling or spamming, it’s just my opinion regarding your question on why we exist. Although, if God had created humanity, then yes, we would live for his selfishness. All actions are selfish.

Shaun of the Living wrote:

Modena wrote:

Shaun of the Living wrote:

Modena wrote: We live for Gods Selfishness.


is that right?

No, because God doesn’t exist.

why do you even bother posting troll comments like that.

its offtopic.

dont post spam.

I wasn’t trolling or spamming, it’s just my opinion regarding your question on why we exist. Although, if God had created humanity, then yes, we would live for his selfishness. All actions are selfish.

if a mother gives her food to her child, that makes her selfish?

Modena wrote:

Shaun of the Living wrote:

Modena wrote:

Shaun of the Living wrote:

Modena wrote: We live for Gods Selfishness.


is that right?

No, because God doesn’t exist.

why do you even bother posting troll comments like that.

its offtopic.

dont post spam.

I wasn’t trolling or spamming, it’s just my opinion regarding your question on why we exist. Although, if God had created humanity, then yes, we would live for his selfishness. All actions are selfish.

if a mother gives her food to her child, that makes her selfish?

*Sean of the Living logs off* Lawl.

-King- wrote:
*Sean of the Living logs off* Lawl.

The fact that I am not able to simeltaneously answer every single response to all of my posts that I get before I log off doesn’t mean I’m stumped.
Not to mention Supra’s response was made TWO DAYS after I posted.

Modena wrote: if a mother gives her food to her child, that makes her selfish?

Well, if you define selfishness as not being mutually exclusive to helping others, then yes. She fed the child because her parental instincts gave her a good feeling for feeding the child, thus improving her own wellbeing. Even if she experiences some kind of discomfort when feeding the child but ultimately decides to do it anyway that doesn’t mean her action was altruistic, it simply means she thought the pleasure she would get from feeling she did a good thing would override her discomfort.

It kinda pisses me off how people can only see how humans improve their own wellbeing in a material sense like money or physical pleasure. Other things, like pride or an expectation of good karma can constitute as a “reward”...

I agree with you Shaun. We are only motivated to do things that will benefit us. All of our intentional actions must have a personal benefit of some kind or we will not do it. The problem is that people see “selfish” as a negative trait and want there to be a way to cut it out entirely. People need to realize that this “selfish” trait is required for any living organism to survive. If we were completely selfless... we wouldn’t do anything...

Not all actions are selfish. Donating your money to the poor, for example, isn’t a selfish act.
— — — — — — — — -
According to the Bible a Christian’s purpose in life is to “love God with your whole soul”-Luke 10:27. But I don’t find that easy to do, especially in a world like this.

Reef wrote: Not all actions are selfish. Donating your money to the poor, for example, isn’t a selfish act.

Yes it is, because you’re doing it to get a good feeling that you helped somebody, which you consider more valuable than the money you gave away. The fact that you’re trying to increase someone else’s wellbeing to indirectly increase your own doesn’t mean it wasn’t for yourself in the end.

Shaun of the Living wrote:

-King- wrote:
*Sean of the Living logs off* Lawl.

The fact that I am not able to simeltaneously answer every single response to all of my posts that I get before I log off doesn’t mean I’m stumped.
Not to mention Supra’s response was made TWO DAYS after I posted.

Modena wrote: if a mother gives her food to her child, that makes her selfish?

Well, if you define selfishness as not being mutually exclusive to helping others, then yes. She fed the child because her parental instincts gave her a good feeling for feeding the child, thus improving her own wellbeing. Even if she experiences some kind of discomfort when feeding the child but ultimately decides to do it anyway that doesn’t mean her action was altruistic, it simply means she thought the pleasure she would get from feeling she did a good thing would override her discomfort.

just like God.

Shaun of the Living wrote:

Reef wrote: Not all actions are selfish. Donating your money to the poor, for example, isn’t a selfish act.

Yes it is, because you’re doing it to get a good feeling that you helped somebody, which you consider more valuable than the money you gave away. The fact that you’re trying to increase someone else’s wellbeing to indirectly increase your own doesn’t mean it wasn’t for yourself in the end.

what?

Shaun of the Living wrote:

Reef wrote: Not all actions are selfish. Donating your money to the poor, for example, isn’t a selfish act.

Yes it is, because you’re doing it to get a good feeling that you helped somebody, which you consider more valuable than the money you gave away. The fact that you’re trying to increase someone else’s wellbeing to indirectly increase your own doesn’t mean it wasn’t for yourself in the end.

Once again I agree with you entirely. If you got NOTHING from giving your money to the homeless... you wouldn’t do it. Like Shaun said, your satisfaction is worth more than the $5 you gave away, so that’s why you did it. But you don’t give the guy $500 do you? Because that feeling isn’t worth $500.

I dunno if you remember, but I actually made a topic on this subject some while back which got the hell trolled out of it.

Ok, what about these examples:
One day my classmate’s ROTC hat fell on the floor. I told him to pick it up and he did. Did I act on selfishness? I did it because I knew if I were him, I wouldn’t want my hat on a dirty floor.

Another example is one day I went to school with my zipper open. This school aide told me about it and I zipped it up. Did the school aide act on selfishness? I don’t think so.

Reef wrote: Ok, what about these examples:
One day my classmate’s ROTC hat fell on the floor. I told him to pick it up and he did. Did I act on selfishness? I did it because I knew if I were him, I wouldn’t want my hat on a dirty floor.

Another example is one day I went to school with my zipper open. This school aide told me about it and I zipped it up. Did the school aide act on selfishness? I don’t think so.

You don’t seem to understand. You told him to pick up the hat because it gave you the feeling of doing something you thought was the right/good thing. The same goes for the school aid. In fact, due to empathy, you might even receive a negative feeling (aka guilt) for refusing to inform an individual about their unwary misfortune.

We have evolved a system within our instincts that rewards us with pleasure for helping others. This is done to help us create bonds and relationships with each other for protection. This is why we have friends, ultimately to help us survive the world and pass along our genes.

If you completely removed the “self” from every action... ultimately why would you do anything? Why would you help someone else? You have to think down the the base.

Ok. What about when you respond to my posts? Is that a selfish act too?
And also, even though I don’t think you’re a Christian, do you think when Jesus died for our sins, was that a selfish act too?

Modena wrote:

Shaun of the Living wrote:

-King- wrote:
*Sean of the Living logs off* Lawl.

The fact that I am not able to simeltaneously answer every single response to all of my posts that I get before I log off doesn’t mean I’m stumped.
Not to mention Supra’s response was made TWO DAYS after I posted.

Modena wrote: if a mother gives her food to her child, that makes her selfish?

Well, if you define selfishness as not being mutually exclusive to helping others, then yes. She fed the child because her parental instincts gave her a good feeling for feeding the child, thus improving her own wellbeing. Even if she experiences some kind of discomfort when feeding the child but ultimately decides to do it anyway that doesn’t mean her action was altruistic, it simply means she thought the pleasure she would get from feeling she did a good thing would override her discomfort

just like God.

Exactly. If a god created us he would have done it in some way for himself. I fail to see though, why a “perfect”, omnipotent, omniscent deity like the Christian God would have the desire to create anything to make himself happier.

Reef wrote: Ok, what about these examples:
One day my classmate’s ROTC hat fell on the floor. I told him to pick it up and he did. Did I act on selfishness? I did it because I knew if I were him, I wouldn’t want my hat on a dirty floor.

Another example is one day I went to school with my zipper open. This school aide told me about it and I zipped it up. Did the school aide act on selfishness? I don’t think so.

Your empathy for others evolved as a means of preventing human (and perhaps other species) destroying their own society. People wouldn’t want to act with empathy if it didn’t make themselves feel good, however, so evolution tricked them into getting a kind of good feeling from helping others (It’s a bit like sex; If it didn’t feel good people wouldn’t want to do it all the time). Empathy for animals and other non-human things is a misfiring of this, but it still, ultimately, convinces the helper to assist others to improve their own wellbeing. Altruism as a trait is completely non-existant.

On a lighter note, lol @ your fly being unzipped.

Hey, read this http://epistemiclife.blogspot.com/2006/09/are-all-acts-inherently-selfish.html. He has a good point. He says “Yes, if I give money to the poor, I feel that I have done a good thing. But this good feeling is a side-effect, not a motivation."