>That's what your religion teaches. Mine teaches that my first responsibility is to care for myself, then for my family, then for my community, and then for the broader world. I am expected to do something to earn a living and I am expected to share what I earn with those who have less. I do all that. I am absolutely not expected to give all my time and effort away for some nebulous eternal rewards.
>
>There's an important Jewish work called "Ethics of the Fathers." One of the best know items in it translates to:
>
>If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
>If I am only for myself, what am I?
>If not now, then when?
>
>Nothing in there about everything being for the greater glory, blah, blah, blah.
>

All along I was wondering if the moral code I was mostly adhering to was only known as gang level when seen in anthropological categories, when I could have claimed Jewish thinking (NOT meant as a snide remark toward your religion or POV - trying to get a "scientific", perhaps disparaging view on my own take of things not shrouded in PC/nice sounding terms is a safety valve for myself...)