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From: tfp-cs@eunet.be (Carl Seghers)
Subject: Re: The function of religion is not to help you understand reality...
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Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 17:59:38 GMT

stidd sean c (stidd@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote:

: Also, it is incredibly naive to say that "economics will make you want to 
: help people."  It has that effect on some people, possibly;  but I don't 
: think the vast knowledge of economics on the part of the economists 
: working for DuPont, Exxon, World Bank, General Motors, or the U.S. 
: Government has inspired them to help people at all.  An attention to 
: justice, a genuine moral sensibility, a care for our fellow human beings 
: will perhaps make us want to help people.  Economics might tell us how to 
: help people, in certain special cases;  but the desire to do so is 
: entirely independent of the facts of the matter.

Here is a point to consider: a selfish guy, whose sole purpose is to
advance his welfare, and in doing so establishes a company with a
thousand employees, is helping a thousand people to have a
living. This guy, in all his selfishness, helps more people than a
whole bunch of pietous people who spend all day praying to god to
thank him for his example of how to be a good person.  


I am not saying that being selfish is a good thing. What I am saying
is that if you want to help people, you have to actually do it and not
talk about it. Religion makes people talk about it without doing it,
and makes them actually think they are good without reason.  I
know this is a stereotype, but heck, the people who really care about
their fellow man would care about him without religion too.


--
Carl Seghers / Brahms Gang  Datis Nepis Potentis Negrote
