Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. – Philippians 2:4

That is the kind of advice from the Bible that sounds good but is off the mark; we should look to our own interests. Sounds selfish, right? I believe we should be selfish PROVIDED WE UNDERSTAND WHAT IS IN OUR BEST INTEREST.

Have you ever unselfishly helped someone out? There is the classic helping an old lady across the street; changing a tire for a stranger; helped someone reach something in a store; held a door open for a stranger; given a stranger change for a parking meter; etc. Think about some kindness you have offered without expectation of any return. How did it make you feel?

I have no idea how helping another might make YOU feel but it makes me feel good, so good that I am usually on the lookout for ways I can do another a kindness.

Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, for it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. – Luke 18:22-25

Living frugally and giving is not bad advice but doing it to get into Heaven saps the joy out of it. If you have given money to a cause you believed in, especially given more than you thought you could afford, you expected nothing in return other than thanks and a good feeling of having done something good. Giving anonymously actually intensifies the good feeling conversely if you give with an expectation of a return, the good feeling is dulled. Bequests are the greatest source of wealth for religions—people giving their wealth with the hope of getting into heaven. If only they had given their wealth to a good cause anonymously while they were alive, they would have realized the benefit, here in this life.

After satisfactorily proving his own existence Descartes  went on to try to prove God’s.

I recognize that it would be impossible for me to exist with the kind of nature I have–that is, having within me the idea of God–were it not the case that God really existed. By ‘God’ I mean the very being the idea of whom is within me, that is, the possessor of all the perfections which I cannot grasp, but can somehow reach in my thought, who is subject to no defects whatsoever. [Meditation III, paragraph 38]

Descartes says that his existence includes the perception of a perfect God and that the perception was not learned but came directly from God. When God made Descartes he programmed him with a belief in a perfect being. I accept his perception that his understanding of God was implanted in his existence. How could I possible challenge it? If he were alive, we could discuss the difference in our perceptions. However, it is unlikely that either of us would be changed. Anyway, he’s dead.

I believe that my knowledge and understanding of God comes from things that have shaped me since my birth. I joined a church, went to Sunday school, listened to sermons, read the Bible, read many books that expressed ideas concerning God and have listened to many people express their understanding of God. I classify the experiences in the previous sentence as second-hand or coming from others of my species in this perception that I recognize as my life. I have also experienced blazingly colorful sunsets, towering mountains, the ocean’s roar and power, the tinkling sound of a rill in a brook, a baby’s grip, the smoothness of a thigh, and the explosion of flavor released by a vine-ripened tomato. I classify these experiences as first-hand and not coming from others of my species. To which should I give more credence in my search for an understanding of a god?

Is there a God and, if so, what is the nature of God? I exist and I perceive this thing that I call my life and everything contained in it. I don’t know anything beyond that. I don’t perceive through first-hand knowledge anything beyond that. The notions of things outside my perception that I call my life come from others–notions of life after death, reincarnation, heaven, hell, a supreme being watching over me.

One of those notions is the big bang theory of how the universe came to be. That is based on scientists’ perception as they study the universe that everything in the universe is moving away from everything else at a rapid speed. They determine this by the color of light they can see and an understanding that the color is a wave and that changing the wave length will change the light. Light moving away from the perceiver will be different from light moving toward the perceiver because the wave lengths are elongated or compressed respectively. I have not directly observed this phenomenon but I am willing to accept it from the things I have read. All the scientists know is what they are observing, the color of the light coming through space. They believe the color indicates that everything in space is moving away from us. From that they have formed the theory that the universe is exploding.

Our sun was a bit in the explosion. It got spinning around and some chunks were thrown off forming our solar system. Our planet cooled down and as it cooled life came into being. Single celled life that evolved into life as we know it on Earth today.

If you buy that, as to how we came to be, you are still left with how did the material form that was involved in the big bang? I am not aware of any scientific theory answering that question. It is an interesting question to ponder and questioning the big bang theory and evolution are also worthwhile stimulus for thought. However, it seems unlikely that I will ever, within this life, come to an assurance of how the world came into being. Even if science came to a reasonable answer…  Well, I can’t imagine such a thing so I can’t finish that sentence. I like the ancient explanation that the world rides on the back of a giant elephant and the elephant stand on the back of a giant turtle. When asked what the turtle stands on the subject was changed.

Rather than search for something for the turtle to stand on or anything in between I am content to credit “God”. What is God? My creator. What am I? A thinking being that perceives what I call my life which includes everything within my perception. Please don’t add any frills or extras to “my creator”. I have no notion what kind of an entity “my creator” might be—if I was created in its image, if it is a committee, a blob, a vapor or something totally inconceivable.

French philosopher Blaise Pascal wagered “that one would be wise to believe in God, since in the end the believer would lose nothing, unbelievers everything, if proved wrong.” Assuming that the God he was talking about is the God of the Bible I argue the opposite. If one leads a life based on a certain belief and that belief goes counter to the way one might otherwise lead his or her life, it could be a wasted life.

What if the purpose of life were pleasure? What if a successful life were measured in sexual intercourse? Picture the Pope arriving at the Pearly Gates expecting to be welcomed warmly but St. Peter says, “Man, you really messed up.”

Pope: What!? I led an exemplary life. I helped people. I was their moral leader. I guided millions of people to do right.

St. Peter: Yeah, you did some good things but you failed sexually.

Pope (hangs his head sheepishly): Oh, God, I didn’t masturbate that much. Forgive me.

St. Peter: I’m not God.

Pope: Sorry.

St. Peter: You misused your God-given body.

Pope: I’m sorry. I fought it all the time but it felt so good and I was weak.

St. Peter: It felt good? Where did that feeling come from?

Pope: The devil?

St. Peter: Did the devil give you your body?

Pope: No.

St. Peter: No. God gave you your body with all the senses. God gave you your erections. You denied yourself one of the greatest features of your God-given body. What did you think when, at the height of your pleasure you gasped, “Oh God”? Did you think this was blasphemy? Did it never occur to you that this was when you were closest to God, closest to paradise? You can come on in if you want to but I suggest you take another life and try again.

This is just a whimsical tale to illustrate a different point of view. Where did the notion come from that celibacy was a good idea? Certainly not from thinking that our bodies were God-given. Who would want to take away pleasures of the flesh? Certainly not the giver of those pleasures.

We are all different so I don’t want to suggest that someone who does not get pleasure from sex should seek it out against his or her senses. If I am to believe the religious people who wonder what keeps nonbelievers from committing crimes, then I most emphatically say that those people should hold onto their belief that they will go to hell if they don’t follow the Bible. We are all different so I cannot say that anyone else has a moral compass built into their being. Personally I would not consider a sexual pleasure other than with a consenting adult or onanisticly. Anyone who does not have those moral constraints built into their psyche or soul should, by all means, hang onto whatever moral rule or law or commandment keeps them from violating another.

If our belief causes us to live out life in a way different than we otherwise would, then Pascal is in error when he says we have nothing to lose by believing.