Quote:
Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight
The fallacy that makes most people scared to give up on religion is that selfishness is a bad thing.
The reality is, everything thing we do is selfish. Every single decision is selfish. In the end, it comes down to "because I want to".
Even acts that are materially selfless are ultimately motivated by selfishness. They are performed because the performer would feel worse about themselves if they didn't.
"But I've given up my own fulfillment to raise my kids!" Only because you'd feel worse about not raising your kids.
And yes, some people have different selfish desires, and that's where law enforcement comes in. Hopefully, they'll feel worse about the prospect of being in jail instead of fulfilling their selfish tendencies that negatively affect other people.
But the selfish desire of the majority of people for personal safety, as Alex defined well, is what motivates the social contract, independent of religious belief.
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I think it’s overly cynical to say that everything is ultimately selfish. If someone donates their fortune to an orphanage, I would say it is altruistic and not be concerned about whether their motivation was to go to heaven or not. Otherwise, altruism has no meaning. I care much more about what people do than the reason they did it. (In fact, many times we are not even sure of our own motives.)