Q&A Religion punishing nothing doers...

On Mar 31, 2007, at 12:52 AM, john cash wrote:

i think in most popular religions theres a possibility of getting punished for doing nothing
but no possibility of getting rewarded doing nothing , am i right?

To which I replied:

Although I cannot claim to be an expert on all the worlds religions, I am the worlds foremost expert on nothing. As such, I would have to say that while there is some possibility of being punished for doing nothing, I think it is much more likely that you would be simply thought little of. Certainly, many religions of various origins would frown upon doing nothing to save someone who was drowning, or doing nothing to help a person in great need.

In these instances, It is a simple matter of knowing that something is right and then not doing it.

However, if someone is offered an opportunity to assist in a bank robbery and they decide to sit on the beach watching people drown, that would be a bit of a toss-up for the majority of religions out there.

You are right about one thing, most religions (as well as most other organizations one might join) would not reward doing nothing. Many, for the simple fact that there is rarely any way of knowing that someone was doing nothing, so even the organizations that would love to reward the doing of nothing have to settle for rewarding the people who do less bad stuff. That isn't so bad for all of us who just love to spend a day doing nothing, because doing nothing is its own reward.

Nothing is more important to me right now than making sure this issue is fully explained to you, so I hope what I already said is good enough.

Xymyl (KON) Stating the obvious and signing out.