osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
Experience can teach faiths and loves. Or experience can teach tribal cooperation for the purposes of advantage.
But there is a distinct faith and love that can be found in its total absence, or total presence. The ideal love found in charity. Charity as a motivation seeks to make others better and pursues the care of what is necessary for others' so that they may be healthy, happy, and productive toward others. Charity seeks not its own vain pleasure.
The vain pleasure pursuit seems to be the central drive of so much of humanity. Everyone is trying to build exclusive paradises. So vain pleasure is the love that drives the world. It's reflected in our systems of economy and government.
Compounding the problem for humanity is those that seek to do evil things. So in reaction to that people want to build fortresses against everything that might be an enemy.
Evil closes off and divides people. And people can be utterly selfish. So charity gets thrown to the wolves if it is not wise in what it seeks to build.
To top it off, humans are vulnerable to nature and other people. So how does one remain charitable without risking life and limb, and losing one's self in the pursuit of charity? That takes wisdom.
And wisdom discerns intentions accurately.
Altruism seeks mutual benefit. Charity seeks the others welfare. You need both to have peace. Otherwise we go around and around with conflicts, and disasters.
Life is a learning curve, and often times people fall off the curve of productivity and are never able to get back on. Poverty, homelessness, disease, and death result. But we can't consider people who fall into tragedy to be worthless because they are non productive. There might be things they can do to become useful.
The thing about charity is that selfless motivations are often in line with fulfilling the motivations people have for themselves. Its in our self interest to eliminate homelessness. It's in our self interest that people learn moral values that fulfill the heart and care for the needs.
Charity seems to run contrary to how people envision and run society. Hate for the oppressed. Giving to only takers and users. Well that exhausts the will of the charitable.
And then who is charitable and who isn't. If it's one thing that is sorely lacking it's the conversation about how to be wise and charitable.
If there is a path of reason to a God that is worthy of faith, it would be by understanding charity. By understanding this type of love objectively, then perhaps we can come to know of such God. And thus we wouldn't be following our own subjective senses. And we would submit to an objective sense that would shape our intentions.
Understanding is the key to a solid faith in something grounded in objective reasoning. Not my subjective will, but the objective sense gained despite what my will may be.
But there is a distinct faith and love that can be found in its total absence, or total presence. The ideal love found in charity. Charity as a motivation seeks to make others better and pursues the care of what is necessary for others' so that they may be healthy, happy, and productive toward others. Charity seeks not its own vain pleasure.
The vain pleasure pursuit seems to be the central drive of so much of humanity. Everyone is trying to build exclusive paradises. So vain pleasure is the love that drives the world. It's reflected in our systems of economy and government.
Compounding the problem for humanity is those that seek to do evil things. So in reaction to that people want to build fortresses against everything that might be an enemy.
Evil closes off and divides people. And people can be utterly selfish. So charity gets thrown to the wolves if it is not wise in what it seeks to build.
To top it off, humans are vulnerable to nature and other people. So how does one remain charitable without risking life and limb, and losing one's self in the pursuit of charity? That takes wisdom.
And wisdom discerns intentions accurately.
Altruism seeks mutual benefit. Charity seeks the others welfare. You need both to have peace. Otherwise we go around and around with conflicts, and disasters.
Life is a learning curve, and often times people fall off the curve of productivity and are never able to get back on. Poverty, homelessness, disease, and death result. But we can't consider people who fall into tragedy to be worthless because they are non productive. There might be things they can do to become useful.
The thing about charity is that selfless motivations are often in line with fulfilling the motivations people have for themselves. Its in our self interest to eliminate homelessness. It's in our self interest that people learn moral values that fulfill the heart and care for the needs.
Charity seems to run contrary to how people envision and run society. Hate for the oppressed. Giving to only takers and users. Well that exhausts the will of the charitable.
And then who is charitable and who isn't. If it's one thing that is sorely lacking it's the conversation about how to be wise and charitable.
If there is a path of reason to a God that is worthy of faith, it would be by understanding charity. By understanding this type of love objectively, then perhaps we can come to know of such God. And thus we wouldn't be following our own subjective senses. And we would submit to an objective sense that would shape our intentions.
Understanding is the key to a solid faith in something grounded in objective reasoning. Not my subjective will, but the objective sense gained despite what my will may be.
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