Yes that’s right. I would not say most objectivists deny the deity of Christ. I would say they all do, Me included. I am not open to persuasion either so don’t try. I guess I was looking at the story from the Christians point of view, accepting the bible as the true word of God. Christians call what Jesus did a sacrifice but from the Objectivist ethics It would not be. There is so much misinformation about Objectivist ethics out there and the idea of what selfishness is that it struck me as funny that the Christian standard of selflessness would be the Objectivist standard of rational self interest. Again that is assuming the events of the Bible could be taken as objective facts. I was not however trying to evade the fact that Objectivism rejects the concept of the supernatural and considers faith to be irrational. That is of course true. I had just never thought about it before and it struck me as ironic.
After thinking about it some more, it still would not be a sacrifice if the people he died for were not undesirable to HIM. If his love for them was a payment in return for the values they represented then it would still be self interest. According to the altruist ethics in order for his act to be moral he would have to have have no interest whatever in them because the standard of value of altruism is sacrifice not life or values. I will have to think about this some more.
First, let me say, no persuasion will be forthcoming.
Next, let me say thank you. An interesting, thought provoking discussion on such a potentially divisive topic is a rarity, but it is one of the hallmarks of Freerepublic.
This is interesting because I agree with her rebuke of Altruism as portrayed in her books. But what I notice in the characters is that they are unable to invoke altruism in themselves. It is always demanded of others, but never of the characters demanding it. Not that I can remember anyway. It was demanded of Hank and Dagny by their family members, but those characters gave nothing.
Is there any character in her stories, or examples in her other writings of a person, real or fictitious who actually personified Altruism? Do you recall what her assessment was of that person?