What is selfishness? If you do things for your own good? Well, could somebody give me an example when its something done ONLY for someone elses good? Everytime its for your own good too. If you like helping other, then you have a good feeling doing it. So you do that for your own good feeling, or for expecting reward from God. So EVERYBODY is selfish.
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everybody is selfish
- Thread starter PeterKovac
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Honestly I dont even know who Dawkins is. Byt anyway. Dont you think its true? Can you give an example where its not true?
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Dear PeterKovac. Yes, we are all selfish, and Jesus knew that. He told us that God likes people to be helpful and kind, but those people get their thanks from the people they help, and it gives them a nice feeling. But God wants us to be selfless, love and help and do good, without expecting thanks, or appreciation. St. Paul tells us what Love really is, in 1) Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 4-8. God wants selfless love from us, selfless without any strings. That will make us feel good in the knowledge that we are following the two Commandments which Jesus tells us in Matthew, chapter 22, verses 35-40. I say this with love, Peter. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.
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wayseer
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Dawkins wrote a book called The Selfish Gene.
Yes there is an inherent need to be selfish - but we did not evolve by being selfish. We evolved by helping each other and there any number of examples. Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr, Ghandi and there are number of lesser mortals who have demonstrated selflessness.
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Why Mother Teresa did what she did? Yes she helped to people but she had good feeling when she was doing it. There are people who show selflessness but there is their own good feeling behind it. If you keep asking why is anybody doing anything, the answer always be at the end that its because it feels better than not doing it. That was my point. So own feeling is ultimate driver of our life.
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wayseer
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What you have describe is not the definition of 'selfish'. Being selfish is to serve one's own interest only and probably at the expense of others.
What you have just described could well be an inner conviction on knowing that one not selfish.
I think what you are trying to come to terms with is 'motivation'. What is it that motivates us? And what motivates us may well be selfish but it also may mean exactly the opposite.
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Emmy is right in my opinion. I will be the first to admit that I am self-absorbed and selfish. However, I cannot just live like this and not care about others. I do not always get warm fuzzy feelings by helping others. As a matter of fact, I am working on it still and believe it is a lifelong process. God bless.
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how about Jesus Christ dying on the cross? It is the only important selfless act we really need to know because through that our sins (which includes selfishness) are made pure, and so I can call myself selfless through Christ.
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chingchang
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Yes...everybody is selfish. But...would you agree that there are "acceptable" levels of selfishness? For example...I love cookies. Friends come over to my house. I have 20 cookies. They see them and ask "Are those good?". I tell them "yes". "Can we try one?". I say "no"...because I don't want to share ANY of my cookies with them. That is pretty darn selfish...especially considering I have the means to not only replenish those cookies...but multiply them 100-fold. I think there is a difference between that behavior...which I call "selfishness" and being "self-centered". Every human being is self-centered. That is our perspective...we were born into a body and we see the world through it. Everything revolves around that perspective until we die. Unless you want to start talking about Buddhist principles...we'll have to accept that we are all self-centered and therefore "selfish" to some extent. Regardless...Christians are challenged by the teachings of Yeshua to not be completely selfish. There are many examples we can talk about if you like.
CC
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I think I can agree with you. Selfish is maybe too strong word for what I ment. My point was that anything what men do is because we all do what feels better for us. There is no exception for that.
What do you feel when you help others then?
I dont have enough courage to tell you what Jesus felt when he was dying on cross. I can only think that if he was 100 % human and 100 % God at the same time, so that human "part" of Him makes Him feel good to do that for humanity. Otherwise He wouldnt do that. So that what I am telling here is that anything we do, we do for our own good feeling. And when it help others, then we could call it selflessness.
Whether you would offer them those cookies or not, you would do what would feel better to you. But if you have enough means to multiply them and you would not offer them, it wouldnt very nice of you :-D Thats may be called true selfishness. But as I said, my point was that anything what men do is because we all do what feels better for us.
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wayseer
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I disagree with your generalization.
I have just resigned from Freemasonry and I did not do that because I wanted to fell better. I did it because it was something that needed to be done. If you are interested I made a post on unorthodox theology board.
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Why did you do that? What did you feel? Wasnt that a better feeling that not doing that? .....Ill take a lookat that post.
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Of course I have.
Probably I am musunderstood. Of course I know that there are people who are selfless and do their best to help others. My point was that there is always good, or at least better felling behind every our action. If we do something, we do that because doing it feels better than not doing it. And if we decide not to do something, its because it feels better than doing it. And what is important... I dont think its bad. God gave us emotions for purpose. If we would listen to them ... Listen to what they are telling us, we would have wonderful life in Christ. Isnt being fallen in love good feeling? Is something bad with feeling of love? NO! If you do something good to somebody because you love them, you feel good emotion, you feel love. Its good to feel good. So anytime we do something, we do that for our own better feeling. Thats why I said that everybody is selfish. Selfish is probably too strong word in some cases, but dont get me wrong....it was not ment to be offensive. There is no exeption in that. Even commiting suicide is driven by seeking relief from depresion. Relief means better feeling than before.
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