TruthBook Religious News Blog

February 9, 2008

By Cary McMullen

To give credit where credit is due, Stephen Post attributes his scholarly work on altruism and the widespread recognition it has garnered to a simple bit of advice from his Irish mother. Whenever he was bored or morose as a kid, she would tell him, "Stevie, why don't you go out and do something for someone," Post told an audience at Florida Southern College on Friday.

Post is professor of bioethics, philosophy and religion at the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and the author of "Why Good Things Happen to Good People." He delivered the keynote lecture at the annual meeting of the Florida Center for Science and Religion at FSC, which was devoted to the topic "Angels and Devils: The Theory and Praxis of Good and Evil in Science and Religion."

In a lecture that was by turns intellectual, inspirational and humorous, Post marshalled a host of data from scientific studies to support his thesis that unselfish actions toward others have mental and physical health benefits. Or, as Post put it, "It's good to be good, and science says so."

Post cited one study in which a researcher followed people who had high indications of anger on a psychological profile test. Their mortality rate by age 50 was 20 percent. For those in the lowest quartile of indications of anger, the mortality rate was 2 percent, he said.

Post was tapped by British-American philanthropist Sir John Templeton several years ago to found the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, which facilitates studies on the interface of science, health and love. Post devoted a good bit of his lecture to questions of happiness and love. The key to happiness, he said, lies in practicing altruistic virtues, such as helping others and practicing forgiveness. Noble purposes and actions yield more enjoyment of life, he said.

"I believe even in the deserts of life, if you plant a rose and stick with love, in the long run you're going to be better off and be blessed for your efforts," he said.

Responding to a question, Post said people should not pursue altruism just so they can be healthier.

"If you're getting into religion for self-benefit, that would be inauthentic. All science can give us is statistics, not promises. We 'do unto others' because they're deserving of it," he said.

Post called the late 20th-century "an intellectual hellhole" because of ideas that cast suspicion on notions of unselfishness. He mentioned existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre and biologist Richard Dawkins, author of "The Selfish Gene" and one of several recent writers who have written harsh critiques of belief in God. Attributing the moral category of selfishness to the biochemical process of reproduction was "ridiculous," he said.

"In our contemporary society, for a lot of people, the gene has taken the place of the soul. If you want to know your ultimate essence and destiny and nature, it's your genotype, baby. ... So don't get to be feeling too genuine about yourself," Post said, describing Dawkins' views.

Labels: altruism, Cary McMullen, happiness, health, Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, Stephen Post