Posted on 10/10/2013 6:04:05 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
People seldom do what’s right. They do what’s convenient, then repent. [Robert Zimmerman]
Maybe Robert Zimmerman knows the wrong kind of people.
"As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” Mark 10:17-18
Then I guess I do too.
Isn’t that the same argument as “Jesus did X. Jesus is a good person. Therefore X is good.”? Is it not the christian philosophy that virtue is doing what God does, and sin is doing what the devil does?
That’s too bad. Life is hard enough without being surrounded by people who can’t think beyond what’s easy to what is right.
There are no “basically good people”. No, not one.
“...people who can’t think beyond what’s easy to what is right.”
THOSE people are called ‘children’. Right?
THEY have an excuse for taking the ‘moral shortcut’... it’s the duty of adults to show them the difference.
I have a house full of those, and yes, our goal as parents is to have them grow past, "What's easiest for me?" and learn to ask, "How can I do good for others, right now?"
Yes, but the key thing to note about that is that God only does good, while humans do both evil and good. So if you try to apply the standard that works with God to humans, or you will get flawed results. Garbage in, garbage out.
This. Until a person grasps this truth the actions of the people around them (and often their own actions) will confuse and perplex. Once you realize that people are not basically good, but are actually inclined toward evil, the world will suddenly make sense.
When asked, “What’s wrong with the world?” G.K. Chesterton responded, “I am.”
My observation is that all people follow the “path of least pain”. For some, that path clearly follows the Savior’s example because it would cause the person mental and spiritual anguish to deviate from that goal. For others, the path is what causes the least temporary pain.
Hey, I live in America. Look at what we have elected to lead us and why. Where do you live?
Chesterton is spot-on as usual.
I live in a house, on a street, in a subdivision, in a town, near a church (in North Carolina, fwiw) ... and I meet a lot of people who are exerting themselves to do kind and helpful things for others, when it would be easier not to.
Yes ... concise and inarguable. I believe it was also he who observed that no reasonable person needs more proof of original sin than what he reads in the newspaper.
(You don’t even need a newspaper: just stay in your own house and observe your family, or look in the mirror!)
I’m frequently amazed that people are not worse than they are.
Ask most Americans about salvation and the “good person” heresy comes to the front quite quickly—Catholics often add in something about purgatory.
“I don’t know if Joe believed in Christ, but he was a good person, so God wouldn’t send him to Hell. (He may have to just spend some time in purgatory.)”
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