On Sunday, April 27, 2014, the highly regarded TV program, Sunday Morning, declared a special edition of the secular program with the theme of Life and Death. As a secular program it was presumed to be a special approach in public media, incorporating advertisements of secular business, which focused on the multi-cultural society, to discuss life ending with death, a program that would invariably make reference to God. It would certainly involve claims of overlap between the natural and the supernatural – denials and affirmations, on doubts and probabilities. I reviewed the last half of the program to which the following paragraphs relate, but believe it catches the meaning the program meant to convey. During the first half of the program, I was occupied with other activity so tuned in too late. I regret my loss of that part of a well ordered program that dealt with human experience even if conclusions were only natural ones. Even with the introduction of a generic god, presented as reality, the program offered challenge to discover truth and peace for the person at the point of death. There were some statistics (noting that 82% of persons polled believe in heaven and hell); that the generations unfold, even with a humor piece – about the birth of a grandchild on the same day his mother-in-law died in her sleep and remembered for her joy; but serious with an Asian scientist studying the principles of life in jelly fish where life emerges from the dying fish to a new juvenile; where an eminent author noted in several books the deaths of the persons cited in the story of their lives, lives in which he shared, so driving him to a world concern to do good and relieve human problems with the help of God; and, the meaning of Buddhism with its emphasis on the individual preparing personal life through meditation that leads to acceptance and peace for the participating person.
All of this was in a context of altruism – being good for goodness sake. My recollection during the program was that most atheists I have known or read would have subscribed to nearly everything I heard on the program except for the references to God. Most persons in the conduct of altruism (doing good without personal reward, except the conviction that the right thing has been done) are acting out the best instincts of mankind, instincts that may not relate to personal faith relating to God. I have known atheists whose personal conduct and service to mankind exceeds that of other persons I have known who affirm Christianity. The matter of empathy, love, sacrifice, righteousness, and the like virtues belongs to the whole of the race for choice and practice. They are givens from God in the creation. They remain as choices, with aid from God for consistency. God can make an analogy of me related to the point. I want to help my children and I want to help other persons passing my way. In the one is a life relationship that will never end for me. In the other it is introduced, completed, closed and both persons go on with their lives, perhaps never touching again. Guess which one is lasting, conserved in all that is valued. God assists all persons. He holds immortal relationship with some. It is relationship that we want – forever. God created in us altruism for the good life, and gave to his creation the gift of Christ to transcend earth.
On the same date as the TV program, the newspaper included a report by William Hageman, of the Chicago Tribune, entitled in our local paper as: It pays off to give to others. It deals with some of the meaning of altruism. The article accents the writings of Stefan Klein, especially: The Science of Happiness. Klein believes: that altruism has been crucial to the evolution of mankind, and that it is the way to health and happiness. Faced with the concept that much of life is guided by the laws of the jungle, Klein argued that those laws are eccentricities for complex mankind. Those who act for others are the ones that get ahead, and make people happy. Wealth is a means, not an end. It is altruism that lasts more than wealth. A neighbor may be jealous of wealth seen next to him. He wants to help the neighbor who helps others. Altruism is contagious. It speaks of something inside our selves, as illustrated by the person running in front of a speeding car to rescue a child, or the soldier who gives his life to save the buddy beside him. There is no time for thought. There is something inside the person that causes heroic acts and that without thought of reward. True, but altruism does not assure divine relationship. Godliness has no substitute. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020