There are only two things on earth that make since: Either you believe in God and eternal reward and punishment, or you live to soak up as much pleasure you can in the short breath of a life that you have. No other explanation seems logical to me. Those who don’t believe in God live for themselves and the pleasure they can get now. Lets eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. This philosophy is very logical if life is only an accident. Now some of these people attempt to be charitable, but most of the time it is still for their pleasure. They like the feeling of helping others, or the accolades that come along with it. And if helping others turns to be detrimental to them, then they are quick to abandon any help towards others to help themselves.
I must admit that, although a christian, I live mostly by this philosophy. I’m ashamed of it. Some would say that I should not be ashamed of it, for it is normal – a man must look after himself before he can look after others. But that’s not true in the christians case. We look out for others and God looks out for us. When we truly learn to trust God we can come to the place were we forget about ourselves and our needs. We don’t need to think or worry about them. We have an Almighty Heavenly Father who has sworn to meet all of our needs if we will seek first the Kingdom of Heaven.
So in my life I must learn to truly care for others, even if the benefit might not come to me. This caring must manifest itself in self sacrifice and hard work. In life it may not bring good reward, but in heaven it certainly will.
But none of this would make sense without a knowledge of God. Not just because of a lack of a heavenly reward, but because of the vanity of your pursuits. Why help someone live a better day when that day soon ends and never returns? Because it is better then it would have been otherwise? Maybe.
Hal Chaffee 