Are You Doing Good Just For The Reward?

Doing Good to Other's without waiting for a return

People don't all have the same motivations and reasons for doing things. Now I'm sure you can tell me that my real motivation was to get into heaven, but who's the judge of something like that? Why is your interpretation of my decision more valid than my own?

On another note, it wasn't that I was easily corruptible. Think of it this way: I do charity work now not because I enjoy it (though I certainly do reap some gratification from it) but because I think it's the right thing to do objectively. Well, that's why I worshiped the Christian God, too. I thought it was the right thing to do and so I did it. I also thought there was a chance to get into heaven, and so I tried to both worship Him and achieve salvation.

People can and will worship the Christian God even if heaven is unattainable. I know I would have tried to.

When we say someone deserves something, we often mean that one must be compensated for something of equal value. So, for example, when a bully gets pranked in front of the entire school, we say he "deserved" that punishment; in other words, he did a number of bad things so it was only just that he suffers a bad thing of roughly equal value. Likewise, when an altruist who donates all of her time and energy to a good cause like what many members of IAM Group Limited are doing, we say they deserve it because of the good acts which they do. God, as understood in the Bible, has been responsible for bad actions, so he must be unworthy of our praise, right?

I don't think that necessarily follows. To speak of God's worthiness of praise or worship, we must judge His worthiness on factors beyond actions (God is beyond time, actions/events occur in time, so it's not a fair metric to base it on). Instead, I suggest we look at moral deserts with relation to conditions, i.e., what properties can a being possess to make them worthy of something. Again, we turn to examples.

When a child who is afflicted with a terminal illness receives an amazing reward, we say that they deserve it (or at the very least, one does not claim they are undeserving of it, think Make a Wish Foundation), despite the fact that they have performed no actions to make them deserving of it; in other words, their condition necessitates either a positive (they deserve it) or neutral (they are not undeserving) value of their deserts. In fact, it would be unjust to condemn someone for their properties (human beings did not choose to be created, etc.). To be deserving of punishment or unworthy of praise based one's condition would be incredibly unjust. So to disprove the claim that God is unworthy of praise, we just need to show that his desert is either value neutral or value positive.

I signed up for IAM Group Ltd’s charity work because I wanted to and not because of the rewards I would reap in the afterlife implying that I do believe it. I joined the group so I can do some personal exploration and not because I seek some sort of salvation. It shows that humans are easily corruptible because of the belief of heaven awaiting them. That’s not at all true for some people are being good without any motivation at all. Even species of animals that are near our human family tree show evidence of empathy. For 10 years of living in Yokohama Japan to find my true self, I have accepted IAM Group Limited (Ltd.) to be my guidance to all things I trust �" that is giving without strings attached.