There's probably no God

[Haunted]

Essentially, I think Haunted's stance on ignoring the mental/abstract aspects of selfish/good/whatever conundrum is a fine method. But I suspect it's not entirely accurate to be ignoring it. (But then, as also mentioned, I'm no professional mind-studier, the longer term good/bad effects there could be quite intriguing, if they could be studied)

Not so much ignore as consider "not important".

[RedCelt69]

Sorry to haul this thread back from the brink of oblivion but I was expecting to be absolutely slapped down by RedCelt/Frank there and nothing happened! Why not? Come on people, I want to be told why I'm wrong - that is the main reason to post on here after all

Well, I was a bit taken aback by your post starting with "SHUT THE FUCK UP." and, not knowing who it was directed at, didn't feel overly motivated to take the rest of your post seriously.

<shrug>

I think that the subject has been pretty much exhausted. I could be wrong.

People always act out of selfish motivations. Whether such motivations are marginal or uppermost is a matter of conjecture and basically vary wildly from person to person on a situational basis. The problem seems to be that selfishness is portrayed as an invariably negative trait... when it is quite clearly not the case in many situations. People can do very good things when acting selfishly. They can also do very bad things. I'm repeating a point I'd made previously, but the key factor in whether a selfish act is "good" or "bad" can be found in whether the act is done with consideration to others; loosely-speaking the Golden Rule.

A) Tommy keeps all of the sweeties for himself. He's acting selfishly and without consideration to the other children.
B) Tommy shares the sweeties with his friends. He's acting selfishly (in that his motive, ultimately, is to make and keep those friendships... friendships from which he will benefit) and he is being considerate.

Young children will tend to opt for A until they realise that their greed is self-destructive... at which point, they will tend towards option B.

[Anon.]

Well, I was a bit taken aback by your post starting with "SHUT THE FUCK UP." and, not knowing who it was directed at, didn't feel overly motivated to take the rest of your post seriously.

Oh yes, sorry about that! I had just been pottering through the Sinner and every single thread had had the words WHAT THE FUCK? added and I had got a bit fed up. I had meant to go back and delete it but forgot.

I think that the subject has been pretty much exhausted.

Quite. Thank you for your replies, all

[Hmmmm]

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Trolls trolling xians.