Heaven precludes genuine charity

From Religions Wiki

If there is an omnipotent and perfectly just God and an everlasting reward, there is no reason to act morally except to secure one's own well-being in the afterlife, i.e. loving your brother can only be a rational means to one's own ends not the well-being of one's brother.

"Principle of 'Christian love': it insists upon being well paid in the end. [...] Ye want to be paid besides, ye virtuous ones! Ye want reward for virtue, and heaven for earth, and eternity for your to-day? [...] Ah! this is my sorrow: into the basis of things have reward and punishment been insinuated—and now even into the basis of your souls, ye virtuous ones!"

Friedrich Nietzsche

Premises[edit]

  1. If all else being equal my actions cause you to forego a good I have wronged you.
  2. Heaven is a good that outweighs all Earthly goods.
  3. In a perfectly just world, any wrong done to a person that can be compensated will be compensated.
  4. God desires a perfectly just world.
  5. God is omnipotent, therefore capable of compensating any wrong.

Argument[edit]

  1. If my actions caused you to forego Heaven (for example by convincing you to reject God or seeing that you die before repenting) you would be wronged. (Premises 1, 2)
  2. God desires to compensate any wrong. (Premises 3, 4)
  3. God would compensate you for that wrong. (Premise 5, Argument 2)
  4. No action of mine can deny you a good that makes all others trivial or otherwise affect your ultimate well-being. (Arguments 1, 3)
  5. No action of mine can deny you Heaven or otherwise affect your ultimate well-being. (Permise 2, Argument 4)

Therefore, my actions are irrelevant to your ultimate well-being (Argument 5) assuming a just God and an eternal reward (Premises 1-5).

See also[edit]