(March 22, 2012 at 4:05 am)Forsaken Wrote: Live life to the fullest and help a "circumstantially challenged" fellow man/animal/being in whatever way possible.

Contradictory goals. If you are helping someone else, you are taking time off of living life to the fullest.

(March 22, 2012 at 7:37 am)genkaus Wrote: Contradictory goals. If you are helping someone else, you are taking time off of living life to the fullest.

On the contrary, selfish altruism allows for one to live life more completely. A mother carries a baby not on grounds of caring completely and giving up part of yourself for the child, but to fulfill your own inner needs.

(March 22, 2012 at 7:41 am)NoMoreFaith Wrote: On the contrary, selfish altruism allows for one to live life more completely. A mother carries a baby not on grounds of caring completely and giving up part of yourself for the child, but to fulfill your own inner needs.

The term "selfish altruism" is oxymoronic. Actually, it's just moronic.

An action is selfish if the primary motivation for it is welfare of oneself. It is altruistic if the primary motivation is the welfare of others. By definition, it cannot be both at the same time.

If the primary motivation of the mother is fulfilling her own needs and carrying the baby happens to be a way to do it, then the action is selfish, not altruistic.

I thought the meaning of life was to try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.

(March 22, 2012 at 11:59 am)genkaus Wrote: The term "selfish altruism" is oxymoronic. Actually, it's just moronic.

An action is selfish if the primary motivation for it is welfare of oneself. It is altruistic if the primary motivation is the welfare of others. By definition, it cannot be both at the same time.

If the primary motivation of the mother is fulfilling her own needs and carrying the baby happens to be a way to do it, then the action is selfish, not altruistic.

Then the term altruism is wrong. No human behavior is selfless there is always a motive.

(March 22, 2012 at 11:59 am)genkaus Wrote: If the primary motivation of the mother is fulfilling her own needs and carrying the baby happens to be a way to do it, then the action is selfish, not altruistic.

If you ensure a "utterly selfish" or "utterly altruistic" extreme model, you could also argue the case selfless altruism does not really exist either.

All actions generally originate in terms of some selfish need or requirement to be fulfilled or expectation of reciprocity. Much like the selfish gene, whilst not promoting any sort of will upon it, the reasons to help others are rooted in your own self-serving instincts whether you mean to or not.

Certainly exceptions can be argued, but they are rare. Your argument is that altruism must mean that you do not live life to the fullest, which I dispute. Many people would consider that having a child is part of a full life, to them at least, although by no means a universal.

The tradition and acceptance of the golden rule of morality is steeped in this selfish altruism, in that we sacrifice some of our own happiness in order to prevent others from harm, and by doing so, protect a non-chaotic state which allows us to live our life fully in other ways. Contributing to social disorder is understood on some level to detract from our fulfillment of a full life.

More to the point, while linguistically an oxymoron, it describes the majority of interactions which are rarely purely hedonistic or selfless.

(March 21, 2012 at 12:42 am)MysticKnight Wrote: I think an easy answer to this, is "to live it".

Even if you don't believe in God, your parents obviously brought you to this world, raised you, because they wanted you to live it. They wanted you to have a good life.

They wanted you to go through life and live it and to make the best of your life.

Easy. The purpose of life is to love, obey and worship Jesus and nothing else! This is why most of you lot are living empty, worthless and sinful lives that will amount to nothing and why people like me have lives that are full, content and secure in the knowledge that we are saved.

God bless

-Saved

(March 22, 2012 at 12:27 pm)Saved Wrote: This is why most of you lot are living empty, worthless and sinful lives that will amount to nothing

How fucking dare you. You think you can sit there and judge people like that? You think you're some kind of shining example of what your faith is all about? Yeah, you're a great example of how much a fucking cunt someone can be.

You make me sick.

Its okay Napoleon, you don't have to hold back on our account.

Just tell him what you really think

(March 22, 2012 at 12:50 pm)NoMoreFaith Wrote: Its okay Napoleon, you don't have to hold back on our account.

Just tell him what you really think

I call 'em as I see 'em.