Faith and Good Works
Yesterday on NPR, they interviewed a young woman who was volunteering to help clean up houses in New Orleans. Apparently, you can rip our floors and walls by hand and try to salvage parts of the house, or you can just bulldoze them. The young lady being interviewed was ripping out a wall in this water-damaged house, when money started to fall from the wall.
Kind of like an episode of Scooby-Doo.
They gathered up $30,000 and gave it to the homeowner (who will now probably no longer qualify for disaster relief, oh wait that won't ever make it there!)
Wow. It was a beautiful act. The volunteer could have pocketed the money. No one would have known, but she didn't.
The interviewer (here's the web page to an audio link of the story) on All Things Considered asked if she was tempted to take the money.
"Oh no ma'am, if I had stole the money, it would have been a temporary happiness, but in the long run, my soul would have regretted it."
Which begs the question of motivation. Did she do it out of fear for her immortal soul, or because it was, quite simply, the right thing to do.
I have argued that religion is the use of fear to coerce people to do what is right, and that if people read and understood Plato and Aristotle, we wouldn't need religion, at least not for the "Punishment and Reward" aspect. (Red2 will ask what other aspect there is!)
The desire to do good for the sake of the Good is a morally higher motivation than fear of punishment, even when the result is the same.
Still, the Big JC will likely pat her on the head when she reaches Heaven and give her a Scooby Snack before turning her around and sending her to Purgatory for cleansing of her soul of the hatred of homosexuals, abortionists and war protesters.
Kind of like an episode of Scooby-Doo.
They gathered up $30,000 and gave it to the homeowner (who will now probably no longer qualify for disaster relief, oh wait that won't ever make it there!)
Wow. It was a beautiful act. The volunteer could have pocketed the money. No one would have known, but she didn't.
The interviewer (here's the web page to an audio link of the story) on All Things Considered asked if she was tempted to take the money.
"Oh no ma'am, if I had stole the money, it would have been a temporary happiness, but in the long run, my soul would have regretted it."
Which begs the question of motivation. Did she do it out of fear for her immortal soul, or because it was, quite simply, the right thing to do.
I have argued that religion is the use of fear to coerce people to do what is right, and that if people read and understood Plato and Aristotle, we wouldn't need religion, at least not for the "Punishment and Reward" aspect. (Red2 will ask what other aspect there is!)
The desire to do good for the sake of the Good is a morally higher motivation than fear of punishment, even when the result is the same.
Still, the Big JC will likely pat her on the head when she reaches Heaven and give her a Scooby Snack before turning her around and sending her to Purgatory for cleansing of her soul of the hatred of homosexuals, abortionists and war protesters.
posted by Corporal at 11:21 AM
2 Comments:
Punishment and Rewards. I also believe there were donuts. Wasn't the third thing donuts? That's what makes religion great, the baked goods.
I need to brush up on my Plato and Aristotle it seems.
When I was a kid, I only liked going to church because we went out for donuts after.
Now I go to check out all the hot gay men in the rows in front of me.
Have I mentioned that they play John Lennon tunes during communion at my church? Imagine all the people. . .
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