about good deeds

[mr_j]

we haven't head a mind shattering argument in a long while
and this is going to be one of them I promise

ok so most people do good deeds (اعمال خير) and I am sure most of you guys have did good to some people in sometime during your life

question is why do you do good deeds?
answers are going to be discussed
most of you(christians and muslims) will say because God asked us. tab if God didn't ask for helping others, would you have still done it?

others will say because it feels good. for those I will discuss, does that mean you help others just because it gives you a certain feeling of satisfaction? wouldn't this be a sign that humans are selfish and even when helping others, they do so because it benefits them? when you help someone you love, isn't it because you are selfish? you want them to love you back or to keep on loving, you find interest is doing whatever sacrifice it is that you did. would you have done the same sacrifice for someone you knew he was not going to be grateful and was going to stab you in the back?

share with us

[SysTaMatIcS]

I love helping others , and yeh it gives me this feeling of satisfaction and appreciation , i mean the kid who has broken legs who was in the cinema with his mom , underground , i helped him with his mom to get him above to the street through a long stairs , hearing the word thank you from the mother and the little kid , meant the world to me . that i made him and her feel better , and that there is still some good people in this world .

BUT still if i ddnt hear a thank you from them , i wouldv helped them the second time , if i saw em .

[The Cheese]

This reminds me of a certain "friends" episode :P
On a more serious note though,there isn't a human action that is entirely altruistic.Despite the fact that their intentions might
be noble,humans always have a hidden motive that drives them to help others,even if it's done unconsciously.
A person might not expect monetary reward after doing a good deed,but he definitely enjoys the rush and good feelings he experiences after helping others,that's partly why he does it again.
We should keep in mind here that it's normal to feel good after helping others,and it's not a harmful type of selfishness because being selfish means caring about nothing and no one besides one's personal interest,and that's not the case here.Also there's no harm done and both sides benifit from the good deed performed .

[mr_j]

ok but sometomes helping others can be mostly for selfish reasons. like when you see that religious people tend to help more than atheist(for example, I don't have evidence on that) this is not a coincidence, religious people like priests and cheikhs believe in going to heaven for this, whereas an atheist does not, so that difference in the size of the help these ones are providing is in my mind related to their self loving cause of going to heaven
masalan

[-t-o-n-y-]

someone helping others is surely for his self-benefit...so he can feel good and etc.....so i think all good deeds are made for selfish reasons....like the love of the mother for her children, i think she do it la bl ekhir they take care of her when she needs them even if she doesn't say so ("inconsciement") ....but as black_ice said this kind of selfishness isn't harmful since there isn't any bad results....

[The Cheese]

It isn't necessary that religious people help out more than atheists because it depends on the person individually,meaning that religious people aren't necessary always "good" people and vice verca.I think it's more of a conscience issue here(feeling good,avoiding guilt that results from not helping...)
About the going to heaven issue,it simply is as follows:"You do good,you go to heaven",so when religious people do good deeds they're doing what they're told to do,and they should know that God knows their true intentions and he's the one who decides who goes to heaven and who doesn't.
Now,if their good deeds do get them into heaven,good for them ,they earned it and they helped someone throughout the whole thing
Since atheists don't even believe in heaven,whatever "reward" they receive after doing the good deed is as important to them as going to heaven is to a religious person,so it's all relative
On another note,even if God didn't ask us to,and even if the person I helped was ungrateful,I'd still do it because of the conscience issue I mentioned earlier