Which is more moral: helping other human beings out of concern for their well being, or because of the notion that some ubiquitous creator will reward you for it in the end?
Do humans have to have a reward? Scientifically speaking, yes; our only purpose on this earth is to spread our own genes and procreate the population, and thus the only underlying theme in the furthering of our own existence is staying alive as long as possible. This is only done through putting our own well being above others’s, which is only natural. However, psychologically speaking, we have developed natural instincts pushing us to help others in their own times of need, at our cost.
Why would we do this? Lots of reasons, actually; prior to religion, humans lived in nomadic groups where it became obvious that if any member of the group was in some way suffering negatively, such conditions would have a negative impact on the group as a whole. With the logical advent of the golden rule (which, by the way, was around much longer than most, if not all, organized religions of today), humans realized that if they express compassion to those in need, if ever the roles were reversed in the future, there would exist a greater possibility that the individual on which compassion was imposed previously would return the gesture.
From these notions and instincts — which are basic and logical “rules,” if you will, of living — our present definition of morality has emerged, summed up very succintly by the following mandate from Mahavira, the Jain patriarch (who lived approximately 6,000 years before Christ):
“Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being.”
Anyway, the point here is that it upsets me greatly that the very same people (missionaries, volunteers, etc.), those who help the needy through Christian establishments and claim to do so out of the kindness of their hearts, are lying. Please, call it what it is: you have your own interests at the forefront of your focus while doing this, and it’s a load of shit when you start saying that your naturally kind soul (possibly religiously influenced) is why you are performing these actions.
Seriously, beyond looking better in God’s eyes (which is a load of shit too, considering God is supposed to see your soul and know your true feelings), you make yourself look like a huge dick to the logical human population. The extreme self-absorbency paraded as humility is truly sickening, and it needs to stop. Stop the lying, the deception, and the facade; we all have the exact same interests at heart, and to state otherwise is… uh, well, I think I’ve run out of adjectives to describe it, but you get the idea.
