Eying the Prize

Trey Smith

The solutions, then, must be multifold: poverty alleviation; better mental health care with a focus on suicide prevention and depression treatment, not the stigmatization of the mentally ill, who are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators; and yes, gun control to make it more difficult for a firearm to be such an easily-accessed weapon.

To most people who believe in evidence-based policy and sociological realities, those solutions make sense. But to people who have no interest in actually finding solutions or making the world a better, safer, happier place, it's like talking to a brick wall. Why improve life on earth if life on earth is temporary and all that matters is to secure a seat in the clouds?
~ from The Conservative Philosophy of Tragedy: Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People by Jill Filipovic ~

One of my major critiques with fundamental Christianity is that it encourages people to allow injustice within their midst by not fighting against it. The unwashed masses are taught to suffer peaceably (or to fight SOLELY amongst themselves) and, if they suffer enough in this life, they will be rewarded immensely in the afterlife. It seems to me like such an OBVIOUS and convenient ploy to insure that the entrenched "powers that be" will get to enjoy all the material perks of this life with as little interference as possible from the lowly caste.

When your "prize" is off waiting for you in the heavens, why concern yourself with the suffering of others? Why try to prevent the rich from looting you and your neighbors? Why worry that global warming will doom most life on this planet? Why worry about anything other than your own stinking "salvation"?