Time transcripts of Ego_and_Altruism

[00:00:00.00]	I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we are often referred to as Mormons- pop culture reference, I guess.

[00:00:12.01]	My beliefs were challenged in my church probably around the time when I read "Atlas Shrugged" in high school, and "Atlas Shrugged" is by Ayn Rand, who is... the author of the objectionist philosophy, or whatever, belief in material things, which greatly clashed with my own spiritual beliefs and such.

[00:00:40.05]	Before I read that, however, I'd always taken for granted my religion, its uniqueness, and I never really actually read the scripture very much; a little bit here and there so I could get the basic concepts, you know; the stories they'd always tell you, you know, you just picked up on different stuff like that, and that's pretty much what comprised my entire faith.

[00:01:08.09]	My testimony was nonexistent, which is a big part of our church- being able to share a testimony of what you believe in and such, like that. 

[00:01:14.10]	So, I'd never really grown that, and after I'd read "Atlas Shrugged," I was forced to reconsider my own personal values. 

[00:01:26.11]	Ayn Rand believes in the individual having their own personal moral code that they will always abide by, you know, making changes if necessary, but still having a basic moral code that you could decide on before an action happens, and when something does happen you can go back to that moral code to make a decision; something that you know that when you're rational and not being influenced by emotion, you can use to make the more rational choice and everything.

[00:01:56.12]	So, in the novel, in "Atlas Shrugged," there's a character named John Galt, and he is a pure individualist, something that I greatly admired. I had always been taught that concepts like brotherly love, and sacrificing yourself for the multitudes -altruistic things, you know, Jesus Christ sacrificing himself for the sins of the world, were more commendable than, you know, serving yourself and making a place for yourself in the world. 

[00:02:30.13]	But I really, really admired John Galt's character; the other individual self-made Americans that were portrayed in the novel as well.

[00:02:40.14]	And, more specifically, it was this quote here, "I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I'll never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

[00:02:52.17]	And, that's something that I instantly clung to, and something that when faced with what I believed God wanted me to do, or what my faith expected of me. 

[00:03:06.17]	And so I realized that in order to find who I was, I'd have to be able to blend together both these concepts that I thought I believed in, whatever, make my own moral code for myself, you know, to reinforce both concepts because I liked them both, anyway.

[00:03:28.17]	So I did a lot of reading. I started reading more heavily in The Book of Mormon, which is our main text; The Bible, The New Testament, Old Testament. I read "The Fountainhead" and ...uh... other novels by Ayn Rand as well as other books, just defining what philosophy basically is; trying to find my own basic philosophy, and...

[00:04:00.20]	Something that, when I was in that process of doing that really kept me from going anywhere, was, you know, this quote... and I finally had to meld together you know, the two opposing viewpoints into something that was...I'm gonna... I'm going to choose what I'm going to do in this life, for myself. I don't believe in altruism.

[00:04:30.23]	I mean, even Christ himself, what he did wasn't purely altruistic; he knew that he was the Son of God and that he had to do it for the redemption of man, and by doing so, he attained himself full God-hood. I mean, it wasn't purely a selfless act. 

[00:04:46.24]	If you go into "The Tale of Two Cities," Sydney Carton's final act in killing himself, he still got some beneficial moral... beneficial moral boost or whatever; knowing that he sacrificed himself to give Lucy a chance at love with...Stryker.

[00:05:08.26]	And, you know, you can't say that any act that was committed in this world was purely altruistic; there's always one, some benefit that you're obtaining. 

[00:05:22.26]	So...So, I completely scrapped that religious concept, or whatever, and I decided that anything that I would be doing, I'd be doing pretty much for myself, like be it religious, or whatever; going on a mission; teaching the word of God as I believed it- different stuff like that. 

[00:05:46.26]	It would all be ...It'd all be pretty much for my benefit.

[00:05:52.26]	If you go back scripturally, and, you know, look at Parable of the Talents, there's a master who gave his servants different amounts of talents each. The first man received five, the second one two, and the third man one.

[00:06:12.26]	And...In the story, the master went away for a while, and when he came back...before he came back, the servants went out and multiplied their talents; the first two servants did. 

[00:06:26.26]	The first servant multiplied his by two, so he had ten talents, the second by two, he had four talents, and the last servant only one, and he buried his and didn't do anything with them. So he didn't take any risks ,didn't multiply anything, but he didn't lose anything either. 

[00:06:42.26]	When the master returned he commended the two who'd multiplied their talents...who had done something for themselves, and he gave them place in his household, or whatever. And the third servant, who didn't lose anything, but didn't gain anything either, he was banished, pretty much.

[00:07:00.26]	So...I definitely see in religion, there's a pos-, there's a way to blend the idea of self in together with acts of charity and stuff like that, and... but basically, there's no such thing as altruism, as I saw, and that's the best way that I can mend together ideas of my faith with contradicting ideas... that were put here in the world.

[00:07:36.26]	But uh, any other guiding questions? [Um, no, that's all I can think of, and that was very well done.] Okay. [Nicely done. Yay.]