darkbeaver said:
Perhaps it is but we are commanded to be selfish both for good and for bad.
When we give to others it's not thier pain or need we address but our own.
We are 'commanded' but ten things, supposedly. Most of the directives that follow tend to be rather ambiguous. Selfishness is, itself, a highly intellectualized and ritualized form of instinct; we have come to behave selfishly for
wants rather than
needs. Whether these acts are 'good' or 'bad' may not be material to this discussion. That decision stems from whether you regard a heaven as a form of reward or an entitlement to those who have been predominantly 'good.' Some would say that to be selfish is to be good to oneself.
I do not personally believe in some occult or esoteric transference of anything so vague as a "soul." If there is life to our electrochemical essence, after death, it's nice to believe that it will be freed from its corporeal bonds, from the limitations of time and space, and that I can finally get off this frightened and unhappy planet for a while. It's why I've never believed in ghosts, too. I've said to people who asked me, "If you were able to roam the entire universe, then why would you stay
here!?"
