New at The Best Schools (II)

Interesting comment from article on pathological altruism: “Empathy,” Oakley notes, “is not a uniformly positive attribute. It is associated with emotional contagion; hindsight bias; motivated reasoning; caring only for those we like or who comprise our in-group (parochial altruism); jumping to conclusions; and inappropriate feelings of guilt in noncooperators who refuse to follow orders to hurt others.” It also can produce bad public policy. Empathy is an important trait to cultivate, as it goes farther than sympathy, for in empathy we put ourselves in another person's place and feel what he or she feels. It helps against harboring a grudge or being spiteful. Try to see matters from the other person’s viewpoint. This may help you not to take so seriously his offenses against you, but rather to make allowances for him. Here, too, empathy is a quality possessed by mature people, those big in an emotional and spiritual sense. The article makes a good distinction between true empathy as described above and codependence (as described in Melody Beattie's 1987 book "Codependent No More") which leads to enabling behavior. Barb

OT: An atheist changes his mind about God - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOYObzRqTKs Also of note: William Lane Craig has an article in 'The Blaze': New Atheist Documentary By Dawkins and Krauss Won’t Make An ‘Unbeliever’ Out of Anyone - Jun. 21, 2013 http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/new-atheist-documentary-by-dawkins-and-krauss-wont-make-an-unbeliever-out-of-anyone/ bornagain77