Originally Posted by Yggdrasil
"+1" meaning you're atheist and so you do charitable things for sake of doing them without expecting an afterlife? I think it's always interesting how people automatically equate the reason someone who is religious and does something charitable is trying to get a second life. I don't think it's always about that for many people, especially in the world we live in now. I'm not Orthodox but I do hold fast in Maimonides' 13 Principals of faith, especially that G-d knows your intentions and thoughts and the reason behind why you do anything:
Who fashioned the hearts of them all, Who comprehends all their actions
-- Pslam 33:15
Atheism is something that is proven to be more prevalent the more educated someone is or thinks they are. I find the exact opposite to be true for me. The more I learn, the more I believe that there is something supremely divine behind it all and the more in awe of G-d I become. Women are actually less like to be atheist than men, Ygg. I'm curious, when did you come to this thought process.
It's a question I don't know the answer to, and don't mind admitting it. And here is why. If life is special, is human life more than animal life? Or less in the case of the medical/religious viewpoint. We would put an animal "out of its misery" whereas a human in similar state who can and does actually ask to be put out of his misery is denied this final service on the grounds that human life is special, god given, whatever your flavour of religion states, for make no mistake it is the sway of religion that ultimately denies the terminally sick person his only relief. You can never "save life", all you can do is postpone death. Humanists generally have no such bias. As the play says "Whose life is it anyway?".
Anyhow I'm relieved I have your permission to excercise my free will
The point? I'm less sure about that. Giving per se is not the point, as someone said much earlier in this thread the point is making a difference. One hell of a lot of charities actually do not accomplish this.
Free will and knowledge, the cornerstones of Judaic faith. Rock out with your clock out, Brightlight!
Putting human life into the same category as animal life is saying that we are no better than the animals over which we were given dominion. Are we no better than an animal, in your estimation?
And as for killing one's self, that's a personal choice. One that anyone who wants to should be allowed to exercise. What you CANNOT do is ask someone else, who can't or doesn't want to, to do it for you.
I'll get you, my pretty! And your little watch, too!
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