Thread: Is Righteousness and Trying To Do Good Pointless?

So I've been having plenty of thoughts lately on my righteous goal. I hear lots of stories from people in my life where they try to do something good and it has unintentional side effects. Also I've always known about the butterfly effect, and everyone should know that every cause has an effect.

What I'm getting at is that even if I set out and only do good I can, unintentionally, do bad, wether I'm aware of it or not.

do you not find that true?

If it is true then would that make righteousness pointless, or when you commit good does it just tip the scales away from bad effects and more toward good ones?

But if it is pointless then does it not matter so much about the effects of the deeds and more on what the deeds make the person doing them feel? more on their own conscious?

Results are out of your hands. As the Baghavad Gita teaches, to a man belongs only his actions and never the fruit of them. Even refusing to act is a type of action, and your very breath influences the world a great deal. All you can ever do is your best, which is a reflection of the knowledge you have.

But as Lao Tzu said, "Yesterday I was clever, so I tried changing the world. Today I am wise so I am changing myself." Right attitude is the core of right action, and not to sound cheesy but if you follow your heart you'll be on the right path.

Righteousness is justified by the fact that by doing good you are making yourself happier and ensuring that in the future you will have friends and happy memories. The good thing about this is that by doing good its a usually a win-win situation. You make yourself happy and the other party. If it eventually causes something bad it doesn't matter because it was only partially your fault and you know that if any gives out to you for doing right then they are the ones who are wrong, not you.
Doing good can be dismissed by many points, like that in this unendless unniverse life actually doesn't have any meaning so your actions don't matter. Or the fact that you are only doing good to make yourslef feel better.
I still think that while we are living why not make the most of it for everyone. In the end whatever your excuse or belief if you do right, more than just yourself will be happy.

It is a tricky one when doing something with good intention leads to a bad outcome. But then again it's often better than doing nothing (or of course, doing something with ill intent).

I'm not great with quotes, but I think this one's pretty apt:
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" - Burkey Boy

two quotes from the bible...


"there is none righteous, no not one"

"all our righteous acts are like filthy rags"

So, even the people claiming to be good are being told by their own book that it doesnt count for shit...There are other reasons for morality other than "doing the right thing".

i don't really think in terms of doing good or bad. i do whatever i feel needs to be done in that situation.

they were many times in my life where i was praised for doing "good" but felt guilty because i just did it to improve upon my self-image or to be accepted by those around me. just like there were many times i was condemned for doing "wrong" but deep down i felt like i did the right thing.

Originally Posted by tropicalbreeze

i do whatever i feel needs to be done in that situation.

But surely what you see as 'being needed to be done' is governed by what you think is 'right'.

Originally Posted by moSh

But surely what you see as 'being needed to be done' is governed by what you think is 'right'.

sometimes what i actually do completely contradicts what i think i would or should do.

Originally Posted by tropicalbreeze

sometimes what i actually do completely contradicts what i think i would or should do.

then why do it? contradict your selft

Originally Posted by ZeraCook

then why do it? contradict your selft

because sometimes what i normally think is the right thing to do, may not feel right in a certain situation.

an example would be when they use to have friday night fights in our gym, and i had to go against someone more powerful and stronger than me. the whole time before the match i'm thinking about how i'm going hit him then move around towards his left side and follow up with low kicks. but instead as soon as the bell rang i felt the need to stand in front of him and trade blows. good thing i did that because i ended the fight in round 1.

Are you talking about the whole 'would you kill 1 person to save 1000' thing? Consequentialism I think it's called.

i don't know what your talking about. i'm just trying to explain how sometimes what i normally think is the right thing to do can contradict what i feel i should do in a certain situation.

Originally Posted by tropicalbreeze

sometimes what i actually do completely contradicts what i think i would or should do.

Are you talking about the whole 'would you kill 1 person to save 1000' thing? Consequentialism I think it's called.

Shatter your ideas of good and bad... right and wrong... meaning... all that. It's all equal and up to YOU to decide (for now at least). Do what you feel is good, and what you think you should do in every single given situation, and you're more likely to be happy. Do things that cause guilt or shame or other negative feelings... and you'll be less happy. You're not going to do the "right" thing every single time.... or you wouldn't be human.

welcome to the almighty balancing act

Yeah the bible has alot of fucked up quotes and it doesn't even teach righteousness..

I think righteousness is just acting with the genuine intention of doing what's best for yourself, the people around you, and the whole of humanity. I'm not sure there's a universal "righteous" way, I think it's whatever relatively effective path toward what you figured "best" would be. Clashing and unfortunate circumstances are pretty much inevitable no matter what you do, but I wouldn't say acting out of the intention of doing the most good and improving humanity is pointless at all.

Right yeah I'm with Zera, by 'right thing to do' we're talking about the morally righteous thing to do, rather what will have the best practical outcome.