Doing What for what Reasons

Most things in life usually are not this simple but the following makes for a clear illustration where Supernaturalists (religious, spiritists, new age, superstitious ...) fall under compared to naturalists (atheists, materialists, agnostics, anitheists ...).

Four scenarios:

1. Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reasons
2. Doing the Right Thing for the Wrong Reasons
3. Doing the Wrong Thing for the Right Reasons
4. Doing the Wrong Thing for the Wrong Reasons

As an example let's assume you meditate. Great, it's a good thing both for your mind and body. That's doing the Right Thing for yourself, of course assuming you care about yourself. Now, supernaturalists might say they meditate to be close to God, to advance their reincarnations, to elevate their soul, or to open their third eye. They certainly did the Right Thing but for the Wrong Reasons. On the other hand, the reasons for which naturalists might meditate are because they know the beneficial effects it has on the brain / mind, it increases our happiness, mindfulness, or that it works as well as any prescribed anti-depressant drug but without unwanted side effects. In this case the Right Thing was done for the Right Reasons.

Both will get the same benefits from meditation even though they did it for every different reasons. You might ask, does it matter? Yes, it does! It makes a big difference.

You play the lottery? Well let's just assume you do. As a naturalist you might be playing in the hope you can quiet your job and follow your life's calling, provide your family and friends with better lives, or start a non-profit or donate to one. As a supernaturalist you might also be playing the lottery but for very different reasons. You might feel blessed to win, your astrological sign is calling for it, winning is part of God's plan for your life, or maybe you cracked the winning numbers with numerology.

Nevertheless, for whatever reasons you might be playing the lottery, your chances of winning are slim to none, at least not in the amount you would need to make your dreams come true. Hence playing the lottery is the Wrong Thing to do, you are just more likely to get purer not richter and you might do more good by buying food for a homeless person than making the lottery company and some probably undeserving winner rich.

Difference here is that as a naturalist you have the chance to check if you are doing the Right or Wrong Thing for the Right or Wrong Reasons. You can look up the benefits of meditation and check if it can help you and you can do the math what your chances are to win the lottery and be honest with yourself and admit that it is a tax for the stupid. Now what ways does a supernaturalist have to change or refute any of his or her reasons? What can you do when your astrologist tells you that you will win the lottery but you just have to be patient or if you have to meditate because your guru told you it is the path to open your third eye? Well, either you can keep blaming yourself if it doesn't work out or you blame the astrologist, guru, or other supernatural teachings. In the former you will put yourself through a lot of suffering and in the latter case you will have to "jump boat" so to speak and replace one supernatural explanation with a new alternative one, which will fail you just as much.

The differences are clear & the choice is yours.

P.S.: I love all my Super / Naturalists. I'm just sharing my views and how I make sense of the world but let's never forget that we are all sisters and brothers. Namaste