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Entry: Hitchens' Hubris Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/hitchens_hubris#2715 Post contents: Tom, thanks again for your reply, but I think you still haven't addressed my point. Did Kolbe act so to gain God's approval? Yes. Did he believe God's approval was valuable to him? Yes: infinitely valuable. His self-abnegation was of his earthly self, he forwent earthly survival and he spoke of his earthly life when he said: "I give my life for the good of all men." According to Christian doctrine, he now has his infinitely valuable reward. "The great saints are motivated by love for others..." If the love is spontaneous, yes, but spontaneous or not, it is always accompanied by the desire to win God's approval. That desire sustains saints in circumstances under which a non-believer could not express love for others. If Kolbe had placed great value on his earthly life and believed it was all he would receive, he would have been acting selflessly. He didn't and wasn't. I'm sure materialists who place great value on earthly life would find it very difficult or impossible to act as Kolbe did, but that's because they don't, by definition, believe in an eternal heavenly reward. And if religion inspires men to sacrifice themselves in a way materialism doesn't, you've got to remember suicide-bombing, which is a "selfless" sacrifice from an earthly point of view. G.S.-- Thanks for your reply too. <i>Ultimately men rather have to be “selfish”, don’t they—since we are after all incarnated as *selves*?</i> Yes, that's my argument. Christianity is not nihilistic like Buddhism, and even in Buddhism, one pursues extinction of the self to escape suffering. So Buddhism's "selflessness" is selfish too. <i>The saint’s foremost purpose is not to glorify himself nor to get bonus points to cash in at the Pearly Gates, but rather to call attention to the One Whom the saint serves.</i> The One Whom the saint serves is the omnipotent Master of the Universe, with the Keys of Heaven and Hell. Serving Him is the rational thing to do for someone who accepts His existence. Evelyn Waugh criticized Graham Greene's <i>Heart of the Matter</i> for its portrayal (as Waugh saw it) of a man willing his own damnation out of love. If that were possible, it would be a supremely selfless sacrifice. Waugh pointed out it was theologically absurd and posited God as a monster. Greene replied that Scrooby (the character) was mad, i.e. irrational. Despite what Hitchens and Dawkins say, Christianity is a supremely rational religion when it's followed right. Sent at: 2008 07 04