BF2S Forums Are Religious People the Most Selfish of All?

GunSlinger OIF II wrote:

People are selfish, its human nature.

You are getting too philosophical lately.

Speaking for myself and most Christians I know, we do “good works” for the same reason everyone else does ... because we see a fellow man in need.  The motivation is not to get to Heaven (because salvation isn’t earned, it is freely given though none of us deserve it).  Instead, the underlying reason we do “good works” is to show gratefulness to God for salvation and to show God’s love in tangible way.  Through that, we hope we’ll be able to share our faith.  As far as “behaving” or following the rules goes, that too should be done as a grateful response to what God has done for us.  An example would be a thief who is bailed out of jail by a generous stranger, only to go right back and rob and bank.  By committing theft again, the thief would be trampling on the gift.  That’s how the Christians I know view sin.       

Do some religious people help others with only the reward in mind?  Sure, I don’t think anyone could successfully argue that point because it’s so painfully obvious that we’re all selfish in one way or another.  However, to blanket the charity of all religious folks with that motivation would be unfair.  Judging someone else’s motivations for doing good is a waste of time imho and certainly not my place.  As long as they’re helping, I’ll let God sort out their reasons for doing so.

How so?

Some Catholics could view confession as you described above, but that does not mean they all do.   Whether confession is sincere or not depends on the individual.  Hence my personal view is that admitting to another human being (priest) what I did doesn't absolve me from anything.  True confession requires repetance to God alone because we humans can't truly know each others deepest motivations.

I remember being terrified the first time I went to Reconciliation.  I had to say some Hail Marys and Our Fathers to make up for all those mortal sins I committed by age 8.

Last edited by KEN-JENNINGS (2007-12-03 11:58:10)

We all do things that make us feel better about ourselves. This includes charity and helping others out. It may seem selfish, but there are other ways of acting selfish that are less than morally acceptable. Just because the religious are living a life that will be judged as good, it doesn't mean they don't have genuine care for the people they help.

Lai wrote:

Stingray24 wrote:

Some Catholics could view confession as you described above, but that does not mean they all do.

I didn't say they all do, but it does enable them to do so. I won't propogate protestantism; I'm an atheist, but I've been at a former Jesuite school. The priests there were all very nice and many Catholics are sincere, but also many aren't and there has always been very little social control over these hypocrits.

I have found that hypocrisy, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder more often than not.  In light of that, I do my best not to judge the sincerity of others.  With that statement, I am not dismissing the hypocrisy you witnessed.  I'm sure you had very good reasons for the conclusions you came to.  Unfortunatly, The Church would have to know the inner thoughts of each of their followers to eliminate hypocrisy, which is, of course, impossible.  That’s the biggest issue I find with confession to a human being.  I do not understand how he can grant forgiveness when he cannot determine the sincerity of the individual confessing.  Imho, the only magic formula for forgiveness is repentance, nothing more.  In the end, if a sincere Catholic believer chooses to go through their priest whom they respect to communicate their repentance to God, so be it.  Personally, I choose not to do so, but rather pray to God in my own way.