What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Catholic_Lady]

If believing in an afterlife means a person stops caring so much about material possessions and superficial things, and starts looking more out at the big picture verses just selfishly on themselves, then I think this is very positive. Even if it ends up not being true.

Not caring about material possessions and and superficial things does not make one unselfish, and being unselfish isn't mutually exclusive from caring about material things.

 

Oh I agree. I meant them as 2 separate things. Sorry if I was not clear.

For example: I own a car; it's not fancy, but it's not absolutely necessary for me to own it.  However, if I didn't own a car, I couldn't make to it to my SART (sexual assault response team) calls when I get them, and I wouldn't be able to help out the victim.

It's not owning a car that's a problem. Sorry if I made it sound that way. It's *caring* about your car (or any other material possession) more than you should.

Spending a ton of money on a super fancy car you don't need, is inferior to getting a more practical car and using the rest of the money on charity, etc. Likewise, if your car gets scratched, it's a far better response to say "well that really sucks, but a car is a car" verses acting super upset about it and like your world is about to collapse.

Those are just examples, but I think you know what I mean when I say "caring too much" about these things.

Of course, you don't need to believe in afterlife for that, but it can help keep things into perspective in the sense that there is much more than just materialistic things of this life. It is what helps me personally.