I imagine they do what any selfish person would do: find a way to get what they want. If they are bound by religious rules that prevent them from stealing or lying, they’ll figure out a way to manipulate others to get what they want. One popular way among manipulators is to trigger a sense of guilt or obligation, then present as a victim. The victim of the manipulator will do something to address their discomfort. Seeing the manipulator presenting as a victim, the manipulator would likely be the recipient of behaviors meant to relieve the true victim’s emotions.
Example
Manipulator: I have fallen on such horrible times and need things. I’m hoping someone in our religious community listens to the guidance in our religion that directs us to help each other in times of need. Lucky for you, you don’t have to worry about that, right? I’m so happy it’s just me and not someone else. I would be so distraught if you fell on hard times.
Victim: Oh yeah, I’m lucky. Since I’m in such a good position, I will give you things.
Toootally reasonably with a heavy dose of critical thinking, as one may expect
- When people give them money or things: “oh thanks to the god(s)”
- when nothing is given: “there is so much evil in the world”; or “the gods never give us a challenge we can’t overcome”
I think your question makes a lot of assumptions that prevent it from being answered in a meaningful way. Are you asking what a hypothetical person’s religion says that person should do if they’re not given the material help that they ask for?
I am just going to take a wild guess. but I think OP (is that what we call them here?) is asking for people who pray for example to win the lottery and get jack shit in return. And do those people leave their faith or religion or whatever because they were not granted what they asked for. Just my opinion I could be dead wrong but that is for the OP to correct me.
Do you believe a sefish person’s religious affirmations truly alter what their nature inclines them to do?
Yes, but once again I can tell that you’re making some assumptions that are preventing any sort of meaningful conversation.
What do you mean by “selfish person”? Everyone I’ve met is selfish to some degree.
If a person claims to follow a religion, but doesn’t follow that religion’s teachings, are they actually following the religion?
Well like me. As an agnostic. I pray every night for my dad to be let into heaven. Now I don’t know what god to pray to so I usually pray to a piece of paper I have listing so far 17 gods. I think if I pray enough I will meet him in heaven and I say that with the caveat that I want to live my best life and not sin so I can go to heaven and punch god straight in the face for making my dad go thru pancreatic cancer.
I don’t have any wise words to share other than wishing your father recovers. It’s too late for my dad, but if you meet a diety at some point, give him a proper suckerpunch for my dad too.
The long game. I like it.
You and your dad will have earned as much, friend.
Sorry for your dad, but that’s not agnosticism. That’s theism. Just because you’ve not picked which god you believe in doesn’t mean you don’t.
And clearly you believe in heaven and a single god, so monotheism.
I just want my dad to be happy. He was catcholic and as an agnostic I can’t prove or disprove a god exist. But I just want my dad to be out of pain and in a nice place in the afterlife.
It’s a shitty part of life, losing parents. My dad went last summer.
Wishing you strength, friend.
I have to imagine that when you die you get to experience what it feels like to let go of all your pain, and I bet that feels pretty great.
My dad believed in “god” and died of melanoma after it got into his lymphatic system, then to his brain, and finally his spinal fluid.
My step mom recalled a conversation she had with him in the hospital after a 2nd brain surgery where she said she was angry with God and couldn’t believe he would allow this to happen to my dad instead of a worse person. He said something like “it’s fine that this happening to me, I’m already saved. Other people still need more time.”
I’ve never been a big fan of modern christianity since it strays so far from the fundamental teachings of love, but I always admired my dad’s ability to act in a way that aligned with his beliefs about the goodness life.
I really don’t care if there’s an “afterlife” or not. I just hope people can find something in this life that gives them the courage to fight for life but also eventually accept death.
The world is a fucked up place, we’re lucky that we can still find a way to enjoy it in whatever capacity we can.
I will irrationally choose to believe that your dad will find exactly what he’s looking for when he passes.
If you ever want to talk about anything I’m here for you in whatever capacity an internet stranger can be.
Thank you he already passed…the only thing and I think maybe I probably killed him is was he was on hospice and they gave us a shitton of drugs to comfort him. And one day he was asking for a percaset or whatever so I call my mom the other nurse in the family and ask what the hell should I do she says give him a half of one. This is because my dad came from a place where you did not go to the doctor or anything. Hell he once fractured his foot and would take one tylenol a day and that was good enough. But I gave him a whole percaset and figured if he is asking for it I am going to give it to him. He passed right the fuck out and then I don’t know if he was dreaming or hallucinating but the drug did not work. So I took the bottle of morphine and put a couple drops on his tongue. He died that night. When my mom and this is her story that when she told him that we will be fine and there is no shame in giving up the fight. He died five minutes later.
maybe I probably killed him
You didn’t kill him, the cancer did. You were there supporting him.
I was on morphine duty when my grandpa died two years ago and it was rough. I gained a massive respect for hospice workers and the mental fortitude they have in order to work in that environment.
My grandpa had ptsd nightmares from the Korean War his whole life and my biggest fear was that while he was dying he’d be trapped in one of those. I drove myself crazy trying to interpret his twitches and mumbles as some sort of actionable message he was sending.
I stepped outside for a bit and imagined what he would say if he were conscious, and I’m sure it would’ve been something like “Who cares if I’m having a nightmare? Even if I am it’s not your responsibility to fix it. I’ll just ride it out and it’ll be over.” And so I went back in and just sat there quietly, occasionally making remarks or observations, talking about what I might be doing in the next few weeks or months.
I’m really glad your mom got to have that moment. Whether or not he heard her and was responding, I hope the timing gave her some peace.
After my dad died. For about a year I truly thought my mom killed my dad to make him comfortable with drugs. But after I became a nurse we got over it. Still to this day I think to myself even if she did overdose him what strength that would take. They were married for 30 years. I had tremendous respect for her. Now when I see a person where death is coming I sometimes thinking about asking them if they want a drink or joint or get high but never have just the thought is there to let them have the opition to go out peacefully.
Bro if only one of those is real, you don’t need to use all the names. God can see your heart and knows your true intentions, what words you use don’t matter to Them.
I live in Muslim majority thats is impoverished. A large part of islam comes in the form of promises for the after life. when i was still question my faith, a line my mom would use to convince and herself out of doubt was that Western countries who are mainly non-Muslim are rich while Majority Muslim are poor therefore we are the victims and thus are in the right.
Leaving out the fact that alot of Muslims countries are rich then most of the world, it falls into the narrative of this all of being an ultimately test. Add that fact that prayer are really a coin. it means most don’t expect prayers to work im the first
but also depends on what you mean by selfish. i would say my cousin is selfish since he spends most of his parents money on himself with no regard for thier financial situation to point where they have to hid the money from him, yet is more regions than your average Muslim
