Originally Posted by frostwolf ex
I am a little concerned with yoru operational definitons here. I have always understoood the term "Perfection" to be a pure ideal when dealing with physical things. All things degrade to entropy and all matter changes forms, so i think perfection refers more to a full (and physically impossible for normal things) state of pure, undiminished function uncompromised with any flaws or wasted energy. So for me perfection is more of a mechanical term than a term referring to any act, selfless or not.
Second, i am confused with your use of the term selfless in regards to perfection, why would such an act be perfect? because it is a pure act of altruism, I would be inclined to say that first of all, all of our actions are not just motivated by cognitive states, but by what we are conditioned to do. So guessing the motivation of the behavior is presumptuous, they may have had nothign to gain, but prior conditioning may be what affected how the person reacted, so the act was not inherently pure. Second, selfless and selfish are dangerous words because they carry a value judgement, selfish is inherently negative, and it assumes that a person has time to weigh all the possible outcomes,and choose one that rewards them more than another course of action. "Faith" in this case serves as another layer of conditioning, so while the behavior of jumping in front of a bullet, or saving a child form a burning building, or whatever, but i would say your person who did the act without the benefit of religious faith, did so because of another form of conditioning,and as such their act equates(on your reckoning) that of the person with faith. Both actions are motivated by how a person gets themselves through the day, its just a question of what conditioned them to act.
