Many people ask, “If God is real, why do bad things happen?” Many of the same people may believe that man is basically good. To those who believe this, a logical question would be: “If man is basically good, why do men do bad things?”
I listened to a piece of Dennis Prager’s radio show today that was worth commenting about. He believes that man is neither basically good or basically bad, but is a little bit of both. I differ, in that I believe man is (not just basically) bad by nature. But whether one believes (like Dennis) that man is both bad and good by nature, or (like me) that man is bad by nature, Dennis posed an interesting question:
“Why do people do good things?”
Many called into Dennis’ show and they came up with some interesting answers. I wanted to focus on one that caught my attention.
One man said that all of our motives are selfish. If it makes us feel good to do good things, our motive for doing good things is selfish. If we put faith in God for eternal life, our motive is wanting to be saved, and that is selfish. If I die in the place of someone I love, I want them not to hurt, because of my love for them, so even this is a selfish motive. This isn’t a new idea. William MacIntyre Salter (1853-1931) claimed that morality was no more than a refined version of selfishness.
I had two thoughts on the idea that I wanted to share and get some opinions on.
Thought #1: I would agree with this man’s suggestion that our motives, in the end, always contain an element of selfishness in the way he used the word. Sure. The problem is that he is using the word incorrectly. He is saying any time I have a motive, this motive is what I want personally, thus this motive is selfish. However, selfishness is not defined as being motivated by personal desires, but as being “concerned chiefly or only with yourself and your advantage to the exclusion of others” (WordNet). Using the word correctly, it is erroneous to assume one has selfish motives who finds personal pleasure in the advantage of others.
Thought #2: Even if we were to assert that all actions are based on selfish motives, this would not help the progression of the topic. The question is why people do good things, not why people do any things. If people do everything out of selfish motives, this hasn’t helped us understand why they do good things. Within the sphere of doing things, we make a distinction between good and bad things. So this doesn’t really answer the question that Dennis posed.
Does man (even in his fallen state) continue to maintain a bit of the image of God he was created in? If so, could any good done by man be a result of the retention of the image of God within him?
Good point. I think this is substantiated in Romans 2:14-15:
“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;”