Selfish Morality
Good vs Bad, God vs Devil, Heaven vs Hell, there’s a war inside each of us.
People often struggle to make judgements in their daily life. Actions committed by us or someone else are held accountable in the court of our mind. But the means of our judgement will provide reasons to consider them as either Good or Bad. In the court of mind, people use different methods to judge the actions and that is why we have different outcomes. For instance, hitting on your own child, getting jealous of your boyfriend’s ex, forcing power as an authority, being selfish for the sake of your own happiness and success. Some would agree with these actions, and others will tell you how bad you are.
Religious people believe that I’m bad because I don’t believe in God, Hereafter, and absolute morality. This argument is clearly biased against atheism by traditional believers. Although many theists become good just to be saved from the eternal punishment and advance to heaven. They don’t make their own moral judgements but just pinpoint from their fixed principles provided in their rigid doctrine. This clearly states their lack of sense of goodness, appealing more towards their selfish desire for fulfillment, and their fear of death and punishment that forces and drives them to follow these rules without a single thought of their own. Some religious morals don’t even subside in the category of virtue, rather an attempt to control the behavior of an individual via power of authority for their own benefits. A bad act is a sin but soon as it benefits them, it becomes virtue. Murder and suicide which are both sins, but ones that results in the benefit of their religion or state becomes a virtue like killing a blasphemer or to spread the religion in the name of God. Theft and assault are cruel but raiding territories, looting their households, and forcing them to convert via choice or be slaves is victorious. Rape is terrible but after you sign an agreement of marriage, it becomes a virtue for the woman to let him rape whenever he desires without complaining, sometimes not even the consent of the woman is required for that agreement nor does the matter of her age. Do these moral principles really come from a source of pure goodness known as God or are they written by a male emperor to expand his empire and an attempt towards an unfortunate prosperity? Whatever the source is, one thing is sure that it lacks basic humanity. Sadly, people are forced to follow these rules due to their fear of God’s punishment and their lust for the paradise, yet they have the audacity to criticize the freethinkers.
Goodness is a virtue and regarded so valuable as in human qualities since it often does not reward the performer. Though there might be benefits one can get by being good, but being good for the sake of the benefits is not being good rather selfish. To commit a good act, one has to be willing to sacrifice himself, his money, ego, relation, time, reputation, or even health sometimes. This selfless desire for the wellbeing of someone else without expecting any realistic or delusional (Heaven or Karma) reward in return is the literal essence of true altruism. A religious or superstitious person can never be truly altruistic or good, but they can commit good acts written in their books to collect as many virtues possible to be a passenger of heaven. Despite various humans desiring to help each other, only the altruistic ones are the true heroes for they act without praise, invest without return, and sacrifice without commitment. I’m not claiming that religious goodness is bad but rather forced upon believers. To become good is a choice not an obligation for every human being. Without any reward or punishment, there should be a reason that motivates them to do good.
There is no force, no light, no energy, residing inside a human compelling them to be good either. Goodness is not supernatural and does not exist on its own. “Good” is a term that defines an act committed solely for the sake of someone else without expecting any benefit in return. Even when sometimes that action harms you yourself. What can be the reason to be good for a rational non-religious person?
To be automatically considered bad for not being religious is reason enough to be good to prove them. But wouldn’t it then be an act committed through forceful judgement of theistic persuaders?
A good enough reason is to spread love and joy among each other's, to help people in need, and to make a utopian society. But do we have to become good because we are condemned to live in society?
Another reason people commit good acts is out of guilt, shame or regret. And to compensate to their previous actions, they commit good acts. Are they doing good because they think they are too bad? or because that they did bad, but they think they are good?
A force that turns us selfless to care about the wellbeing of others is love. The force that can alter a person’s perception of reality and make him fully content within himself and altruistic towards others. Though must he be content in the affairs of love and joy to believe that the world and life is beautiful. But is he truly good if acting under the influence of a powerful emotion?
Pure altruistic goodness does not demand a reason. Doing good things just for doing good things, being a good person just to become a good person. Need must there be to control our desires, self-centered thoughts, and eliminate biased beliefs and prejudice. One must be forgiving and self-sacrificial. One must prioritize others more than their own self by lifting focus from themself and shifting towards others. We must learn to become a super empath: to live among others being attentive to detail, be happy in their happiness and be the cause of it, feel pain in theirs to mitigate or eliminate it. Only then does he become the pure source of goodness; only then does he truly deserve the title of GOOD.
