Helping People

"Respect: (noun) a feeling of admiring someone or something that is good, valuable, important, etc. " [1] From what you have contended--namely, that you should not have to help your siblings over something petty, i. e. , cutting their hair, if they don't respect you--I must assert that you are not respecting them, because you are not holding them in the esteem that any human should be held in. Thus why should it be that they respect you, if you would not take the time from your life to help them with something, petty or not? You realize, I trust, that you could very well spend more time arguing, and, of course, that if you didn't fight, you might acquisition more respect than you currently have with them. I realize, of course, that this may very well be their fault; it would be exceedingly presumptuous to believe otherwise. However, if one cannot rise above the foolish actions of others, but instead allow themselves to droop to their level, then are they not as at fault as the other? To use a rather clich" schoolyard example: if one boy swears and the other swears back, both are at fault, because their actions are mutually independent of any consequence rendered by the other. Moving on to your counter-argument (instigated by them) against the argument of "you are religious; you religion says do good; thus you must do good. " Really, a convoluted argument if one examines the Bible thoroughly, but for the sake of argument, let us assume--as you seem to imply--that the Bible does state that it is essential to help people. Your counter-argument states that they're cherry-picking and that they too must follow the same rules and regulations, seeing as they are the same religion as you, that being Christian. On cherry-picking: Even if they are cherry-picking, it is very much your duty as a believer in the text to disregard this, because you are obligated to follow the doctrines the text invests upon you; moreover, even if they are manipulating your beliefs, they are justified in doing so because they are your beliefs. They are not telling you what to do based on beliefs; they are telling you what your beliefs are. On their requirement to follow the same rules and regulations as stated in Christianity: On this I agree with you, partially; it is hypocritical of them to simply assert your beliefs on you and disregard their own. However, in not acting upon your beliefs because they will not act upon their own, you too become a hypocrite. Two wrongs do not make a right. Transitioning into helping people you don't know, I think it rather immature--if I may--to insist that it's nice to help people you don't know, but not beneficiary or emotionally rewarding to endeavor in helping your family. I must contend that all people are equally deserving of help, for how is it fair to feed the beggar and not the brother? In this, the beggar has never shown you respect; your brother has disrespected you. Both have given you a total of no respect. So why is it you would help only the beggar? If I may infer so, I believe it is because you have come in astride a pedestal demanding respect be given before help be granted. You are under the grievous misapprehension that respect is a default in regards to it being above the respect given to a human by its own species. In numeral form, you believe everyone get's one respect and you also believe you should get an additional two. You can get this--but only if you help them. Moving on to you prejudice against the regulations of helping someone ("I would rather HELP them if it had something to do with their health, psychology or relationships than just cutting their hair so they think that they look cool or good looking. " [2]), I must point out the fact that in the grander scheme of this (that being of the entire universe), the lives of our greatest humans have retrospectively little impact. Thus it must be that all people help others in everything, because though it changes nothing, it will make us believe that things are getting better. It is perhaps a grand placebo. I think I have contradicted any arguments posed by you to a suffice standard. Moving on to my own arguments . . . Why do you require respect to help people? : It's almost an infantile thing to require respect before you help someone. I mean, if someone is starving to death, do you demand they sing praises of your valor before you help them? Even if your time has more efficient means of allocation, would it not be immoral--even inhumane--not to pause with your life if you benefit another? It seems almost childish that you must needs be recognized for your efforts; does the morality not go along the lines of do not act for reward of notice, but for reward of the knowledge that you helped? What is the worth of respect? : In all reality, what is respect worth? Nothing, except if used in rule. It cannot feed you, nor shelter you, nor provide you with homeostasis. Respect, I have found, is the tingling rendered in the stomach when our self-righteousness (or narcissism, depending on how you view it) is being fed. Respect is abstract, and a bad thing to have, if it means you will demand more before you help someone. Have others every demanded respect of you before you helped them? : Quite simply, is it not passing odd that you demand you be shown respect, yet you--undoubtedly at some point--did not show respect to someone who henceforth proceeded to help you anyway? Their ego was not offended, their morality was not jeopardized; they simply disregarded you act of disrespecting them as unimportant and helped you anyway, not for the reward of respect, but because it was the right thing to do. If you disagree with any of my rebuttals or arguments, please contradict them, and please feel free to post arguments of your own. Glad we could debate! -in truth, TryingAtLogic [1] . http://www.merriam-webster.com... [2] . http://www.debate.org...