The Gospel of Prosperity

With God, all things are possible.

Everybody knows that the Gospel of Prosperity is heresy, right? God does not promise us material success in this life if we are good Christians. Just the reverse, on the evidence of the Bible: it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, blessed are the poor, God and Mammon, and all that.

I point this out because so few people seem really to believe it.

But it just stands to reason. If doing the right thing were always in our material interest, there would be no moral value in doing the right thing. There is no morality in simply pursuing our self-interest.

Accordingly, for morality to be even possible, it must be the case that doing the right thing fairly often goes against our own interests.

Yes, there is the matter of heaven or hell after death. But that is a necessary hypothesis from the existence of God and of his absolute justice. It does not factor in strongly here because, by the nature of the afterlife, it is behind a curtain. We cannot be sure of either reward or punishment. We are therefore free to do good or do evil, not for reward or to avoid punishment, but because the good is the good.

Please note that this is not an argument to hang or tax the rich. You do that, and you are simply showing you are no better morally than they are, while lacking any talents they might have.