(August 5, 2013 at 8:22 am)Consilius Wrote: Detrimenting yourself or your standard of living in normal cases of self-sacrifice is not what is being called for here. It's about giving what you can without great damage to yourself. I won't give my salary away so a bum can get a beer. I won't give my life savings to a charity, or else I'll become a charity case. It's pointless.
Its very amusing - seeing you dance about trying to rationalize Christian morality to make it more acceptable to anyone with any common sense. The fact is, "detrimenting yourself and your standard of living" is precisely what your religion calls for. Its not "self-sacrifice" if there isn't any damage to yourself.
If I give away my used old clothes to charity - I'm not being particularly self-sacrificial. I don't use them anymore and I'm not getting any money for them - so giving them away costs me nothing. But if I give away all of my worldly possessions - that would be considered self-sacrifice. And that is precisely what your religion holds as its core value. Consider the nuns - those who are regarded as unequivocally good and moral within your religion - are the ones who are required to take a vow of poverty and give up their worldly possessions.
The simple truth is, the greater the damage to oneself, the greater the "detriment to yourself and your standard of living", the more that person is regarded as the symbol of "good" and "holy". If you don't give away your salary to a bum to buy beer, then you are not being true to your own Christian morality. You are choosing your money and your comfort over your morality. And yes, it is pointless - but then, so is your morality.
(August 5, 2013 at 8:22 am)Consilius Wrote: In a murder, the loss of my life won't save anyone else's. I'd be giving all I have to get someone else something less valuable.
Less valuable to whom? For the murderer, your life is of lesser value than your money - soon to be his money. And he might end up using that money to feed his starving children, so you giving your life would save someone else. But that's irrelevant. If you believe self-sacrifice to be good then you have to put yourself, your life and your possessions below anyone else's benefit.
(August 5, 2013 at 8:22 am)Consilius Wrote: As for 'giving as much as you'll get back', there are a lot of people in the world who need more than they can ever give back. Humanity can't GROW if we don't ADD anything to it.
In order to make the humanity grow and to add to it, you have to do the opposite - make sure what you've given gives you greater return. Its a simple economic principle - if I give a certain amount and get back lesser amount, then I'm working at a loss. If I keep doing it, then pretty soon I'd be bankrupt. And if I keep taking more than I give back then that difference is lost to humanity. And if more and more people do it, more and more would be lost to us. Doing the reverse - giving with expectation of greater return and taking with a promise of greater return - is how humanity grows and adds to itself.
