Originally posted by Sue Hindmarsh:
As I?ve said already ? our attachments are deeply rooted in us ? so much so, that we do not have to ?think? before we act. That is why some people do the most horrible things to each other in the name of love, peace and kindness.
For example: a woman tells her husband that she will love him forever, but then meets someone who she finds more attractive, and runs off with him. The husband reminds her that she had said that she would love him forever. She replies that that was then, and this is now.
Armies fighting on different sides of the battle field both feel that they are fighting for what is right.
A man runs into a burning house to save his neighbour, only to perish himself, whilst his neighbour survives. His heroic deed leaves behind a wife and two small children, who end up losing their home and lifestyle because they have lost their sole breadwinner. The neighbour helps out for as long as he can, but he too has a mortgage to pay, and small children to feed and educate.
As we can see, the combination of attachments and circumstances is what comprises our existence. If we did take our lives more seriously and consider our attachments, we would then be able to understand our actions better and thereby deal more wisely with circumstances as they arose.
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Sue
it appears to me you are arguing against yourself. the man that runs into the burning house does not take the time to consider that he will leave his wife and child without a husband and father who brings home the bacon. according to you, he would never go in because of the high possibility that he would leave them without food and shelter.
the wife that leaves her husband after telling him that she loves him, either never did (she lied possibly to herself) or something happen (wife beating husband?) to make her change her feelings for him. what does that have to do with altruism.
the armies fight for what they believe, and what they believe the enemy believes. I once heard a story of a German pow during ww2 who was very depressed. a guard tried to cheer him up saying that the pow might be home by Christmas. the pow was shocked to find out that the people he had been fighting for 5 years believed in Christ, something he had been told only Germans did. a large number of the Nazi soldiers were fighting a holy war to take christianity to the rest of the world. a large number of Japaneses believe that their emperor was from god (or a god) and that he would bring the world to peace. does these facts mean that they were less altruistic than the allies? some of the leaders may have been criminals but the soldiers were not.
