By Ande Jacobson
I’ve long held that it doesn’t take faith for somebody to be good, or more to the point, to be a good person. What exactly is a good person though? Realistically a good person is one who treats others with respect and who sees beyond their own nose striving to do what they can for the greater good. This isn’t about politics. It’s about science, philosophy, and survival.
I’m reminded of a conversation with a friend many years ago. He was raised in the Catholic tradition, but as an adult he no longer practiced and claimed to be agnostic with respect to his belief. Still, he couldn’t escape a certain amount of fear that was instilled in him during childhood. I was explaining some of the differences between Christianity in general and Judaism. Judaism, aside from not centering on Jesus, lacks any afterlife and by extension the concept of heaven and hell. He was stunned. He wanted to know why somebody would be good if there was no threat of being sent to hell if they weren’t. He had no concept of the need for the greater good other than as a defense against eternal damnation. I guess he wasn’t quite as agnostic as he thought.
I’ve written numerous essays in the past exploring various disturbing aspects of religion such as its propensity to cause great harm when taken to the extreme regardless of the particular faith. I’ve touched on the fact that various religions often encourage their adherents to focus more on some otherworldly reward rather than paying attention to their current life’s reality thereby denying their own mortality. Throughout history, religion has been used by some unscrupulous individuals as a cudgel for personal gain and control over others. In the process, these nefarious individuals seek to artificially stratify humanity into “us” and “them” based on adherence to a restrictive and exclusive worldview. Religion also often forces its adherents into servitude to some being whose existence cannot be proven and to adhere to a strict patriarchal worldview justified to appease this unprovable force which causes others undue suffering and oppression. Further, religion can coerce its adherents to avoid personal accountability by blaming their unprovable force for anything that goes wrong.
Beyond religion, I’ve also written about humans being but one species within the Animal Kingdom whose long term survival depends on cooperation. Our place in the Animal Kingdom is not conjecture but is supported by science. Trying to elevate even some humans above that place is grossly egocentric and unrealistic. As a species, humans are vulnerable as individuals. Compared to other predators, even the largest humans are small and weak in comparison. Without external devices and tools, humans would quickly perish on their own. We are a communal species and need to build on each other’s strengths to survive. The adage that it takes a village to raise a child is true but incomplete. In the modern world, it takes a global community to survive long term. The planet has limited resources, and through our actions, we’ve put our continued survival at risk unless we work together to repair the damage we have caused and help one another.
But what does this all have to do with being good, and does one’s motivation for so doing matter? A friend recently suggested that if the end result is that a person works for the greater good, it doesn’t matter if they do so out of fear of retribution, because they believe that their God expects it of them, or are devoid of faith and do so because they think that from a scientific point of view working for the greater good is good for everyone and improves everyone’s quality of life. According to my friend, the end result is the same. Such a person in any of those situations working for the greater good is a positive influence on the world at large.
From the perspective of sustained work for the greater good, motivation does matter. If someone is good only because they fear some otherworldly retribution if they aren’t, they aren’t motivated by the world around them, i.e., reality. They are motivated solely by something which cannot be proven and are susceptible to being guided by a strong narrative that may not be based in reality. That narrative could change, or worse, their religious view could be corrupted and taken to a fundamentalist extreme which could in turn pervert their efforts toward destructive behavior overall rather than working for the common good.
Likewise, a person who is good because they believe that their unprovable force (or God) expects them to be so could fall under the spell of a strong, fundamentalist influence and inadvertently work against the greater good thinking that they are fulfilling their God’s expectations.
Somebody without faith working toward the greater good would be more data driven and reality based. Their behavior could also change, but generally speaking it’s more likely only if the data were to show different actions were necessary. The thing is that even viewing the greater good through the lens of enlightened self-interest would push somebody toward continuing efforts to help the greater good because from a data driven perspective, by helping everyone, they are also improving their own quality of life.
How does serving the greater good help everyone? Consider the following examples.
With respect to healthcare it benefits everyone if nobody has to struggle to get the care they need. Diseases don’t care how much money somebody has or what position in society they may occupy. Diseases only seek warm bodies to infect so they can multiply. Helping to prevent diseases through vaccination and when encountered, treating them promptly protects everyone because it decreases everyone’s risk of falling ill. Further, ensuring that everyone can get the care they need improves the overall quality of life for everyone and allows the population to be more productive overall. In this, the society is more likely to thrive.
Another situation where serving the greater good helps everyone is making sure that nobody has to struggle for the essentials in life such as food, water, shelter, clothing, and access to the basic infrastructure and education needed to function in the society in which one lives. When people don’t have to struggle for the essentials, there is statistically far lower crime making it safer for everyone. Not having to struggle for the essentials also improves the overall quality of life and again allows the population to be more productive which helps a society thrive.
None of this means that there won’t always be some subset of individuals who are out for themselves at the expense of those around them, but the more the greater good is served, the less impact the outliers have on everyone else.
As I’ve mentioned in previous essays, I do not believe in any God or gods. I trust science to understand the world around me. Science is both a methodology for understanding the physical world and is also a growing body of knowledge that evolves as more is understood. It is not static unlike religious doctrine which is based on an unchanging conjecture written by men in ancient times reflective of the time in which it was written. In this way, particularly if taken literally or in a fundamentalist sense, religion can stop thinking and encourage blind acceptance without evidence. That is what faith is after all, belief without proof. As a follower of science and an engineer, I understand that I cannot prove conclusively the existence or non-existence of something as ethereal as any god(s) that cannot be sensed or measured in any way we currently understand. Still, it seems that our survival as a species is dependent on our adapting to the real world around us rather than one that may or may not exist. Part of that adaptation is to cooperate on a greater scale than has yet been possible.
The human habitat includes the entire planet. It is changing largely due to humankind’s influence, and as resources on which we rely become scarce, more, not less cooperation is necessary for our continued survival. Being good is part of that cooperation. Being good improves everyone’s quality of life. It’s healthier for ourselves, for those around us, and for the planet as a whole if we are good. We have but one planet, and if we destroy it beyond repair, that dooms us all. Serving the greater good helps to stave off that eventuality.
A Good Reed Review 